The Left Is Seldom Right

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Although no older than the French Revolution, the political terms "Right" and" Left" have become banal and stale clichés which are often misleading guides that offer no clear indication about intentions, motivations and conflicting policy choices of political personalities and parties under changing circumstances. Both partisan political hacks and educated citizens who should know better use them as synonyms for the good guys and bad guys. Jonah Goldberg's bestselling book "Liberal Fascism"shocked many readers who could not imagine how the two terms could be grouped together rather than stand as polar opposites. The purpose of this book is threefold:

1. To further document cases in both the United States and abroad that verify Goldberg's thesis that a considerable segment of the American public is misled by the use of the terms "RIGHT vs. LEFT", which are cliché ridden, and often erroneous in their presentation of the most essential relevant facts and the conclusions drawn.
2. To demonstrate that it is primarily the Political Left that has a vested interest in the continued use of this terminology due to the considerable inroads made by the liberal media on public opinion. Many 'political pundits' have drawn on the prestige of major writers and Hollywood 'celebrities' whose work was shaped by a critical view of American culture as the epitome of alienation, hypocrisy and crass materialism in modern society. Their assumptions are that other cultures and societies are more authentic, 'holistic', integral and devoted to a sense of solidarity and community. These views have been reinforced in popular culture, especially in film and popular song as part of the counter-culture that arose in the late 1950s.
3. To show that anti-Semitism was not inherently a part of many nationalist "Right-wing movements and that it is generated today overwhelmingly from the Far Left under the encouragement of the wealth and power of militant Islam.

It consists of 25 case studies of major domestic and international crises, wars, alliances, conflicts, issues, and elections that have been the subject of considerable media opinion and comment and most often by the use of the Left-Right terminology. 1. Introduction and the Origins of the Right-Left Metaphor in the French Revolution. Why do we continue to use it? Many students and observers of political affairs are aware that a single left-right axis is insufficient in describing variations in political beliefs according to a single set of variables. No simple diagram is able to take into account social, cultural and economic issues, historical factors and the potential benefits and disadvantages of intended alliances and their consequences.

THE AMERICAN SCENE

2. The Leftwing Tilt in Culture in Literature and Film 3. The Sixties Revisited; The Age of Aquarius 4. Can It Happen Here? The Incredible Prescient Political Novel of America's First Fascist President from the Democratic Party 5. The Gods That Failed But Still Enjoy a Favorable Press (The New York Times and the BBC) 6. Abraham Lincoln -- Hero of the Left and/or the Right? The Liberator of the Slaves Who Suspended Habeas Corpus and Instituted Martial Law 7. The Religious Left, Liberal Libels and the Censure of Senator McCarthy (How the Democratic Party and the Religious Left in the United States Helped Defame a Prominent 'Liberal' and Pave the Way for the Senate's Censure Resolution) 8. 'Freedom of Religion' Not an Absolute Right Guaranteed by the Constitution (Ask the Mormons and the Serpent Churches). The debate over the ground zero mosque unleashed numerous and erroneous comments asserting that the Constitution guarantees Freedom of Religion. It guarantees beliefs NOT actions and the federal government has intervened numerous times to prevent practices that threaten life, health and individual rights, especially of women and children. 9. The Stalinist and Daniel Webster How the congressman most associated with the Leftward drift of the Democratic Party committed the most outrageous fraud and abusive vilification of his opponent in the recent Congressional elections and was criticized by many in the leadership and rank and file of the party. 10. The Anachronistic American Jewish Affection for the Left Why American Jews Vote so Liberal and Why They Shouldn't. Will it ever change? 11. Collective vs. Individual Rights; How the Constitution Has Been Assaulted and Balkanized by Multiculturalism/Affirmative Action

EUROPE

Right Wing Dictators Oppose the Axis On the eve of World War II,various so called "Right Wing" authoritarian regimes of the 'arch-conservative', traditional, national and religious type, namely Ethiopia's Christian Emperor Haile Selassi, Austria's "Clerical-Fascist" regime of Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg, Poland's President and military leader General Jozef Pilsudski, Finland's General Mannerheim, General Franco in Spain, Bulgaria's King Boris III, Yugoslavia's General Simovic and his supporters in the armed forces and Greece's leader Ionnas Metaxas either all opposed anti-Semitism or the expansionist ambitions of Hitler and Mussolini. 12. Fascist Italy and Austria hand Hitler His First Defeat. Two Right Wing Fascist dictators (Dollfuss and Mussolini) openly confront and challenge Hitler. (Far Right vs. Far Right) 13. Franco, Fascism and the Falange; All the Far Right?; Perhaps, But Not One and the Same. The Spanish Civil War is consistently misrepresented as a simple struggle of Right vs. Left instead of the complex conflict it was involving regional issues, language, religion, land reform, anarchism, and the interventionist policies of the Great Powers. The Falange, portrayed as a "Fascist" party was in many ways an expression of workers and farmers opposed to big business interests, apathetic towards the Church, critical of the land owning classes and even schemed at one point to assassinate Franco. Moreover, the ultra-conservative and devout Catholic Spanish leader made Spain available for the refuge and survival of at least 30,000 Jewish refugees. (Far Right vs. Far Right) 14. The "Reactionary" King Boris III and His Crucial Role in the Salvation of Bulgaria's Jews in World War II 15. The Soviet-Nazi Honeymoon, September 1939 -- June 1941; They Were Made for Each Other. (The classic case of how the Extreme Right and Left met, found common interests and became close temporary allies). 16. The Danish 'Far Right' (Dansk Samling) Initiated the Resistance Against Nazi Occupation 17. The Two International Brigades; One Glorified (Spain) and the Other Forgotten (Finland) An International Brigade of Volunteers from all over the world including Finnish-Americans and Canadians help defend Finland against the Soviet Invasion and its Nazi Allies in the Winter War of 1939-40 18. Ionnas Metaxas, Autocrat, 'Fascist" and Germanophile Who Led the Greek Struggle Against the Axis in World War II

Latin America

19. The Cuban Communist Party Support of Both Batista and Castro. Masquerading the first sixty years of the party's history, The Cuban Communist Party and Castro regime pretend that ex-President Batista was always a stooge of American and "Right wing business interests" rather than their earlier line (1935-58) as the "popular" leader supported by the masses and Party. (Far Left Supports Far Right) 20. Peronism; Argentine Populism of the Right or Left? An example of Latin-American Populism that can be equally classified as Far Right or Far Left). How such diverse personalities as Maradona and Che Guevara, iconic heroes of the Left and Evita and Carlos Gardel, icons of the Right all sprang from the same populist ethos that became identified with Peronism.

Israel and the Middle East

21. How Israel Went from Darling of the Left to International Pariah. Fervent Left wing and "progressive" support for the Partition of Palestine and aid to the Israelis in 1948 has been totally forgotten by the willful amnesia of the Left. Support for JIHAD on the RIGHT and the LEFT 22. Connecting the Dots

Marxism and Its Political Theory

23. Marx, Stalin and Opportunism on The National Question; The Left, taking its lead from Stalin and the foreign policy needs of the USSR proclaimed its scientific study of dialectical materialism provided answers on all questions including the problem of "National Identity" and Self-Determination. The Left in much of the world followed the flip-flops from Moscow on which peoples and ethnic groups qualified as a "nation" with the right of self-Determination. 24. Case Closed: The Utter Failure of Marxism-Leninism. The Negative Balance Sheet of Marxism-Leninism in Spite of All the Grandiose Promises Made to the "Left".

Three Courageous European Women Who Battled the Left and the Right:

25. Sigrid Undset, Oriana Fallaci, Pilar Rahola