If you had a negative reaction to the key arguments in Jonah Goldberg?s book about the close ties between American progressive (il)liberalism and fascism, be sure to skip the opening paragraph of Fareed Zakaria?s latest Newsweek article:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inaugural address is now known for only one sentence: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” But the audience at the time paid little attention to that line and the newspapers buried it in their reports the next day. As Jonathan Alter recounts in his book “The Defining Moment,” the words that got the greatest applause were something more specific. “I shall ask Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis,” FDR said, “broad Executive power to wage war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.” The next day’s headline in The New York Herald Tribune was FOR DICTATORSHIP IF NECESSARY.
Zakaria doesn?t explore this theme further, so you?ll have to read Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism to learn how our country?s past forays into the world of big government have mirrored some pretty unsavory European models.
