From a reader:
Surprisingly fair interview. I’m certain the comments ripped you but who cares?
One of the last Questions and your answer in part was;
One of the things Mussolini also wrote in “The Doctrine of Fascism” was, “In rejecting democracy Fascism rejects the absurd conventional lie of political equalitarianism, the habit of collective irresponsibility, the myth of felicity and indefinite progress.” So I’m wondering again how that fits.
I’m not trying to dodge anything, I just would have to look at it in the context and see where he is coming from on that. I do think that there is a fundamentally undemocratic passion running through parts of contemporary liberalism.
… What unites, in some sense, fascism and contemporary liberalism and a lot of other isms is their pragmatic sense that the government is smart enough and morally empowered to do good wherever and whenever it sees fit. That is an undemocratic and illiberal perspective.
I would add that contemporary liberalism uses the United Nations, The EU and all sorts of other non-democratic institutions to achieve its aims today and of course virtually every domestic liberal success since the 1960’s has been achieved not in the nation’s Legislatures but in our courthouses.
Bypassing democracy, via the use of supra national organizations like the UN, other NGO’s and the courts is every bit as Fascist as using a dictator.
Best Regards, love the book so far,
Me: I think this is a very good point, and one I do make in the book. I’m sorry I was so flatfooted in the interview. But it’s true liberalism’s faith in a “living constitution” is profoundly illiberal. The liberal fondness for a supreme court that consults foreign laws is inherently undemocratic and illiberal. It’s investment in the UN, Davos and other transnational elite institutions smacks of an (HG) Wellsian contempt for localism, sovereignty and democracy. The Clinton administration — for starters – masterfully used the courts and the bureaucracy to impose laws and regulations that would never stand up in a democratic contest. Racial quotas are wildly unpopular according to public opinion surveys and yet they are imposed from above everywhere in contravention of the spirit of egalitarianism and in accordance with liberal racial essentialism.