On the February 22 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck, National Review Online editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg said: “I think one of the things that is decidedly fascistic, or at least just a bad idea, is looking for silver bullets. You know, when [Sen.] Barack Obama campaigns, he's basically saying, 'I'm a silver bullet. I'm going to solve all your problems just by electing me.' FDR, Hitler, all these guys, they basically said, 'All your problems can be solved.' ” Moments later, Goldberg added: “The logic of conservatism says that there are no final -- you know, there are no perfect solutions to anything.” Goldberg is the author of the recently published book Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning (Doubleday, January 2008). During his interview with Goldberg, host Glenn Beck said, “I've been saying -- I mean, a couple of weeks ago, Jonah, I said, 'Please, stop buying my book. Buy this book and give it to your liberal friend.' ”
As Media Matters for America documented, on the January 10 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, Goldberg claimed “you can draw a line” from Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini to Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, “but it's not a straight one. ... I'm not saying that today's liberalism is the son of Nazism or the son of Italian fascism. I'm saying it's sort of like the great-grandniece once removed.” Goldberg also declared on the January 17 edition of Morning Joe that “Hillary Clinton is essentially like the agricultural minister from the Soviet Politburo in 1976.” Beck called Clinton a “liberal fascist” on the January 24 edition of his CNN Headline News program.
The whole February 22 edition of Glenn Beck was an interview with Goldberg. Part of the interview also aired on the February 18 edition of the program.
From the February 22 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck:
BECK: So how do you -- how do you stop it? How do you wake people up?
I've been saying -- I mean, a couple of weeks ago, Jonah, I said, "Please, stop buying my book. Buy this book and give it to your liberal friend. One that is open-minded enough that says, 'OK, I may agree on these policies, yadda, yadda, yadda, but it's important that I learn the history --
GOLDBERG: Right.
BECK: -- of liberal fascism so I can then judge for myself. I know, “Oh, this is what I'm doing.” ' "
GOLDBERG: Right.
BECK: If you know what you're doing, well, then you're making an intelligent choice. How do you stop this?
GOLDBERG: Well, I'm -- I think one of the things that is decidedly fascistic, or at least just a bad idea, is looking for silver bullets. You know, when Barack Obama campaigns, he's basically saying, “I'm a silver bullet. I'm going to solve all your problems just by electing me.”
FDR, Hitler, all these guys, they basically said, “All your problems can be solved.” And all that kind of thing. I don't think conservatives should buy into that logic.
The logic of conservatism says that there are no final -- you know, there are no perfect solutions to anything. It's just going to take a long argument.
I mean, this argument has been going on in America for a century now. You know, during the Cold War, this was an intense argument.
You had liberals constantly looking to places like the Soviet Union as a model, you know, saying that it was a better place. You have still have these incredibly sand-poundingly stupid people talking about how Castro has a better model. You know? And --
BECK: I wonder who that is.
