Let's see, universal healthcare, more government regulations, yes, definitely big government nanny staters.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Of course, neither of them are for any of those things.

__________________
"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I don't care much for this kind of distinction.

I recognize only the distinction between authoritarianism and liberty.

Both of your 'social' and 'economic' dimensions fit inside my singular paradigm.

No. Liberalism is founded on the principle of economic liberty.

No different than the theocrats it seems.

I agree. The USSR was ruled by authoritarian socialists.

I believe that Fascism is ultimately predicated upon one idea alone - that 'might makes right'. Capitalism is merely a tool to support it.

For example, the Nazis made war on the Jews, even though the Jews formed a substantial part of the German economy. Attacking Jews was bad for business in Germany. But they did it anyway.

I see no substantive difference between fascists and stalinists. They are both authoritarian and/or totalitarian and thus equally evil to liberty.

No. That is Marxist-Leninism. A Dictatorship of the Proletariat is catagorically impossible for true communism as per Marx's theory of history.

Ideal communism is true communism. It is derived entirely from the work of Marx's academic scholarship.

Your assertion regarding that "everyone labors for the good of the community" is not supported by Marxist theory. That is socialist theory. You are confusing them. There is NOTHING socialistic about true communism.

True communism (as per Marx's theory of history) is the logical evolution of capitalism. Socialism has nothing to do with Marxism. It does have everything to do with Marxist-Leninism (which is ultimately just authoritarian socialism as there is nothing temporary about the dictatorship of the proletariat).

This is the one statement that I disagree with most vehemently.

There is NOTHING even remotely liberal about socialism. Socialism is the ultimate enemy of liberalism.

Liberalism is predicated upon liberty. Socialism is predicated upon equality. They are opposites.

The economic system of the former USSR is most accurately described as 'state capitalism' where the state itself is a monopoly capitalist.

Actually, most American liberals fall directly into this category.

This description isn't bad. But it isn't a 'comprimise' between socialism and capitalism at all though. What it is, is the recognition that socialism is ultimately authoritarian in nature and thus unacceptable. Democratic socialism is all about trying to be socialists and using the democratic system to implement it rather than a dictatorship of the proletariat.

****. I methodically reply and it gets lost somehow.

Ah well, I'll respond tomorrow...you're right in some places, but in others you are handicapped by your single-spectrum vision of things.

__________________
"Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states...Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."



~Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Actually, they are for all of those things.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."