Conservatives Are Not Fascists: Exposing a Dangerous Lie

By Eric M. Wallace, PhD

In today’s polarized climate, political labels are weaponized. Among the most destructive is the charge that conservatives—or anyone on the political right—are “fascists” or “Nazis.” These accusations are not only historically inaccurate but also intellectually dishonest. They trivialize the horrors of fascism while slandering those who defend liberty.

What Fascism Actually Is
Fascism emerged in the early 20th century, most notably under the leadership of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. Its core features included:

• Authoritarian control: The state demanded absolute obedience, suppressing dissent and subordinating the individual to the collective.
• Militarism and violence: Force and intimidation were celebrated as political tools.
• Nationalist identity: Defined often in racial or ethnic terms, creating in-groups and out-groups.
• State-directed economy: Property rights remained in name, but business and labor were subordinated to national objectives.
• Cult of the leader: A single figure elevated as the embodiment of the nation’s destiny.

As historian Roger Griffin defines it, fascism is “a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline… and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity.”¹ It is not about liberty; it is about control.

What Conservatism Actually Is
American conservatism could not be more different. Its core commitments include:

• Limited government: A state strong enough to protect liberty but restrained enough to avoid tyranny.
• Individual freedom and responsibility: Rights endowed by the Creator, not the government.²
• Rule of law: Government bound by law, not arbitrary decree.
• Free markets: Economic liberty as the engine of prosperity.³
• Family, faith, and community: The institutions that cultivate virtue and stability.

These principles are rooted in the American founding and reinforced by thinkers like Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, and Thomas Sowell. They stand in direct opposition to the authoritarianism of fascism.

Abraham Lincoln captured the tension over liberty when he observed: “The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty… We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.”⁴ For Lincoln, liberty meant freedom for all—not the wolf’s “liberty” to devour the sheep. That distinction is the very heart of the conservative vision.

Why the Smear Persists
If the contrast is so stark, why do progressives persist in branding conservatives as fascists?
Emotional impact. The word “fascist” carries instant shock value. It shuts down debate and casts opponents as irredeemably evil.

Projection. Many features of today’s progressive Left—state expansion into education and healthcare, censorship through corporate–government partnerships, and identity-based politics—bear a closer resemblance to authoritarianism than to liberty.⁵

Intellectual laziness. It is easier to dismiss opponents as “fascist” than to grapple with arguments about constitutional order, economic freedom, and moral truth.

George Orwell, who despised fascism, warned about this very danger: “The word Fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable.’”⁶

The Historical Irony
The irony is thick. While conservatives resist government overreach, progressives increasingly push for centralized control over healthcare, education, energy, and even speech. Thomas Sowell notes that the hallmark of the unconstrained political vision is a belief in remaking society through centralized power, while the constrained vision—at the heart of conservatism—recognizes human limits and insists on checks against tyranny.⁷
The Left, in practice, is more willing to expand the state into every area of life. Conservatives, by contrast, are heirs to the tradition that resisted tyranny in 1776, 1861, and 1945.

Why the Truth Matters
Some may dismiss these accusations as political theater, but words matter. To call a neighbor “fascist” for supporting lower taxes or parental choice in education is not just dishonest—it desecrates the memory of those who fought real fascists in World War II. When everything we dislike is “fascism,” then nothing is.

Conclusion: Liberty vs. Tyranny
Conservatism and fascism are not cousins; they are opposites. One defends liberty under law, the other crushes it. One cherishes pluralism, the other demands conformity. One affirms the individual’s God-given rights, the other subordinates the person to the state.
The Left’s false labeling may score political points, but it cannot stand against the truth. Conservatives are not fascists. They are defenders of the very liberty that fascism sought to destroy.

References

1. Roger Griffin, The Nature of Fascism (London: Routledge, 1991), 26.
2. The Declaration of Independence, 1776.
3. Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962).
4. Abraham Lincoln, Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, April 18, 1864.
5. Glenn Greenwald, “The New Domestic War on Terror Is Coming,” Substack, Jan. 2021.
6. George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon, April 1946.
7. Thomas Sowell, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles (New York: Basic Books, 2007).