When fascism ascends, the conventional opposition often proves surprisingly ineffective, even complicit. This paradox becomes comprehensible when we understand not just political theater but the underlying material interests at play.
The established opposition shares more with its supposed adversaries than with the working people it claims to represent. Both mainstream parties ultimately serve as different management teams for the same economic system. While they disagree on methods and rhetoric, they agree on fundamentals: the primacy of profits over people and the necessity of maintaining existing class relations.
This explains why resistance proves tepid. Meaningful opposition to fascism requires challenging concentrated power—both political and economic. Yet the liberal donor class, its leadership’s personal wealth, and its institutional inertia all align against such confrontation. They fear genuinely popular movements more than they fear their ostensible rivals.
Historical evidence confirms this pattern. In Weimar Germany, the right-liberal German People’s Party and left-liberal German Democratic Party supported various authoritarian consolidations in the name of anti-Communism. The former backed the declaration of martial law in Prussia that helped clear the way for Hitler’s rise, and the latter’s deputies even backed the Enabling Act that granted Hitler dictatorial powers in 1933.
In Italy, liberal parties sought accommodation with Mussolini rather than alliance with labor movements. In Chile, centrists undermined Allende before embracing Pinochet. In each case, property proved more sacred than people.
The theatrics of political conflict mask this deeper unity. Congressional hearings produce sound bytes but rarely consequences. Speeches condemn excesses while budgets fund them–witness Biden’s expansion of prison facilities. Legal challenges drag through courts staffed by identical interests. Electoral campaigns promise transformation but deliver continuity.
Meanwhile, those proposing systemic change—democratizing the economy, redistributing power, prioritizing human needs over profit—are branded dangerous extremists. This framing serves a dual purpose: it distances the opposition from more forceful alternatives while positioning them as the reasonable middle ground in a fabricated spectrum.
The left is particularly threatening because it names the root causes that mainstream discourse obscures. It connects political authoritarianism to economic dominance. It reveals how “normal politics” laid the groundwork for fascist acceleration. It demonstrates that defending democracy requires extending it into workplaces, communities, and economic planning.
The liberal opposition’s vulnerability stems from its contradictions. It cannot mobilize popular energy without raising expectations it has no intention of fulfilling. It cannot articulate a compelling alternative while committed to the system generating the crisis. It cannot build effective solidarity while serving interests fundamentally opposed to collective power.
Most crucially, it cannot win by seeking the approval of institutions already compromised. Courts packed with ideologues, media owned by billionaires, electoral systems designed to diffuse popular will—these will not save us. Yet the opposition remains institutionally incapable of moving beyond these channels.
In this light, the demonization of the left serves a critical function. By positioning leftists as equally extreme as fascists, the opposition justifies its own inadequate middle path while delegitimizing the very forces most committed to substantive resistance.
The lesson is clear: we cannot outsource our defense to those who benefit from the same system as our opponents. True opposition must come from below—from organized communities unbound by the constraints of electoral calculation or donor appeasement.
The path forward demands independent organization, material solidarity, and the courage to envision a world beyond the false choices offered by those who would rather manage our descent than risk the emergence of genuine democracy.
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