"Middle of the Road Fascists"?

Leftists customarily throw the term "Fascists" around with gay abandon. But there is usually some consistency in their usage. They use it to imply Right-wing extremism (even though the original Fascists were far-Leftists!).

Evidence that Leftists really use it simply to describe anything they disagree with emerged yesterday in Australia.

A former Leftist Prime Minister of Australia (Keating) who is noted for his talent at abuse was commenting on the widespread criticism of his party's proposed new pro-union laws:

"Now, this is what ... and, you know, all those middle-of-the-road fascists, you know, in the News Corporation papers, all going on this morning, on the front pages of The Daily Telegraph and The Australian, and the hand-wringing, you know, the conservative columnists in The Sydney Morning Herald, you know, they're ... these people would not have the wit to compose an industrial relations policy.

Source

It takes Paul Keating to think you can be both middle of the road and a Fascist.

He may be more correct than it appears, however. "Third way" Leftism is very popular in much of the world today -- with Tony Blair being the leading exponent of it. And the "Third way" is supposed to be a particularly moderate form of Leftism. Yet various writers (example here) have pointed out that the "Third way" policies concerned bear a striking similarity to the policies of the founder of Fascism -- Benito Mussolini. So who are the Fascists now?