260
PARTISAN REVIEW
Republicanized their domestic policies (introduction of Knox
Stimson into the cabinet, handing over of the whole defense p
gram to several dozen bankers and corporation heads) while
Republicans have Democratized their foreign program, dropp·
their "isolationist" line and nominating for President a man whose
views on war policy are indistinguishable from those of Rooseveh.
And both parties have joined forces to prepare national defense
under the banner of reaction (anti-alien laws, "coordination"
of
North and South America under the State Department, "fifth
column" attacks on Reds and unions, relaxing of war profits curbs
and sabotaging of Wagner Act and wages and hours laws, universal
conscription in peacetime, etc., etc.).
ROOSEVELT
AND
RUIN
Many left supporters of the national defense
program will grant, as indeed they must, the
reactionary trend of both parties today. But,
they insist, we must stop Hitler under whatever kind of regime
is
at present politically possible and if the labor movement is not now
strong enough to force a democratic defense, we must put up with
a reactionary defense. Better to stop Hitler under command of
Wall Street, even if it means a temporary sacrifice of living
standards and civil liberties, than to fall, all of us, workers and
businessmen together, under Hitler's yoke.
This argument rests on two propositions: (1) German fascism
is not a variant of the capitalism we know over here, but is a new
kind of social system, something so much more threatening to
all
progressive values that it is worth submitting to almost any degree
of domination by our own big bourgeoisie if 'that is the price of
effective national defense against the enemy. (2) The kind of
governmental regulation which is put into effect on M-Day is die·
tatorship, but it is not the sort of totalitarian
political
movement
we know as fascism. Therefore, it will be possible to get our liber·
ties back after the war just as we did after the last war, when war·
time dictatorship was also put into force. They will be somewhat
battered, it is true, but even so there will be more chance to resume
the struggle for social progress than there would be under a vic·
torious Hitler.
Many orthodox Marxists reject both these propositions, refus.
ing to make any basic distinction between German fascism and
