Hillary uncontested

[Cassius]

How accurate is the horseshoe theory though? In my view, it makes sense from in the limited sense that both fascists and communists (or whatever shade of ultra-far-left or right they happen to be) don't believe in any form of liberal democracy, no matter how limited it is. Therefore, if the ends behind the means are stripped away, then yes, the two extremes do have something in common with each other. However, the point is that ends are very important here, and in this sense, they are genuinely polar opposites, since they are not authoritarian purely for the sake of authoritarianism, but rather to achieve the ends as dictated by their ideologies (for Communists, the triumph of the worker, and for fascists, well... The triumph of the nation?). So, in a sense, even if Schweitzer was 'far-left' (which he definitely isn't) he would hardly be close to fascism. This analysis, of course, also assumes that ideology can be fitted into lot's of neat little categories that can be slotted into place on a line like clothes pegs, when in fact 'ideology' is a highly malleable and changeable thing which drifts round and round (again this is just personal opinion, but I do feel that a better way of characterising ideology could be some sort of fish tank rather than a simple left-right axis).