Hitler Was Not a Fascist, Argues Author Appearing on Newsmax TV

Newsmax TV guest author Sam Sorbo said Adolf Hitler was not a fascist but a socialist, as she discussed the recent Italian election.

Sorbo, who spoke on the show on Monday to promote her new book, said liberal feminists were showing their "hypocrisy" by not praising Italy as it is set to have its first ever female prime minister.

Giorgia Meloni, 45, is the leader of the far-right party Brothers of Italy, and declared on Sunday that history was made following news from exit polls.

These polls suggested the right-wing coalition that Meloni heads received between 43 to 45 percent of the vote, leaving the center-left and left-wing parties trailing.

Meloni has faced significant criticism and she has been heralded as the first far-right leader of Italy since Benito Mussolini.

Speaking about this development on Newsmax TV, Sorbo spoke about the different political ideologies.

She said: "Frankly, what we see here is we don't see neo-fascism because that is not at all what this is.

"The Democrat Party has more in tune with the fascist agenda than anything conservative. So we ought to understand that.

"I wrote [my book] because they've changed the definition of fascism to mean populism.

"That's not what fascist is, fascism has everything to do with socialism. That's why Mussolini joined with Hitler during World War II.

"And Hitler was not a fascist. Hitler was a socialist. Mussolini was a fascist. And that is not at all what we're seeing in Italy today."

The Newsmax hosts do not question Sorbo's claims despite Hitler being widely considered to be a fascist ruler.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition, fascism is: "a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition."

During their rule in Germany, the Nazi party (the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) would regularly call on its citizens to do things for the good of the nation while also promoting ideals of an Aryan race being superior.

Hitler and the party also instilled significant economic and social regimentation, exclusion and eventual mass murder of its Jewish population and other sects of society deemed undesirable. In addition to this, under Nazi rule, all other political parties were eventually banned.

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary definition, socialism is: "any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods."

A secondary two-part definition describes it as: "a system of society or group living in which there is no private property. It also defines it as a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state."

Conversations are expected to continue regarding whether or not Italy is moving closer to fascism following Giorgia Meloni's victory.

Part of Meloni's success is due to the way she cleaned up her image after a long history of attacking the European Union, immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community, and promoted the values of the traditional family, and stood against abortion.

Brothers of Italy, a party that descends from the Italian Social Movement founded by supporters of Benito Mussolini's fascist party, has gone from gaining four percent of the vote in the 2018 election to now seemingly being at the helm of a winning coalition, with over 20 percent of the vote.

Newsweek has contacted Sam Sorbo for comment.