Is Modern Liberalism descended from Fascism?

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning is a bestselling book on the origins and nature of fascist movements by Jonah Goldberg, Goldberg argues that fascist movements were and are left-wing. He states that both modern liberalism and fascism descended from progressivism, and that prior to World War II, "fascism was widely viewed as a progressive social movement with many liberal and left-wing adherents in Europe and the United States". Indeed there is still a prevalent view that liberals came to believe that authoritarian government is fine as long as representatives of 'the people' – themselves - are in charge.

Witnessing the student riots in London at first hand recently, when its cadre took to the streets and idealism descended into chaotic, fascist thuggery set one thinking. 

Other examples of wooly liberalism abound.
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a peace camp established to protest at nuclear weapons being sited at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The camp began in September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life on Earth, arrived at Greenham to protest against the decision of the British government to allow cruise missiles to be based there.

On 12 December 1982, 30,000 women held hands around the 6 miles (9.7 km) perimeter of the base, in protest against the decision to site American cruise missiles there

The camp became well known when on 1 April 1983, about 70,000 protesters formed a 14 miles (23 km) human chain from Greenham to Aldermaston and the ordnance factory at Burghfield. The women's peace camp attracted significant media attention and prompted the creation of other peace camps at more than a dozen sites in Britain and elsewhere in Europe.

Yet the argument prevails that this commitment was borne out of a woolly naivety and as Margaret Thatcher, stood her ground, it is argued that it was her policy, allied to the US, which brought about the fall of the East. For in the arms race Russia could no longer economically keep up and long lasting peace was achieved through the show of strength.

There is a view from some quarters, which holds today, that that liberals believe that authoritarian government is fine as long as representatives of 'the people’ i.e. themselves are in charge. Yet it is, a commonplace today that “liberalism” as a peculiarly Western political philosophy is on the wane.

But what of the much more entrenched tradition of classical liberalism, which encompasses some of the most cherished Western values, such as respect for individual liberties and justice under law?

Surprisingly, a number of intellectuals of nonleftist persuasion have come to question the classical liberal tradition, and wondered if the emphasis on individual rights has not masked other values that are important to preserving our way of life. Some of this rethinking has come from a newly resurgent communitarianism, promoted by liberal theorists like John Rawls or Ronald Dworkin.

Some thinkers have even begun to wonder whether liberal-democratic conceptions of state and society are just particular historical manifestations of certain Western communities, which have no universal validity or application with the final implication being that even in the West this moment may be coming to an end