-----
Just a quick note, since I am late for work as usual. I mentioned the Arendt book on totalitarianism had problems, and one of them is putting the Nazis and Bolsheviks in same bag. Arendt was writing this in the late forties early fifties in the US at the height of the McCarthy, containment, anti-commie period. How she deals with and characterize Germany under Hitler is extremely clear and sharp. She saw it directly and she understood its dynamics. Her treatment of the Soviets and Russia is less clear and rather murky without the same level of insight---obviously because she had never been to Russia and had no experience with living there.
But yes, the Left definitely not immune. On the other hand I think its internal dynamics are different. But that's a whole other....
Gotta go
Chuck Grimes