A recent writer responded to a letter of mine [”Republican organizations breeding grounds for fascists?” Recorder, June 5]. I would like to clear up a few things. Here is the definition of fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime that puts nation above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by dictatorial rule, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

Thus, antisemitism while abhorrent is not fascism. Further, in the writer’s letter [”Who is a fascist?” Recorder, June 8], a notorious logical error is made. What leftists may or may not be is independent of and completely irrelevant to the determination of what Republicans are. Finally, the point of my letter was missed. If one read carefully, they may be able to understand that I did not actually say that Republicans were fascists. In fact, I claimed nothing. Note the question mark in the title of my piece.

While Republicans may be fascists, (one would need to compare their beliefs and actions with the definition and I leave that up to you) the point of my letter was to show that both my letter and the one I imitated were both without merit because they were both no more than rants without foundation. You could choose to believe my letter or the other one depending on your own bias because neither provided any basis in reality for its statements. I hope this is clarifying.

John Guenther

Greenfield