Liberal Fascism?

I used to get enraged when lefties accused Republicans of being fascists or Nazis.  There seemed to me little in common between American conservatism:  limited government, rule of law, strong national defense, "family values" and Hitler's rascist and imperialist dream to conquer the world in the name of White German Teutonic superiority.  

     Jonah Goldberg has proven that both political parties can play this Fascist name calling game and written a book in which he argues that Fascism is really a phenomenon of the left, not the right. "Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning."  I have just started the book but one of his observations seems true enough to me; that lefties use "fascism" as a very vague adjective to label any phenomenon they do not like. It means nothing more specific to them than bad, which sounds about right to me.  

In general, I have always felt that Communism and Fascism were first cousins: two utopian dreams about totalitarianism, that ultimately trust the power of the state to make things right by letting the state own and manage the means of production and distribute wealth according to some egalitarian scheme. The main difference between Stalin and Hitler was simply which party of totalitarians was in charge.  They used similar means to pursue their utopian dreams: brute force. 

      Since the left (socialism) always dreams of increasing taxes, at least super regulating (if not nationalizing business) and redistributing wealth to the "poor" and middle class from the evil rich, it sounds like a sort of moderated totalitarian vision, second cousin to communism and fascism.  Lefties feel that private individuals and companies pursuing their own selfish pleasure, buying and selling products in the free market for a profit, are evil, while the state, seizing this wealth create by private citizens and passing it out to their friends by means of the state monopoly on force is the height of morality and a wonderful thing.  The Makers and the Takers.