Thanks for the answer LonesomeEJ. That's the "spectrum" I've always heard referred to. I'm just not sure I can see it as anything more than a rhetorical sledgehammer used to tie one's opponent to a villain and then beat him over the head. If I can call a liberal a communist, or he can call me a fascist, the rest of the arguement need not be that strong :=). It quite literally falls apart in two ways; Objectively, fascism is practically speaking, merely a version of communism, thereby, I suppose, making the "spectrum" more akin to Toqueville's cycle than a straight line. Libertarianism cannot be fit into the spectrum.

John