fwiw, the real lefties I know think I'm a conservative.

Travel outside of the US for a while and you'll see that what gets labelled as "far left" by right leaning Republicans in America is considered fairly centrist in most of the rest of the world.

Also, on your fascism point, usage of the term has been much debated, but it is generally considered acceptable to use as an epithet these days, the way I used it.

From wiki:

George Orwell wrote in 1944:

...the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else... almost any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for ‘Fascist’
Funny thing, Bill O'Reilly made the same point you did a little while ago.