Fascism?
I want to recommend an excellent article, by Sara Robinson at Alternet, which discusses the tea party in light of what is know about the growth of fascist movements in history. Here's a small sample:
"Paxton laid out the five basic lifecycle stages of successful fascist movements. In the first stage, a mature industrial state facing some kind of crisis breeds a new, rural movement that's based on nationalist renewal. This movement invariably rejects reason and glorifies raw emotion, promises to restore lost national pride, co-opts the nation's traditional myths for its own purposes, and insists that the country must be purged of the toxic influence of outsiders and intellectuals who are blamed for their current misery.
(Sound familiar yet?)"
There's lots more, and it's just as scary. Of course, maybe the reason I think this article is so good is that it corresponds exactly to what I believe I have seen the last few years, as the constituency of the Republican party falls into minority status and they begin to look for other ways to maintain power. Take a look and decide for yourself. It's not a pretty prospect.
"Paxton laid out the five basic lifecycle stages of successful fascist movements. In the first stage, a mature industrial state facing some kind of crisis breeds a new, rural movement that's based on nationalist renewal. This movement invariably rejects reason and glorifies raw emotion, promises to restore lost national pride, co-opts the nation's traditional myths for its own purposes, and insists that the country must be purged of the toxic influence of outsiders and intellectuals who are blamed for their current misery.
(Sound familiar yet?)"
There's lots more, and it's just as scary. Of course, maybe the reason I think this article is so good is that it corresponds exactly to what I believe I have seen the last few years, as the constituency of the Republican party falls into minority status and they begin to look for other ways to maintain power. Take a look and decide for yourself. It's not a pretty prospect.
Comments
- Economic libertarians
- Christian Right conservatives
- Apocalyptic Christians
- New World Order conspiracy theorists
- Nationalistic ultra-patriots
That's a big fractious tent....
An economic libertarian is often also a social libertarian, who can't be comfortable with much that a fundamentalist Christian might espouse, for example.
New World Order conspiracy theorists are not unknown on the fringe Left.
I was asked once whether my country has any equivalent to the Tea Party, and said yes we did. Once. They even used the term "race-based welfare".
In 1998 they had 9% of the vote. Within a few years they were nothing.
But a critical factor was that moderate conservatives were the ones that broke them. I don't know if there is that kind of balls in the Republican party.