The Fascist New Right
There are a lot of terms flying around today, especially in the political sphere. They include, but are not limited to: Socialist, Communist, Racist, Nazi, Fascist, Lib, Liberal, Teabagger, and Thug. These terms are seemingly used by any, and everyone, with reckless abandon. The problem is, that when you actually have a reason to use one of these terms, it gets dismissed. I have noticed a lot of attention on Goodwin’s Law. The concept that, “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.“ This is quite humorous. At the same time, this does not mean the comparisons are not valid. I find a strong correlation between Fascism and the New Right. (The Conservatives of today, be they Tea Party, Tories, or National Front.)
Sometimes the Left does propose Socialist ideals, or at least borderline socialist ideals. “Universal healthcare” could be considered more Socialist than Capitalist. There is no secret that I think they should stop pretending. I personally think they should say, “We aren’t concerned with who developed this idea. We are concerned with something that works. This isn’t a new concept, and the countries that use it are doing quite well with it.” Farther, they should point out, “As Americans, we should be trying to do it better than other nations, not avoiding it.” On the same hand, while I am not a big fan of Fascism, I do not contend to use “Fascist” in this entry as an epithet. The New Right has Fascist ideology and Fascist goals. Fascism is also not democratic. So, in some way, I am claiming the New Right are anti-democratic.
I want to reiterate, that I am not claiming the New Right are Fascist to drive a farther wedge. The goal here is to really examine what is going on.
There are a few things that strike me as odd with the rise of the New Right in the past year or so. When Barack Obama was elected President, a new wave of protest swept through the nation. There are tangible threads that weave through this new tapestry that seriously concern me. Especially as the numbers are growing. Just last night, the Tories in England got back a large portion of British Parliament. So, let’s look at Fascism and see how it relates to American Conservativism. (Fascism is quite complex as an ideology. This is not an academic journal, so I am just using Wikipedia as my reference for any information on Fascism that are listed here. I do not believe that Wikipedia is the absolute authority on the subject, or even the best authority, but I’m trying to keep this as short as possible, so… I accept that flaw for the time being.)
First we have the basic ideology of Fascism:
- Fascism is a “radical and authoritarian, nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to organize a nation on corporatist perspectives, values, and systems such as a political system and the economy.“
If you were to go to a Tea Party website, such as the Tea Party Patroits‘ website, you would see, their “Core values” are “Fiscal Responsibility, Constitutionally Limited Government, and Free Markets.” – “organize the nation on corporatist perspectives, values and systems such as political system and the economy.”
Fascists believe that a nation is an organic community that requires strong leadership, singular collective identity, and the will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong. . . . They claim that culture is created by collective national society and its state, that cultural ideas are what give individuals identity, and thus rejects individualism. In viewing the nation as an integrated collective community, they claim that pluralism is a dysfunctional aspect of society, and justify a totalitarian state as a means to represent the nation in its entirety. They advocate the creation of a single-party state. . . . Fascists reject and resist autonomy of cultural or ethnic groups who are not considered part of the fascists’ nation and who refuse to assimilate or are unable to be assimilated. They consider attempts to create such autonomy as an affront and threat to the nation.
That’s a long block, I know. I felt it was spelled out better than I could reword it.
The Tea Party and their cohorts have been extolling the virtues of “What makes America great” and that the “Liberal Elite” want to destroy them and make the US culture a multi-cultural, pluralist society that will lead the nation into ruin. Arizona just passed a law that will fundamentally restrict autonomy of cultural or ethnic groups that are not considered part of the nation. It will also penalize anyone who refuses to assimilate or are unable to be assimilated. They definitely find immigrants with foreign customs to be an “affront and threat to the nation.“
“Fascism is strongly opposed to core aspects of the Enlightenment and is an opponent of liberalism, Marxism, and mainstream socialism for being associated with failures that fascists claim are inherent in the Enlightenment.”
I was just looking at Al-Sonja Schmidt (who I have much to say about in a future time) and there were a lot of references to Marx, Socialism, Black Nationalism and such. To get the whole trifecta, she said that President Obama was influenced by Marx and is a tyrant. (He has a foreign sounding name, is pluralistic, and a product of the Enlightenment.)
I don’t think it is really worth spending much time on how the New Right feels everyone should stay in the Cold War and we need to start the Red Scare back up. I have spent enough time on this ridiculous garbage.
THE CORE TENANTS OF FASCISM:
Nationalism is probably one of the most obvious core tenants of Fascism. I also highly doubt any Conservative would decry that Nationalism is not a massive “core value” of their ideology. Is it even worth examining farther? The real question is if people truly understand the true meaning of Nationalism.
Fascists saw the struggle of nation and race as fundamental in society, in opposition to communism’s perception of class struggle. The fascist view of nation is as a single organic entity which binds people together by their ancestry and is a natural unifying force of people. Fascism seeks to solve economic, political, and social problems by achieving a millenarian national rebirth, exalting the nation or race above all else, and promoting cults of unity, strength and purity.
