In a follow up to a previous post I wanted to collect together four separate articles by notable conservative and libertarian thinkers regarding the march of fascism here in America.
It’s important to note that many of these articles reference each other – proving that the neo-cons aren’t the only incestuous groupthinkers.
Regardless, what they say is striking if somewhat alarmist.
First up is Lew Rockwell with an end of year piece The Reality of Red-State Fascism. Rockwell maps out the spread of fascist-esq thought from 1994 forward and points to the mutation among conservatives and the Republican Party from big government reformers to thuggish Clinton-haters. That’s perhaps an oversimplification of his argument – but he does mention one chilling point early on in his piece:
The 1994 revolution failed of course, in part because the anti-government opposition was intimidated into silence by the Oklahoma City bombing of April 1995. The establishment somehow managed to pin the violent act of an ex-military man on the right-wing libertarianism of the American bourgeoisie. It was said by every important public official at that time that to be anti-government was to give aid and support to militias, secessionists, and other domestic terrorists. It was a classic intimidation campaign but, combined with a GOP leadership that never had any intention to change DC, it worked to shut down the opposition.
Rockwell cites the existence of “hate-filled sites such as Free Republic” as a good indicator that fascism has been building for sometime here in the states. He notes, “the populist right in this country has been advocating nuclear holocaust and mass bloodshed for more than a year now,” and, “The new ideology of the red-state bourgeoisie seems to actually believe that the US is God marching on earth – not just godlike, but really serving as a proxy for God himself.”
Scary stuff. Rockwell sums up his piece by calling for the unification of the right and left under the banner of a liberty party. In his mind such a party would be an antitoxin to the right wing elements of fascism.
Justin Raimondo chimes in with a January 3rd piece succinctly titled Today’s Conservatives Are Fascists. Don’t get the wrong idea about Raimondo just because he edits AntiWar.com. The guy isn’t a liberal hack; he’s a Rand-style libertarian and continuous supporters of Pat Buchanan.
In his piece Raimondo picks up Rockwell leaves off exploring in parts the “malevolent transformation of the American Right” through three trends, “(1) Widespread support on the Right for internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, touting Michelle Malkin’s shoddy-to-nonexistent scholarship, with the implication that we should be contemplating the same treatment for Americans of Arab descent, (2) the justification of torture when utilized by the American military in the name of the “war on terrorism” by “conservative” legal theorists, and (3) advocacy of a ruthlessly aggressive foreign policy of military expansionism, supposedly in order to spread “democracy” around the world.”
Mainly Raimondo spends the majority of piece tearing into neocons such as Stephen Schwartz and ends on a high note explaining:
Surely “fascism with a ‘democratic’ face” sums up the Bushian “global democratic revolution” just as accurately and succinctly, although admittedly this fails to capture the full horror of what the “liberation” of Iraq actually entails. Perhaps “fascism with a democratic face – and bloodstained hands” is more precise.
Moving on through the month of January there was one other notable conservative remarking on how far the right has sunk. As I mentioned in a previous post Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, a Regan-era cabinet member, WSJ and National Review editor goes so far as to slap the Brownshirt label on today’s Right.
American liberals called the Brownshirts “conservative,” because the Brownshirts were obviously not liberal. They were ignorant, violent, delusional, and they worshipped a man of no known distinction. Brownshirts’ delusions were protected by an emotional force field. Adulation of power and force prevented Brownshirts from recognizing implications for their country of their reckless doctrines.
Like Brownshirts, the new conservatives take personally any criticism of their leader and his policies. To be a critic is to be an enemy. I went overnight from being an object of conservative adulation to one of derision when I wrote that the US invasion of Iraq was a “strategic blunder.”
Roberts is perhaps even more alarmed than the previous writers going so far as to caution the coming of a new draft. Not giving an inch to “delusional conservatives” he says – seemingly with a straight face, “When the draft is reinstated, conservatives will loudly proclaim their pride that their sons, fathers, husbands and brothers are going to die for “our freedom.” Not a single one of them will be able to explain why destroying Iraqi cities and occupying the ruins are necessary for “our freedom.” But this inability will not lessen the enthusiasm for the project.”
Harsh stuff. Our last piece comes from The American Conservative writer Scott McConnell who puts the pieces of the previous articles together for us. McConnell glumly asserts, “…yet the very fact that the f-word [fascism] can be seriously raised in an American context is evidence enough that we have moved into a new period. The invasion of Iraq has put the possibility of the end to American democracy on the table and has empowered groups on the Right that would acquiesce to and in some cases welcome the suppression of core American freedoms.”