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3751 [lbo-talk] questions for the fascist-watchers -- rank: 1000

I'm still mystified by the curiosity about - I'm deliberately not saying obsession with - the risks of incipient fascism in the U.S. I have two questions I'd love some clarification on: 1) How is today's threat a significant departure from more than a century of American political violence? To say that the Klan is some kind of incipient fascist movement is to drain the term of any specific meaning. But over the last 100-150 years, we've had savage repression of labor through public and pri ...

Document Size:	6629
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Feb 20 14:21:44 PST 2010

3752 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research +++ -- rank: 1000

On Feb 20, 2010, at 3:59 PM, Marv Gandall wrote: > There is already secessionist talk by supporters of the Tea Party > movement, most recently from a state senator in South Carolina. Didn't they try that once before? How'd it work out for them? Are people seriously entertaining the possibility that states might secede from the U.S.? I mean, really? Doug

Document Size:	5252
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Feb 20 13:40:26 PST 2010

3753 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 6:35 PM, Chip Berlet wrote: > I do regret you have decided to post glib and unhelpful responses > here. > I expect better of you. You could help by engaging in a serious > discussion. Chip, I've been arguing that the things that you and other point to as somehow pre-fascist are ancient features of American life. If you find that glib and unhelpful, we have different definitions of these words. I also think it's neither glib nor unhelpful to point out how often ...

Document Size:	5648
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Sat Feb 20 04:43:09 PST 2010

3754 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 6:43 PM, SA wrote: > So that's the real issue. None of us doubts that Tea Baggers, if put > in power, would do a lot of awful things. But it only makes sense to > call those things fascist if you believe that given the opportunity, > they would cancel elections and carry out a Gleichschaltung. Does > anyone believe that? Can anyone name a single prominent politician > or writer associated with the Tea Baggers who's said we should > dispense with elections ...

Document Size:	5857
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 16:42:31 PST 2010

3755 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 5:40 PM, Chip Berlet wrote: > But many of Paxton's list of ingredients for a fascist > movement have already been met. Redemptive violence - as American as apple pie. Jackson Lears wrote a book about it in post-Civil War America. Hear my interview with him at: http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#090702 Really, this shit is so overheated. Or has the whole history of the U.S. been progress along the five stages? And only the Campaign for America's Future can ...

Document Size:	5427
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 15:05:14 PST 2010

3756 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 5:40 PM, Chip Berlet wrote: > See the online work of Sara Robinson & Dave Neiwert, especially > Robinson's citing of Paxton in: > > Campaign for America's Future / By Sara Robinson > COMMENTS: 1006 > Is the U.S. on the Brink of Fascism? > There are dangerous currents running through America's politics and > the > way we confront them is crucial. > > http://www.alternet.org/news/141819 Where we read: "That description sounds eerily lik ...

Document Size:	5836
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 14:59:56 PST 2010

3757 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 4:59 PM, Chip Berlet wrote: > Yes, I am arguing that when anxiety and fear are what binds together a > populist movement, it can oscilate among a variety of ideological > positions from left to right, (sometimes at the same time in a > contradictory fashion), but that when it consolidates to the right > in a > consistent way, it looks to a strong state to protect its percieved > interests. Were the Palmer raids fascist? Was it fascist when the Wilson admi ...

Document Size:	5891
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 14:11:20 PST 2010

3758 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 4:13 PM, SA wrote: > But look at the rhetoric and ideology of Coughlin, and those > immigrant pro-fascists. Does it bear the slightest resemblance at > all to the Tea Baggers? Coughlin wanted to nationalize the banks, > for god's sake. If there were a Father Coughlin today, the Tea > Baggers would see him as a major enemy. And, as I said earlier, ideology doesn't always comport with practice, interest, or outcome, but reading Mein Kampf gives you a pretty good ...

Document Size:	5467
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 13:24:03 PST 2010

3759 [lbo-talk] Texans and the Flintstones -- rank: 1000

[I know it's a little too easy for a Yankee to have fun at the expense of Texas, but this poll was done and written up by Texans.] <http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/feb/17/meet-flintstones/> Meet the Flintstones by Ross Ramsey February 17, 2010 Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribun ...

Document Size:	10344
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 13:21:53 PST 2010

3760 [lbo-talk] Auchincloss -- rank: 1000

<http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/washington-diarist-2> Washington Diarist: The People's People Leon Wieseltier February 18, 2010 | 12:00 am I should not speak ill of the dead, but what of the dead who spoke ill of the dead? Many years ago an acquaintance of mine applied for a position at the Museum of the City of New York, over which Louis Auchincloss presided. The search committee met in the writer s apartment on Park Avenue. When the candidate was asked to describe what he would ...

Document Size:	5384
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 13:16:38 PST 2010

3761 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 2:26 PM, John Gulick wrote: > I concur that one should not make light of the danger posed by the > Tea Party sorts. > But what do you make of the argument that, in pressing the alarm > about the right-wing > populist threat, the progressives tend to let the corporate liberal > DP of the hook, as well > as the undeterred excuse-makers for the Obama Admin? In the 20+ years I've been reading the students of modern "fascist" movements, that always ...

Document Size:	5413
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 11:36:12 PST 2010

3762 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 2:14 PM, Carrol Cox wrote: > I think I would agree with Chip here. That fiendish anti-state element > in current rightis thought is deceptive, being focused on governmental > service programs, NOT on the police power of the state, which I think > they worship as much as they hate social services provided by the > stte. Sure, but there's nothing new about this in American history either, is there?

Document Size:	5295
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 11:26:20 PST 2010

3763 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 1:36 PM, Ted Winslow wrote: > Do you mean that fascism is only a possibility where it can be shown > to be in the rational interest of a small set of individuals bent on > maintaining and furthering their sadistic domination and > exploitation of the world? I suppose there are exceptions, but why not, yeah?

Document Size:	5192
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 10:46:30 PST 2010

3764 [lbo-talk] John Cassidy's NYer post on the tea party -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 1:19 PM, SA wrote: > Has Jesse Lemisch aired his anti-Hofstadter beef here? If not, I'd > like to hear it. He has. Check the archives. Doug

Document Size:	4867
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 10:36:55 PST 2010

3765 [lbo-talk] Fascism, right-wing populism, and contemporary research -- rank: 1000

On Feb 19, 2010, at 12:42 PM, Max Sawicky wrote: > An anti-state movement might become pro-state-sub-two if they see it > as the best way to repudiate the state they think they oppose. I > don't see a rich vein of political theory underlying the tea-baggers, > more a bundle of political and cultural neuroses. They're looking for > a Daddy. Are they? There's also something revolt-of-nature-ish about them. They're in rebellion against an older brother, or something. Doug

Document Size:	5368
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Fri Feb 19 09:50:53 PST 2010