Conservofascism

Via Ry, Andrew Sullivan watches Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin chat and sees a rough beast slouching toward Bethlehem to be born:

What you have is a new kind of radical right fusionism. The anti-government, populist streak taps into class resentment, and broader anger at what has been a terrible period for fiscal responsibility. But the narrative also fits precisely into the evangelical-Christianist narrative of being misunderstood and persecuted by the world, a constant humiliation and alienation ... that leads to a series of events in which things on earth get much worse until a leader, a new Esther, emerges to save us.

The more you listen to Palin, you sense a shift in her consciousness, a shift that she is indeed the woman chosen to save this country - chosen by God. "It is God's plan" was Palin's reaction to losing the election.

And the plan is that she will lose once only to be resurrected at the head of a large army of disaffected and alienated Christianists, a brigade of anti-government populists, channeled and organized directly by a media outlet that has long since abandoned the role of a neutral journalistic organization...

If you are not alarmed by this development - a new, proto-fascist political party being recreated on television in front of our very eyes - then you have not read much history.

Scary words coming from a guy who was once a conservative.

Is he right? Well, I seriously doubt Palin will be the rallying point for a fascist putsch; she might be the mascot/figurehead/sex-symbol of a fascist movement, but she doesn't command the respect necessary to instigate the takeover herself. And "Esther" sounds like someone's Jewish grandmother.

That said, Sullivan is absolutely right that the American right is morphing rapidly into a garden-variety fascist movement. "Fascism" is essentially just a term for racial nationalism, and the substantial chunk of white Christian America that sees its homogeneous society slipping away before its eyes is still the biggest well-organized ethnic bloc in the country. As they slip into minority status, white rural-&-Southern Christians (WRSCs) are sorely tempted to overturn America's democracy in a last-ditch attempt to hold back the tide of immigration and secularism.

The new American right has all the ingredients for a fascist movement. It has a large, organized, well-educated, well-armed, very angry ethnic bloc (the WRSCs, also known as "tea partiers", and calling themselves "real Americans"). It has a media outlet dedicated to being its mouthpiece (as Sullivan describes in another post). It has a country paralyzed by division and sinking under the weight of clunky outmoded institutions. And it has shadowy rich backers (Murdoch, Mellon, Scaife, etc.). The time is ripe for the Conservofascist movement.

The Republican party, meanwhile, is trapped between a rock and a hard place; they know the new Conservofascists don't have the votes to get elected (which is why they're going for fascism i the first place), but without the Conservofascists they have no base. The party may be doomed, or at least due for a major realignment.

But will America succumb to its fascist impulse, the way Germany and a bunch of other states did in the early 20th century? I have my doubts. First of all, America's Conservfascists do not command the only well-educated, well-organized ethnic bloc in the country. Secular whites, along with Jews and Asians, continue to be implacably opposed to the fascist agenda. Although these liberal groups are smaller in number than the WRSCs, they are wealthier (per person) and even better organized, and they are backed by blacks, Hispanics, and a large number of unaffiliated poor whites. If it came to a fight, a Conservofascist army, despite its racial unity and martial traditions, would be outnumbered on the ground and outsmarted at the operational level. It would be the First Civil War all over again.

What's more likely is that the Conservofascists will opt for a strategy of intimidation. Dire threats, coupled with occasional low-level violence (against abortion doctors, gays, and anyone who can't easily fight back), will allow the Conservofascists to maintain clout far surpassing their numbers for years to come. It's basically the North Korea strategy - convince everyone you're so crazy that they'll give you what you want, because it's way too difficult and dangerous to just kick your ass.