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Protofascism Comes to America: The Rise of the Tea Party
Is the Tea Party racist? Democrats who play liberals on TV say it isn't. Vice President Joe Biden says the Tea Party "is not a racist organization" per se, but allows that "at least elements that were involved in some of the Tea Party folks expressed racist views."
Right-wing Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has received permission to form an official Tea Party Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. It's official. The Tea Party matters.
So: is it racist? Certainly a sizeable minority of Tea Partiers' "take America back" rhetoric is motivated by thinly disguised resentment that a black guy is president. As for the remainder, their tacit tolerance of the intolerant speaks for itself. "Take America back" from whom? You know whom. It ain't white CEOs.
Yes. The Tea Party is racist. Obviously.
But racism is only one facet of a far more sinister political strain. It's more accurate to categorize the Tea Party as something the United States has never seen before, certainly not in such large numbers or as widespread.
The Tea Party is a protofascist movement.
Robert O. Paxton defined fascism as "a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."
Typical Tea Party rants fit the classic fascist mold in several respects. America, Tea Partiers complain, is falling behind. Like Hitler, they blame leftists and liberals for a "stab in the back," treason on the homefront. The trappings of hypernationalism--flags, bunting, etc.--are notably pervasive at Tea Party rallies, even by American standards. We see "collaboration with traditional elites"--Rush Limbaugh, Congressmen, Republican Party bigwigs (including the most recent vice presidential nominee)--to an extent that is unprecedented in recent history.
Tea Partiers haven't called for extralegal solutions to the problems they cite--but neither did the National Socialists prior to 1933. Then again, they're not in power yet. Wait.
One major component is missing: aggressive militarism. Certainly most Tea Partiers support America's wars and the troops who fight them. But Tea Partiers focus on domestic issues. Similarly, the Nazis didn't make much of their aggressive intent until after they seized power.
Because it has no central leadership and because it's easier to attract new members if you never say anything specific enough to turn anyone off, ideological vagueness is a defining characteristic of the Tea Party movement. Indeed, ideological imprecision tends to increase as you move from left to right on the political spectrum.
On the left, communists are specific to a fault. (This is why the Left is factionalized.) Programmes, five-year plans and one tract after another are the (increasingly boring) order of the day under socialism. Moving right, bourgeois organizations such as the two major U.S. political parties have platform planks and principles, but tend to be mushy and flexible. As we move to the far right, as under Hitler, ideas become grand, sweeping, meaningless slogans (take the nation back! death to the traitors!). What should be done is nominally whatever needs doing (i.e., whatever the Leader orders).
Umberto Eco's 1995 essay "Eternal Fascism" describes the cult of action for its own sake under fascist regimes and movements: "Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation."
Note Republican Senator John Cornyn's choice of words when he defended Tea Partiers against charges of racism: "I think it's slanderous to suggest the vast movement of citizens who have gotten off the couch and showed up at town hall meetings and Tea Party events, somehow to smear them with this label, there's just no basis for it."
Tea Partiers deserve praise for having gotten "off the couch." They've shown up. That's what matters! Never mind that they're stupid. Never mind that many--those who get quoted in the media, anyway--are painfully ignorant and uneducated.
As an added bonus, Senator Cornyn's statement both demonstrates "effective collaboration with traditional elites" and another entry from Eco's checklist: "Disagreement is treason." Or slander. Whichever Ann Coulter book title floats your boat.
Eco also discusses fascism's "appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups." Guard the borders! Deport the immigrants! Mexicans are stealing our jobs!
So much anger. It's too bad that the (justifiable) rage of the white male middle-class is directed against their fellow victims. It's worse that they're playing into the blood-soaked hands of their own oppressors.
138 Comments so far
Show AllPeople have always thought when fascism comes to America it would be wrapped in the flag...
This is all just business as usual... Back to the Future!
Great post, Jill!
rita
I agree -- great post, Jill!
We are there!
In addition to fanning the flames, the "left wing" (specifically Obama) panders to the tea party and their ilk whenever they squeal (examples include canning Van Jones and Shirley Sherrod), while chastising those who have historically voted for them and express populist concerns.
Obama is NOT "leftist".
I think you may have misspoken her, reydelcamino. i am giving you the benefit of the doubt.
I prefer to call Obama a compassionate conservative. That sell failed with the previous president, but it fits the current occupant.
Except he's worse than Bush.
You got that right.
"the "left wing" (specifically Obama)"
Watch it! You are straying from the PC mantra!
Both your posts are spot on. Ohbummer is nothing if not a good liar. He was hired to " soft sell " the worst inclinations of weak-kneed Centrists at the DLC. Unfortunately, it's working quite well.
That Religeous Shit is really wrong ! They have our soldiers dropping off Christian pamphlets in Both Iraq and Afghanistan. I do not want my Army there, at all let alone conducting a Holey WAR ! The Goverment has allowed huge Mega Churches to be built and operational, on U.S. Military Bases all over this Country ! The Religious Right Wing is sending their Children to join the Miltary to fight the Holey War ! That SHIT PISSES me off more than antything !
'Jill': Good to have your eye on the ball!
Cf. my posting in this thread, amounting to much of the same. I applaud your posting being more succinct than mine, with mine being wider in scope.
Good post, Jill. Thank you.
RE: Keep your eye on the ball.
Great post!
To add to your post: rather than focusing on the "dangers of the Tea Party" we should ask what function does the Tea Party serve? If you were a ruling elite, you would think, ok, we are going to squeeze the American people to make us even richer. But, they might get angry and want to resist. What "we" (the ruling class) have to do is direct that anger in a direction that makes "us" even richer. "We" must not allow that anger to organize into a force that challenges "our" power. Hence, "we" create the Tea Party.
Challenging elite power (and capitalism itself) is exactly what we (working people) must organize to do. Elite power is the "ball" that we need to keep our "eyes" on - not the TP.
Great Jill,
Simple and quite right.
Fascism has always come wrapped in the flag (Germany, Italy, Chile, Spain). What makes it doubly dangerous in the U.S. is that it also comes bearing a cross. What could be our salvation is that here it comes lacking a functioning brain --Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity, Bachmann etc. IGNORAMUS UBER ALLES!
If you think Venezuela is fascist, you are either a liar or a dupe.
The seeds of fascism blew in with the "Puratins".
When are the elites going to fund a party for all of the progressives and independent thinkers. Get on Board! That will be the downfall of hope, when we join out of desperation.
It doesn't surprise me to see that the once middle class folks are duped into believing that the unemployed are that way because they are "lazy". Believe in one lie and you'll believe the others too.
Actually, if the "small" guy were better off, and had spending power again, that would fix the economy!
We small people, are the backbone of a stable economy. That is apparent now that the banks are saved but nobody will borrow from them; because nobody is buying anything.
The worthless dollar is buying up assets during this depression. FIRE SALE! I'm not talking high maintenance housing; I'm talking oil, water, mineral and natural resources that retain their value through jobless times.
When jobless times are over, the value of their investment is they own everything needed and can charge whatever they want for it!
It is an old maxim (attributed to the Baron Rothchild):
Buy when the streets run with blood!
Progressives, so-called, seem to have but one tool - the race hammer. And, in America, every alternative perspective looks like a nail.
"If i had a hammer, i'd hammer in morning, i'd hammer in the evening, all over this land........"
Fascists, seem to have but one tool - the race hammer.
It's not a nail, it's attack.
Nice!
The quoted Paxton definition of fascism does fit Israel quite well (see little article today on CD about Jewish Israeli females dating Arab Palestinians).
Random racist remarks by members of a group only reflect the racism of the speakers, but when it happens repeatedly, it does represent the group.
My sense of the Tea Party is that like al-Qaeda, they were sort of invented first and then some real people stepped up to fill in the pre-drawn outline - but never as many or as threatening as advertised. I don't trust the media to reflect reality; they are all about drama over facts. So exactly how many Tea Partiers are there? The U.S. always has some embarrassing groups since we are diverse and supposedly have free speech.
Heaven's, it certainly doesn't fit the military-surveillence complex, does it?
We are soooo, a democracy here. I couldn't agree more. I don't know why anyone complains about the best country in the world. Do you?
Paxton's definition is only one way to define fascism.
Benito Moussolini, who coined the term in the early 20's, defined it as the melding of corporate and political power...wrapped in the flag of nationalism.
Does any thinking person in this country not realize that by this definition we are already there?
I bemoan the fixation on the Tea Party. They aren't the real story.
True, generalcommentator.
True, that. When commenting on blogs for the past couple years, I've used the terms "corpora-fascists" and "banksters" when referring to the moneyed elites who've taken over the global financial systems and means of production.
The Tea-Partiers are basically lemmings who will continue to race to the cliff......
Mussolini's definition while useful, isn't the be all and end all, depending on how you want to define corporate power, and what you consider melding.
If the corporations, and those who control those corporations (at that moment in time, control the political process, is that fascism? If various rich people who control / have large influence on the corporations / economy, have a great deal of economic power, are actively involved in the political process, is that fascism?
If the State controls the economy via State owned businesses, or by nationalising various businesses, is that fascism? What if a State decides that various (natural) resources are the property of all the public, and sets up a State owned corporation to manage those resources, instead of selling of the rights of to those resources to some private individual / corporation?
IMO, you need a melding of Mussolini and Paxton's definition.
"Germany lost the Second World War. Fascism won it."
George Carlin
Carlin was right of course. The British and American Empires could not sit idly by while fellow racist imperialist nations took over their turf.
"Robert O. Paxton defined fascism as "a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.""
Paxton is nuts! The above definition is so broad and vague and confusing as to be meaningless.
C'mon peeps we can do better than this.
I disagree quite strongly. I think that his definition works quite well in terms of telling the difference between 1930s'-era fascism and military dictatorships (which grow out of traditional elites, often supported by foreign powers like the US, but are typically antithetical to mass movements), or theocratic revolts (which typically replace one set of elites with another).
Paxton's is one of the better attempted definitions of fascism I've seen. In fact, even Rall's treatment is far above average. I appreciate the commenter's sentiment that "we can do better than this", but the place to begin is to explain what is wrong with Paxton's definition and how can it be improved? Why is Paxton's definition so "broad and vague and confusing"? The comment offers nothing like this. You're probably already aware of David Neiwert's work (http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/), which provides many helpful perspectives on fascism.
He was right about one thing they are stupid and uneducated ! I protested a Sarah Palin speach in 2008 at my towns Football stadium, and when the people came out, and slowly read my sign...Joe the Plumber
Tito the Builder
Sarah the Liar !
I got cussed by every good white Christian we had in the whole Valley ! My freind and I laughed and laughed. Yet it was sad, they all shouted she's not a Liar..She's only one got sense around here..they were mortified that anyone would come out and insult their new Queen. This part of the population is part of America too. That's our fault for failing to teach anything in school for the last 25 yrs.
We just keep popping them out with no education. Dirty water ,no education, Cancer,Stupidity. Is this who we are ? I'm not... my friends aren't, we can fix that "stupid" problem in 15 yrs. if we get it together, and start teaching our peasants, I mean people. The Goverment, and Corporations want people to be Stupid ,That is their dream that is definetly not mine.
But it's not just the bad education. Militant working class organizations have always been subject to fierce attacks (Palmer raids, McCarthyism, assasination of Black Panthers). There are very few organizations that focus on working class issues. Many of these are neutered and controlled by the rich Foundations.
The organizing and political education of the working class has been taken over by TV and born again churches. The working class is educated to act against its interests.
This is the primary difference between the American and European working classes. Without strong, extensive working class organizations, the slide into fascism will continue.
That is interesting...and a very good point !
"Protofascism Comes to America"
Sorry for the even more depressing view, but it appears that by now fascism is well established in US. It's just not called by that name - or any other name. This is "inverted democracy".
It's well pointed out that "ideological imprecision tends to increase as you move from left to right on the political spectrum." On the fascist right precision on intentions are abandoned alltogether. Only the reality of the conditions remains.
Whenever part of a description of this sneaky fascism approaches exactitude, it gets attacked as "controversial". Only the blandest descriptions of current conditions are allowed to circulate untarnished and unattacked. Facts are dismissed as "controversial" too. Cf. the Climate Extreming that's "not happening", though we all can see that it is - at least outside of the artificially stabilized citiscapes.
Although centered on the USA, the living fascism is not limited to this country. By now a global class society within pretty rigid structures (in both senses: both "pretty" and "rigid", as well as "quite rigid") is established.
This condition is "made in the shade", as factual descriptions become too cumbersome to garner mainstream interest, while summing up into general descriptions are quickly considered "conspiracy theories".
The militant repression (aka. 'fascism') coupled with an exaggerated version of the humanist value of non-violent struggle ensures that no effective threat to the newly locked in global class system exists or can exist - as the self-restraints of the ideological left holds it back from countering the civil militarism in kind.
The only way to fight back - while stark confrontation is neutralized - will be using intelligence and innovation to alert all US individuals in general that the duping and propagandic misdescriptions - blatant lies - are an ongoing phenomenon in most main channels of communications, and then simply hold on to the values of how society should be, speaking and acting truth to power whenever possible. However lonely that feels, with the trust that we're not alone. The values of the US Constitution suffice abundantly for what to hold on to: Freedom, equality, solidarity; rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; peace and love as as desired everyday moods.
As to who's behind the global fascism centered on US, the answer is not an "evil conspiracy", but rather fluctuant elite groups of partly cynic intentions in self-justifying "self-deluding circles". I.e. where each member and part of the circle is truly convinced of their righteousness while rationalizing and minimizing the detrimental effects of their views and actions and their personal, individual "small" deceptions. The wrongs are dismissed as insignificant and what only they themselves occasionally "have to" do, while the right is seen as what they (and largely indeed 'we') collectively "need" to do or can't alter.
In a global trade system where one billion out of seven starve and 25,000 people die from starvation daily (cf. UN report) while others die from obesity, it's obvious we humans can do much better for all - as soon as the idea takes hold. The uncontinuable increase of over 200,000 people daily on this planet projects the injustices of the global trade system into destruction of the ecological system, showing why fascism is unsustainable. - 'Unsustainable' meaning the system can't go on for long before breaking down into dysfunctional and too murderous for even guns and bombs to prolong.
Now go forth and fight the fascism concealed by any other name and justification. Stick to what you know is true and best for all including you.
well -- the REAL LONG OLD truth is:
America ALWAYS has been a FASCIST country.
"fascism" as a TERM and definition just came LATER .
but America has always been the incipiently fascist country.
just look at its history. from its creation to its present.
all these high-minded "democracy" , "freedom", "liberty",
"justice" talk is -- TALK.
but talk of the kind that is meant and imbibed and promoted among americans themselves in order to HIDE the fact that their own country REALLY is a FASCIST country - and that it includes the ACQUIESCENCE of americans...for which they call it:
"the american way"...by other names other THAN fascist.
but at HEART? in INTENT? in DESIRE?
it ALWAYS has been a Fascist Country.
only the Native Indians can say with any authority it is "our land" .....about a country that was built by FASCISTIC means...and lives BY fascistic means.
Fascism just came LATER as a definition of what america ALWAYS has been.
in the meantime -- State Secretary Hillary CLinton -- goes to Vietnam LECTURING vietnam about "human rights"......
ironic isn't it? coming from the representative of the world's REAL and MAIN and OLDEST Continuous practitioner and omoter of FASCISM.
Easy on the calling it my land or the native indians land or anybody's land for that matter. It dosen't help there is no ownership just stewardship we are all earthlings
Yes, but the stewardship belongs to Native Americans since they were the first peoples and they certainly did not invite the European invasion. Don't we have plenty of evidence by now what kind of stewardship white America has given? Besides, they had a homeland elsewhere. But this was inevitable: When you steal land, life and culture from another people what possible good can come? These were all the seeds of abuse being sown and today we reap its fruit.
depending on one's point of view of course, and mine as it is:
it might be a good thing or even the natural thing based on our existence on the planet that there is fundamentally no such thing as "ownership" of the earth.
the native indians certainly understood that..regardless of their societies' own imperfections as with other societies. but it seems clear that in THEIR understanding and belief of existence - the humans are NO more rightful than animals as "owners" but merely participants in deriving sustenance from the earth.
it's the EUROPEANS that arrived that came COMPLETE with notions of "private ownership" - which, to make things short and "crude" - was an impetus for the so-called "freedom seekers from european tyrants" - MERELy to BECOME the new "tyrants" and "private owners" of new land,..owners "in their own right".
the OPERATIVE - differentiating world view being "OWNING" land and the earth...leading to the degradation of other people in order to "clear the way" for "ownership".
Native Indians: viewpoint: "stewards and tenants".
Europeans: "OWNERS" - "private property...no trespassing"
AFTER trespassing on land on which native indians lived - who themselves were the true "discoverers" of the "new world" EONS before the europeans even realized that "brittania" ("far away") was not the end of the globe....
the point is THIS:
whatever the native indians were LIKE - it is the EUROPEANS who brought "private ownership" and - more fundamentally "ownership of the earth" to america - NOT DISSIMILAR to the way Fascism is, except that it was couched in "liberty-seeking"....and pretenses of democracy.
the US government and US institutions are nothing more than fancilly-clad EXCUSES for keeping "stewardship" of land and earth for "the people" -- but in reality - in order to hold them in "reserve" for SALE to the biggest bidders for PRIVATE ownership....
whether it's about LAND - or Water, or in keeping with this mentality -- the very freshness of the air and oxygen itself....whatever the flaws of all other societies have been throughout history ...one thing is now clear....
America -- the USA, particularly , is the world's and history's main and biggest purveyor of the most unethical and morally and intellectually corrupt mentality of "owning".
it is in fact the repository of the WORST of the mentalities of societies through history that is tied to the selfish and greedy notion of "ownership". and for the sake of this "ownership" mentality as if it is a Natural Born and God Given Right for "being american"...and for "having discovered the new world"....
not only the creation but the enlargement of this TRANSPLANT of a "nation" , which hasn't stopped within its own "borders" that it has merely stolen but goes international for "ownership of the world" (as expressed all-too-clearly in the american exceptionalist notion of "WE ARE THE WORLD") - has been steeped in BLOOD and genocidal murder - but actually is BELIEVED by the american national mentality and culture as -- incredibly enough --
actually a GOOD thing because "america is goodness" personified.
put it this way:
look at history - the history of humankind's spread through the world:
with all due consideration to the cruelties and brutalities of humans towards each other within their own lands and to their neighbors:
Russia was first populated by what were in fact descendants of central asians...thus RUSSIA and its environs TODAY ARE a continuation of the very first people to subsist in that northern land.
China was first populated by the first humans to arrive there, against the severest Ice-age , and created, by war or domination - what was to become china TODAY. thus it IS chinese.
Africa was people by the first humans - whatever their internal struggles against each other were - they ARE africans and subsist IN africa.
so - with the north and south american continents, so with the lands and islands of the asian regions.
the europeans peopled the European landscape.
has the world seen the CHINESE from mainland china build ships to "conquer" the USA? - no - they were ALREADY in the american landscape long before even the original "china nation" came about - they are descendants of the FIRST peoples to survive and cultivaate not just the asian heartlands but the american lands.
DID the russians go SOUTH to africa to eradicate the black people because they were "subhuman?"
no -- they stayed within their confines as descendants of central asians.
what DID the western europeans DO?
-- why -- they just went around the globe making "ownership" of lands AND peoples -- far, far, beyond their own confines.
deep into lands and peoples and cultures far beyond that the europeans are the ALIENS in other lands originally people by the aforementioned.
and its RESULT is the American global Empire....borne out of the exceptionalist "america is the greatest" -- LONG after the world's societies had become AWARE there was MORE than just THEMSELVES and had in fact acknowledged that they just as they had their historic and geographical confines - SO DID OTHERS....
but NOT the USA - nooooooo - america doesn't RECOGNIZE such things.........
america OWNS the WORLD!!! its BORDERS extend to outer space!
Some say that if not for Pearl Harbor, the US would have joined the Axis, following the lead of most US industrialists, like Henry Ford, and prominent figures such as Charles Lindbergh.
The German-American Bund was both popular (at least 15-20 million memebers) and powerful due to the stratas of society that supported it. Hitler and his policies were greatly admired and promulgated.
Small wonder that the Wehrmacht drove Ford trucks and the Walker-Bush clan bankers represented Nazi interests until threatened by the government (in 1943!)
Many of the parents of our current leadership grew up in the societal milieu which supported the Bund.
Why worry ? They obviously know what's best for us (snarkle).
I have personally had discussions with some of the Tea Party people and while many are uneducated, but well meaning, the one theme that I see running through this movement is: fear, paranoia and ignorance!
The problem with many progressives is their elitism and racist views of poor working whites. They assume they are not smart enough to know they are at the bottom of the pecking order. They also hate them because they have "religious" views which educated liberals think down upon. The liberals don't bother talking to or even trying to understand their views. The tea party began with Ron Paul libertarians and a backlash to DC elites for the bankster bailout. i know because I was there at the beginning... Attended meetings.. And I live in a rural community. I actually talk to the rural poor and work with them on a regular basis. It had nothing to do with anything else. Rather than understanding and trying to work with this anger to find commonground at the beginning... Which in my opinion was possible... the racist progressives belittled them and their "anti-government" rhetoric. You say these people are ignorant but they were the only Americans with the balls to stand up and protest the biggest money grab by the rich in American History. Since the left is frightened by these people and won't be bothered to engage them... Along comes Sarah Palin to herd these renegades back to the Gop. The only mainstream politician to try and empathize with their concerns. Sadly she brought her neo-con war mongering views into the mix. Sadly it has completely neutered the movement.... The Gop wins again because the left can't overcome their fear and hatred of poor white people. Don't say it can't be done. Grayson did it. He won in a Republican district and is one of the few liberal dems who has cross party appeal. How did he do it? By talking to them and providing a voice for their anger in DC....Rather than insulting them and calling them racists for not supporting the "great black hope" as he increased the size and scope of the bailout.I think Grayson is going to win big his next election... He in a Republican district with one of the strongest antiwar views in congress.
Middle/working class 'whites' are angry and have legitimate grievances with how they've been treated by our society. But attacking the government is not the most effective way to address these grievances. Government, as flawed and broken as it currently is, is still the only national institution that citizens can have (but currently don't have) some influence.
The world seems to be drifting to the right-wing again - the natural direction of state totalitarianism. Why should the US be any different?
You make some excellent points. Your criticism of the left is valid. Most of us here are, in some fashion, "elite." I've been struggling with it for years. It's kind of like being overweight, you know it's there but it's hard to shake. However, it does offer a certain perspective because we know what the pitfalls are.
Biases: cultural biases ("we're "high end," you aren't"); grammar (the Queens English vs vernacular, which is more natural), neighborhood (how many times have you heard lefties malign people because they live in mobile homes?), education (we're so smart, we've got advanced degrees! and you're dumb); religion is for superstitious numskulls! (my own parents were religious and they were wonderful people!)
When Sarah Palin was McCain's side kick (or vice versa!), all I heard from my lefty friends was that she is sooooo dumb, not like us who are smart, right? (as they fell head over heels for Obama the heartless liar. yeah, that's smart!) They maligned her for wearing expensive clothing while on their own feet are birkenstock shoes which are ridiculously elite and costly. and they pay a fortune for their upscale outdoor-wear and electronic gizmos.
You see, we can be easily divided. I think we're missing the boat. We should, instead, create opportunities to engage and find common ground with good people, left and right. There's plenty of opportunity.