I would like to debate Jeffrey St. Clair on the subject of my "hysterical" writings about the militias and right wing populism.
Please be so kind as to select several paragraphs of my actual writings for discussion; not snippets of quotes from corporate media interviews, nor the flatulent misrepresentations of my work by red-baiting Neanderthals on the right such as Wilcox.
I especially recommend the article in Police Misconduct and Civil Rights Law Report which talks about opposing government over-reaction to dissident groups on both the left and right.
Here is how I end many of my public speeches (adapted from the chapter in Ansell):
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Democratic public discourse is disrupted by scapegoating, Opposing scapegoating is both a moral issue and strategically vital because of the role scapegoating plays in building rightwing populism which can be harvested by fascism. Fascism begins by organizing a mass movement with bitter anti-regime rhetoric. Human rights organizers working for social and economic justice need to encourage forms of mass political participation, including democratic forms of populism, while simultaneously opposing scapegoating and conspiracism that often accompanies right-wing populism.
The removal of the obvious anti-communist underpinnings assisted left wing conspiracists in creating a parody of the fundamentalist/libertarian conspiracist critiques. Left wing conspiracists strip away the underlying religious fundamentalism, antisemitism, and economic social Darwinism, and peddle the repackaged product like carnival snake oil salesmen to unsuspecting sectors of the left. Those on the left who only see the antielitist aspects of right-wing populism and claim they are praiseworthy are playing with fire. Radical-sounding conspiracist critiques of the status quo are the wedge that fascism uses to penetrate and recruit from the left.
Given the trends we are facing, people who want to defend democracy have to fight on four fronts. We must organize against:
***The rise of reactionary populism, nativism, & fascism with roots in white supremacy, antisemitism, subversion myths, and the many mutating offspring of the Freemason/Jewish banker conspiracy theories.
***Theocracy and other anti-democratic forms of religious fundamentalism, around the world, which in the US is based in White Anglo-Saxon Protestant with its subtexts of patriarchy and homophobia.
***Authoritarian state actions in the form of militarism and interventionism abroad and government repression and erosion of civil liberties at home.
***The antidemocratic neocorporatism of multinational capital with its attack on the standard of living of working people around the globe.
As we promote progressive solutions, we must also join with all persons across the political spectrum to defend the basic ideas of mass democracy, even as we argue that it is an idea that has never been real for many here in our country. The principles of the Enlightenment are not our goal, but resisting attempts to push political discourse back to pre-enlightenment principles is nonetheless a worthy effort.
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For some recent material on right wing populism and producerism, especially the Buchanan/Fulani Axis (sic), visit:
http://www.publiceye.org/Sucker_Punch/Reform_Party.html
Cheers,
-Chip Berlet
p.s. Here are the actual published articles and monographs. There is some unavoidable overlap in the works:
_______, "Mad as Hell: Right-wing Populism, Fascism, and Apocalyptic Millennialism," paper presented at the 14th World Congress of Sociology (XIVe Congrès Mondial de Sociologie), International Sociological Association, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1998.
_______, "The Ideological Weaponry of the American Right: Dangerous Classes and Welfare Queens," (L'arsenal idéologique de la droite américaine: «classes dangereuses» et «welfare queens»), paper presented at the international symposium, The American Model: an Hegemonic Perspective for the End of the Millennium?, (Le «modèle américain»: une perspective hégémonique pour la fin du millénaire?) sponsored by Group Regards Critiques, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, May 12, 1998.
_______, and Matthew N. Lyons, "One Key to Litigating Against Government Prosecution of Dissidents: Understanding the Underlying Assumptions," Police Misconduct and Civil Rights Law Report, West Group, in two parts, Vol. 5, No. 13, January-February 1998, and Vol. 5, No. 14, March-April, 1998.
_______, "Who's Mediating the Storm? Right-wing Alternative Information Networks," in Linda Kintz & Julia Lesage, eds., Culture, Media, and the Religious Right (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998).
_______, "Following the Threads: A Work in Progress" in Amy Elizabeth Ansell, ed., Unraveling the Right: The New Conservatism in American Thought and Politics, (New York: Westview, 1998).
_______, "Fascism's Franchises: Stating the Differences from Movement to Totalitarian Government," paper presented at the American Sociological Association, Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, August 1997.
_______, "Three Models for Analyzing Conspiracist Mass Movements of the Right," in Eric Ward, ed., Conspiracies: Real Grievances, Paranoia, and Mass Movements, (Seattle: Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment [PB Publishing], 1996).
_______, The Increasing Popularity of Right Wing Conspiracy Theories: Allegations of a Freemason Conspiracy and Other Scapegoating Conspiracist Theories Within the Catholic Right, Protestant Right, Anti-Abortion Movement, Patriot Movement, and Armed Militia Movement-Including a discussion of statements by John C. Salvi, 3d. revised, (Cambridge, MA: Political Research Associates, 1996).
_______, "The Violence of Right-Wing Populism," Peace Review, 7:3/4 (1995: Journals Oxford, Ltd.), 283-288.
_______, Right Woos Left: Populist Party, LaRouchian, and Other Neo- fascist Overtures to Progressives and Why They Must Be Rejected, report, (Cambridge, MA: Political Research Associates, revised 1994 (first version 1991)).
_______, Hunt for Red Menace: How Government Intelligence Agencies and Private Right-wing Countersubversion Groups Forge Ad Hoc Covert Spy Networks that Target Dissidents as Outlaws, (Somerville, MA: PRA, revised 1993 (first version 1987)).
Articles _______, "Fearful Zealots: A Combustible Mixture," OpEd, The Boston Globe, 8/13/99, p. A23.
_______, "Apocalypse Soon: Are You Targeted as an Agent of the Antichrist? As the Year 2000 Approaches, the List Grows." The Boston Globe, 7/19/98, Focus Section, p. 1.
_______, and Matthew N. Lyons; "Militia Nation," The Progressive, June 1995, pp. 22-25.
_______, "Clinic Violence, The Religious Right, Scapegoating, Armed Militias, & the Freemason Conspiracy," The Body Politic, in two parts, Vol. 5, No. 2 February 1995, and Vol. 5, No. 3, March 1995.
_______, "Anti-abortion Groups Reach for Conspiracy Theories," Press-Telegram, Long Beach, CA, 1/18/1995, syndicated by the Progressive Media Project through Knight-Ridder.
_______, "Armed and Dangerous," The Boston Globe, 1/6/95, Op-Ed, p. 23.
_______, "The Right Rides High," The Progressive, October 1994.