While there are plenty of opportunists left and right, I agree with Nathan Newman's argument about the importance of the left taking right-wing intellectual discourse seriously rather than just dismissing it. The right has framed numerous societal debates in creative ways.
One reason the left and liberals have lost so much ground, is the tendency to scoff at right-wing arguments, while millions of Americans are persuaded by them absent an effective and respectful counter-argument.
Excerpt: = = =
Carl Boggs sees ... people “increasingly alienated from a political system that is commonly viewed as corrupt, authoritarian, and simply irrelevant to the most important challenges of our time.” Lauren Langman agrees, additionally noting that “today many of those marginalized in the new globalized system, like many previous generations of the alienated, disempowered, humiliated and outraged, tend to gravitate” toward various right-wing movements and leaders such as Buchanan and Perot in the United States, Jean-Marie LePen in France, and Silvio Berlesconi in Italy.
Martin A. Lee says voting patterns in Europe demonstrate that far-right opportunists are riding the crest of a populist backlash against globalization. According to Lee this is “a product of democratic decay.” He says, “radical right-wing populism and its current fascist manifestations, which vary from country to country, [and] can only thrive in situations where social injustice is prevalent.”
Valerie Scatamburlo points out that while the Right has successfully understood the interrelationships between cultural, social, political, and economic concerns in popular discussions, many progressives have failed to do likewise. Meanwhile, left-wing intellectuals too often use “inaccessible and overly cryptic” language; or they simply dismiss the Right as “bigoted malcontents” without assisting activists by engaging in public debates over reactionary and oppressive policies.
[Scatamburlo, Soldiers of Misfortune, p. 229.]
[There are many creative responses to right-wing populism by progressive writers. See, for example, Albelda, Folbre, and the Center for Popular Economics, War on the Poor: A Defense Manual; Collins, Leondar-Wright, and Sklar, Shifting Fortunes: The Perils of the Growing American Wealth Gap; Cowan and staff of the Center for Campus Organizing, Uncovering the Right on Campus; Hardisty, Mobilizing Resentment; Pharr, In the Time of the Right; Reed, Class Notes; Sklar, Chaos or Community?: Seeking Solutions, Not Scapegoats for Bad Economics; Political Research Associates, Defending Public Education.]
= = =
>From Berlet, Chip and Matthew N. Lyons. 2000. Right-Wing Populism in
America: Too Close for Comfort. New York: Guilford Publications.
-Chip Berlet
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Carl Remick
> Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2001 7:02 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: Hitchens No Orwell
>
>
> >From: "Nathan Newman" <nathan at newman.org>
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com>
> > >From: LeoCasey at aol.com
> > >
> > >... Truth be told, great numbers of
> > >what are serious, weighty right-wing intellectuals started
> their careers
> >as
> > >left-wing radicals.
> >
> >-"Great numbers" of "serious, weighty right-wing
> intellectuals"? This is
> >-like talking about herds of unicorns, Leo. I don't credit
> right-wingers
> >as
> >-being thoughtful at all. I can't fathom why you and Justin
> persist in
> >-kowtowing to the non-existent intellectual splendor of these grubby
> >-opportunists.
> >
> >... It is self-defeating delusion not to recognize the intellectual
> >conversions
> >some of those smart rightwingers have made, not just among
> opportunists but
> >among many of the students, journalists and other
> intellectual workers in
> >society who produce the common sense understandings of how
> society works,
> >thereby influencing policy debates across the board.
>
> To the contrary, Nathan, I'd say you're ensnared in the most
> "self-defeating
> delusion" of all: confusing genius with a bull market.
> There has been a
> zesty appetite for right-wing twaddle for a full generation
> because that's
> where the money was -- thanks to the surging stock market
> that started in
> 1982. That market is dead, dead, dead. It would be
> increasingly easy for
> the left to expose the intellectual vacuity of the right at
> this point -- if
> the left itself wasn't so vacuous now.
>
> Carl
> _________________________________________________________________
> Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
>