Berlet:
>So the situation we have here in the U.S. today is a
large right-wing populist movement
>without a strong left, so that a more
likely potential scenario given another economic
>downturn or major
terrorist attack is a major transition of power to right-wing Republicans
>and a rollback of social welfare and progressive policies to
before the New Deal. Meanwhile,
>a dramatic increase in scapegoating and
aggression against people of color, immigrants,
>Muslims, Jews, abortion
rights advocates, and the LGBTQ communities.
Gulick:
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?
Personally, I detect more cross-fermentation (much of it, if not all of it, odious) between right-wing paleo-libertarians and "left"-wing economic nationalists ("funny money" crackpottery, nativism/protectionism, conspiracy theories, "our honorable republic has been hijacked by unpatriotic elites," etc.) than I detect any incipient "fascist" tendency among the paleo- libertarians... but I guess that's partially a definitional/semantic question.
PS I have way overposted today... sorry Doug!
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