[lbo-talk] Neo-fascist exemplar

c b cb31450 at gmail.com
Tue Jul 26 14:48:29 PDT 2011


Ferenc Molnar

FM: Rand Paul's pledge to "modify" the Civil Rights Act because it meddles in the sovereign right of private businesses is a good example of TPM crypto-racism. Paul's statement is usually preceded by a statement of his support of the Civil Rights Act. He does not see himself as a racist but rather as a pure exemplar of libertarian principles.

^^^^ CB: I don't mean to criticize your use of "crypto" , but to me Paul's thing above is open and obvious white supremacy, and the other parts make it "denialist". Recall the tea partier in California who emailed a picture of Obama in a "family" of monkeys and denied it was racist. A lot of Americans buy that nowadays. In general, racism is more evident to Black people than White people, so that may play into it. To most Black people, Reagan was obviously racist. To most White people he was not.

^^^^^^^^^^^

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/libertarians-on-pauls-civil-rights-stance-very-reasonable.php

Nationally the top priority of the TPM seems to be less about anti-immigration than the right-libertarian economic agenda of its funders.

^^^ CB: Those two positions are not very antagonistic, mutually reinforcing. The right libertarian economic agenda preserves the racist economic status quo. Witness Paul's position above. It is a direct application of right libertarian economic thinking directly preserving the racist status quo, even seeking to reinstitute "Jim Crow". "Right" anything is almost necessarily racist in today's world. Again , it is just that post-Reagan right-wingers are expert at covering up and denying the racist aspects of their ideology. That in some cases it is semi-unconscious doesn't matter. It is objectively racist. Anti-abortionists have a heavy racist component to their position; they are, or at least the originators of their ideology are,

fundamentally against white abortions, not abortions for women of color. They are concerned about a relative drop in the white population. US Anti-immigrationists aren't really against immigration from Northern Europe. I doubt the Norway mass murderer is concerned about immigration from Sweden to Norway.

^^^^^^^

Locally, groups like the Arizona Tea Party are more openly racist and anti-immigrant. My guess is that the TPM changes from state to state just as European anti-immigrant and racist groups change from country to country. They can all be labelled racist and fascist but the differences in how these groups choose to appeal to what they see as their local or national cultures makes all the difference in how successful they become as populist movements.

^^^^^ CB: I agree that overall the TP is a kind of mixed bag of nuts. Part of the problem is that with the 30 year Reaganite brainwashing, a lot of people don't think things like opposition to affirmative action or opposition to welfare are racist. They may not even be aware of the history of these, but ignorance is no excuse.

^^^^^^^

Marine Le Pen to RT: We fight for French identity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_qYKa1n8Es



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