[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [sf-core] Rise in Right-Wing Extremism

[C. G. ESTABROOK]

I think perhaps the most interesting thing about the Tea-party movement is that 
it scares our political class* - represented by the 'major' parties - to death.

La Grande Peur received magisterial expression in a column by Frank Rich in the 
Sunday NYT on 2/28, "Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged." It was brought to the 
attention of the peace-discuss list by Awareist David Green, and Alex Cockburn 
rightly described Rich's effort as "vibrant with class hatred."

Class, the issue that the American political establishment wants at all cost to 
suppress, is raised by the Tea-partiers. That is their unforgivable sin, and for 
that right-thinking pundits of the Right and the Left are frenziedly trying to 
cast them outside the the brightly-lighted limits of allowable debate.

I mean of course class in an economic sense, as the term has been employed for 
almost two centuries.  Class is one of the notions "over against which we are 
rightly critical, but without which we cannot do" (to quote the critic Erich 
Heller from memory). It denotes a common role in the process of the production 
of the necessities of life - food, clothing, shelter.  It's fairly easy to 
distinguish slaves from slave-owners in the ancient world, and serfs (who were 
not slaves) from feudal lords in the medieval - but it gets more difficult in 
the modern world (in part because the mechanisms of capitalism are occult, 
unlike earlier processes of production).

James Madison, its architect, said that the purpose of the 1787 constitution was 
to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.  The genius of the 
American system is not to let on - and the Tea-partiers are about the blow the 
gaff! (a phrase I've always wondered about: what's a gaff?).

There's some suggestion it's already well under way. Last month a Rasmussen poll 
  showed that just 21% of voters nationwide believe that the federal government 
enjoys the consent of the governed, while 70% believe that the government and 
big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors; 
and those with lower incomes overwhelming reject the notion that today’s 
government has the consent from which to derive its "just authority" (as 
Jefferson said).

As inequality increases at an accelerating pace in America, the comparisons to 
Weimar Germany are not wrong. An ever-increasing number of Americans are coming 
to realize that they are being conned by a political elite whose interests are 
not only different from but directly opposed to theirs. That's what's happening 
to the Tea-partiers, I think, and - as in Weimar - the outcome could go in quite 
different directions.

_____________
* "The concept of political class is a classical notion in political sociology. 
 From its invention by Gaetano Mosca - who used it largely synonymously to 
'ruling class' - to the present day it has been used in a variety of theoretical 
contexts, with slightly different meanings and vastly different implications. 
Also it has been much more widely used in some countries (especially in Southern 
Europe) than in others where it is largely unknown (in the Anglo-Saxon countries 
and in Scandinavia)." My first approximation for the present-day US is those 
who've gone to good colleges - the "tertiary [i.e., not secondary or 
high-school] bourgeoisie" - about 20% of the population. --CGE


Morton K. Brussel wrote:
> There are many assertions in this piece by Wolf, but there is no data on just
> who composes and funds the Tea Party, and who runs the show. Is it Ron Paul
> or heroine Sarah Palin (a female Ronald Reagan?)? Without facts, Wolf is
> simply whistling in the dark, hoping. Ignoring the obvious racist aspect of
> the Tea Party (anti-immigrant strands) is not a minor omission, either. It is
> a populism leaning well to demagoguery.
> 
> Perhaps T-Partyers should be polled on whether they want a government-run
> health system, whether they are for women's freedom of choice, whether they
> want offshore and on shore drilling and mining on public lands, support of
> the national parks, where they stand on Israel-Palestine, etc., etc. .
> 
> There are strong regressive libertarian strands here as well as some one may
> sympathize with. It needs better analysis then what is presented here.
> 
> --mkb
> 
> 
> One thing does seem factual in her piece:
> 
>> This is also why the Republicans are seeking to capture the Tea Party
>> movement’s energy for partisan purposes, overrunning it with well-paid
>> operatives, particularly from former Representative Dick Armey’s
>> fundraising and advocacy organization. Moreover, Tea Party gatherings have
>> increasingly become a platform for Republican candidates seeking the
>> support of a highly mobilized electoral base.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mar 8, 2010, at 1:32 PM, C. G. ESTABROOK wrote:
> 
>> [Wayne Johnson of AWARE forwards a commentary from Naomi Wolf. --CGE]
>> 
>> "Indeed, those who deride and dismiss this movement do so at their peril
>> ... If you actually listen to them, instead of just reading accounts 
>> transmitted through the distorting mirror of the mainstream media, you hear
>> grievances that are profound, as well as some proposals that are actually
>> ahead of their time ... [tea partiers] believe that Congress is utterly
>> broken and regard faith in either of America’s major parties as naïve. They
>> view the Democrats and the Republicans alike as obstacles to change,
>> drowning out the voices of the people as they kowtow to special interests.
>> They are concerned about concentrated Federal control, spiraling debt, and
>> the loss of individual rights."
>> 
>> Tea Time in America Naomi Wolf 2010-02-26
>> 
>> NEW YORK – Ever since the first “Tea Party” convention was held last month
>> in Nashville, Tennessee, with Sarah Palin as one of the keynote speakers,
>> America’s political and media establishments have been reacting with a
>> combination of apprehension and disdain. The Speaker of the US House of
>> Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has called the Tea Party adherents Nazis,
>> while the mainstream media tend to portray them as ignorant and provincial,
>> a passive rabble with raw emotion but little analytical skill, stirred up
>> and manipulated by demagogues to advance their own agendas...
>> 


-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.