From: "Peter Cohen" <aerie2@verizon.net>
To: "Ed Pearl" <epearlag@earthlink.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 4:08 PM
Subject: Re: [SBSJ] Ridgeway: A Brief History of the Radical, Violent Right
In Escape from Freedom, Eric Fromme, the psychologist, expressed
the thought that it was the feeling of powerlessness among the
working classes that in post WWI Germany that led to the support of
Hitler and the Nazi party. If the current economic stagnation lasts
for another year, I think that it will have a similar effect.
I think too many Americans now feel that they cannot affect
government, which is an excuse for not organizing, and reduces their
effectiveness at the same time. The right has been successful in
creating a jungle atmosphere of every man for himself, which
eliminates the common identity that is the basis for forming unions
and other groups.
The state lotteries increase the illusion that anyone can achieve
instant riches. As long as people believe such junk, what incentive
do they have to leave the comfort of the armchair and go to a meeting?
The peace movement, for example, emphasizes their Washington
influence and occasional demonstrations, rather than introducing
people to the their fellow citizens, forming clubs and pressuring
their representatives politically in their home communities.
In 1932, when Roosevelt came into office, the country was falling
apart. There were strikes and riots. The genius of Roosevelt and his
think tank was to employ people on public works. The result was to
make people feel that Washington was their friend not their enemy.
We're at a pivot point, we will see what happens.
Best wishes, Peter G Cohen
***
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/opinion/12krugman.html?th&emc=th
The Big Hate
By PAUL KRUGMAN
NY times Op-Ed: June 11, 2009
Back in April, there was a huge fuss over an internal report by the
Department of Homeland Security warning that current conditions resemble
those in the early 1990s - a time marked by an upsurge of right-wing
extremism that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Conservatives were outraged. The chairman of the Republican National
Committee denounced the report as an attempt to "segment out conservatives
in this country who have a different philosophy or view from this
administration" and label them as terrorists.
But with the murder of Dr. George Tiller by an anti-abortion fanatic,
closely followed by a shooting by a white supremacist at the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, the analysis looks prescient.
There is, however, one important thing that the D.H.S. report didn't say:
Today, as in the early years of the Clinton administration but to an even
greater extent, right-wing extremism is being systematically fed by the
conservative media and political establishment.
Now, for the most part, the likes of Fox News and the R.N.C. haven't
directly incited violence, despite Bill O'Reilly's declarations that "some"
called Dr. Tiller "Tiller the Baby Killer," that he had "blood on his
hands," and that he was a "guy operating a death mill." But they have gone
out of their way to provide a platform for conspiracy theories and
apocalyptic rhetoric, just as they did the last time a Democrat held the
White House.
And at this point, whatever dividing line there was between mainstream
conservatism and the black-helicopter crowd seems to have been virtually
erased.
Exhibit A for the mainstreaming of right-wing extremism is Fox News's new
star, Glenn Beck. Here we have a network where, like it or not, millions of
Americans get their news - and it gives daily airtime to a commentator who,
among other things, warned viewers that the Federal Emergency Management
Agency might be building concentration camps as part of the Obama
administration's "totalitarian" agenda (although he eventually conceded that
nothing of the kind was happening).
But let's not neglect the print news media. In the Bush years, The
Washington Times became an important media player because it was widely
regarded as the Bush administration's house organ. Earlier this week, the
newspaper saw fit to run an opinion piece declaring that President Obama
"not only identifies with Muslims, but actually may still be one himself,"
and that in any case he has "aligned himself" with the radical Muslim
Brotherhood.
And then there's Rush Limbaugh. His rants today aren't very different from
his rants in 1993. But he occupies a different position in the scheme of
things. Remember, during the Bush years Mr. Limbaugh became very much a
political insider. Indeed, according to a recent Gallup survey, 10 percent
of Republicans now consider him the "main person who speaks for the
Republican Party today," putting him in a three-way tie with Dick Cheney and
Newt Gingrich. So when Mr. Limbaugh peddles conspiracy theories -
suggesting, for example, that fears over swine flu were being hyped "to get
people to respond to government orders" - that's a case of the conservative
media establishment joining hands with the lunatic fringe.
It's not surprising, then, that politicians are doing the same thing. The
R.N.C. says that "the Democratic Party is dedicated to restructuring
American society along socialist ideals." And when Jon Voight, the actor,
told the audience at a Republican fund-raiser this week that the president
is a "false prophet" and that "we and we alone are the right frame of mind
to free this nation from this Obama oppression," Mitch McConnell, the Senate
minority leader, thanked him, saying that he "really enjoyed" the remarks.
Credit where credit is due. Some figures in the conservative media have
refused to go along with the big hate - people like Fox's Shepard Smith and
Catherine Herridge, who debunked the attacks on that Homeland Security
report two months ago. But this doesn't change the broad picture, which is
that supposedly respectable news organizations and political figures are
giving aid and comfort to dangerous extremism.
What will the consequences be? Nobody knows, of course, although the
analysts at Homeland Security fretted that things may turn out even worse
than in the 1990s - that thanks, in part, to the election of an
African-American president, "the threat posed by lone wolves and small
terrorist cells is more pronounced than in past years."
And that's a threat to take seriously. Yes, the worst terrorist attack in
our history was perpetrated by a foreign conspiracy. But the second worst,
the Oklahoma City bombing, was perpetrated by an all-American lunatic.
Politicians and media organizations wind up such people at their, and our,
peril.
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