Editorials & Other Articles

marmar

(78,025 posts) Sat Sep 7, 2024, 09:06 AM Sep 7

The far right actually hates America: Its dark ideology has foreign roots

The far right actually hates America: Its dark ideology has foreign roots
Why do conservatives wrap themselves in the flag so desperately? Maybe because their ideas are un-American

By Mike Lofgren
Contributing Writer
Published September 7, 2024 6:00AM (EDT)

(Salon) If there is one thing Republicans want you to know, it’s how much they bleed red, white and blue for America. None of their gatherings is complete without dozens if not hundreds of American flags, attendees sporting flag-themed costumes (some veering close to obscene mockery), Uncle Sam suits or Lady Liberty getups. Jimmy Cagney’s old schmaltz vehicle "Yankee Doodle Dandy" looks restrained by comparison.

....(snip)....

To the extent there is any truth to this caricature, it serves as a superficial explanation of the GOP’s xenophobia (remember “freedom fries?”) and near-pathological parochialism. It also dovetails with an aggressive anti-intellectualism: One would no more expect a Republican politician to speak a foreign language than to play the cello.

What, then, accounts for the GOP’s adulation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán? As one observer puts it: “The American right’s love affair with Hungary seemingly knows no bounds.” That country’s wannabe dictator is now a regular feature at the annual CPAC convention (think of that event as the Burning Man festival, except for wingnuts), and luminaries of the American right regularly troop to Budapest to confer with Orbán and his cronies. American conservatives’ enthusiasm for foreign-based authoritarianism, and their readiness to cooperate with grandees like Orbán or Vladimir Putin, is now well established, a phenomenon I witnessed in its embryonic stage as early as 2016.

....(snip)....

As everyone knows, Donald Trump admires Vladimir Putin, and so a large portion of the Republican Party admires Putin in an imitative and slavish manner. But even before Trump became a candidate, the most regressive elements of conservatism — the paleoconservatives who developed around former Nixon and Reagan staffer (and Hitler apologist) Pat Buchanan, Christian nationalists and reconstructionists inspired by Francis Schaeffer, and the tech-obsessed neoreactionary movement fueled by Silicon Valley money, which has produced JD Vance — discovered how much there was to love about Putin’s Russia. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/09/07/the-far-right-actually-hates-america-its-dark-ideology-has-foreign-roots/

6 replies

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Highlight:

The far right actually hates America: Its dark ideology has foreign roots (Original Post) marmar Sep 7 OP

This message was self-deleted by its author Chin music Sep 7 #1

Funny you mention Jerry Lewis I always hear his voice when the convicted felon is speaking kimbutgar Sep 7 #4

This message was self-deleted by its author Chin music Sep 7 #5

Faux patriotism and Faux News go hand-in-hand Martin Eden Sep 7 #2

This perfect marriage enigmania Sep 7 #3

NATIVISM, Political, has been an issue in America for many years: appalachiablue Sep 7 #6

Response to marmar (Original post)

Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.

kimbutgar

(23,262 posts)

4. Funny you mention Jerry Lewis I always hear his voice when the convicted felon is speaking

Reply to Chin music (Reply #1)

Sat Sep 7, 2024, 11:18 AM

Sep 7

He has this intonation that sounds just like Jerry Lewis a real high pitch !

Response to kimbutgar (Reply #4)

Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.

Martin Eden

(13,459 posts)

2. Faux patriotism and Faux News go hand-in-hand

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Sat Sep 7, 2024, 10:02 AM

Sep 7

Victor Orban's Hungary is NOT a model for the highest ideals of the United States Constitution.

enigmania

(200 posts)

3. This perfect marriage

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Sat Sep 7, 2024, 10:21 AM

Sep 7

of enemies both foreign and domestic is mind-boggling.

appalachiablue

(42,906 posts)

6. NATIVISM, Political, has been an issue in America for many years:

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Sat Sep 7, 2024, 04:53 PM

Sep 7

- Wiki. Ed. Nativism (political). Definition. According to Cas Mudde, a University of Georgia professor, nativism is a largely American notion that is rarely debated in Western Europe; the word originated with mid-19th-century political parties in the United States, most notably the Know Nothing party, which saw Catholic immigration from nations such as Germany and Ireland as a serious threat to native-born Protestant Americans.

Causes. Main article: Opposition to immigration
According to Joel S. Fetzer, opposition to immigration commonly arises in many countries because of issues of national, cultural, and religious identity.. that immigrants also create a surplus of labor that results in lowered wages.
Government expense: The belief that immigrants do not pay enough taxes to cover the cost of the services they require.
Welfare: The belief that immigrants make heavy use of the social welfare systems.
Housing: The belief that immigrants reduce vacancies, causing rent increases.
Cultural
Language: The belief that immigrants isolate themselves in their own communities and refuse to learn the local language.
Culture: The belief that immigrants will outnumber the native population and replace its culture with theirs. Crime: The belief that immigrants are more prone to crime than the native population. Patriotism: The belief that immigrants damage a nation's sense of community based on ethnicity and nationality. Environmental. Environment: The belief that immigrants increase the consumption of limited resources. Overpopulation: The belief that immigration contributes to overpopulation. Decolonization: The belief immigrants are colonizing the native or indigenous people...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativism_(politics)#:~:text=Nativism%20is%20the%20political%20policy,immigration%20and%20immigration%2Drestriction%20measures.

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