Jonathan La Gasse (FGCU): Rise of Right Wing Extremism

One day I received news that the Department of Homeland Security made a report on Right-Wing Extremism recently (They already made a report for Left-Wing Extremism last year) and that this report was making news all the sudden. For some reason the media (specifically the conservative-inclined media, like Fox News and right-wing blogs) went “up in arms” over this report, as if they wanted to be associated with far-right terrorists (although some warned that by making a fuss out of the report they are giving “credibility” to the far right fringe). While the reasons behind the outrage may perhaps be interesting in finding out, what caught my attention were certain things that the report mentioned.

Besides “hate groups”, such as White nationalists, National Socialists (Nazis), etc, the report identify another type of right-wing extremist: “Those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority…”As of late, the American Libertarian and/or Constitutionalist movement (i.e. the people attracted to that Ron Paul persona) has began to grow a bit more popular since the 2008 elections. Arguably, Ron Paul’s politics have become more widespread as the recession continued on and of the current news of the new government budget. Some of the conservative media, which supports some or all of Ron Paul’s policies, are angry at the report because they believe it unfairly targets Libertarians (specifically those who are participating in the various “Tea Party” protests around the country this April 15).

I’m puzzled by this movement, I sincerely am. What kinds of people are attracted to it? To my knowledge, many different kinds of people support Ron Paul but even some of his supporters don’t know some of his other policies (or don’t know the possible consequences of his policies). Some of these supporters are progressive-minded people (who are dissatisfied with the Democrats and don’t know much of other political ideologies) who want an end to the wars in Middle East, increase civil liberties, end to corporate welfare, etc. These supporters tend to be ignorant however that Ron Paul (and some constitutionalist organizations) is for anti-immigrant (He’s a “nativist.” He’s also using the old “they are taking our welfare” argument which is arguably a myth. ) policies, his economic policies are mostly beneficial to businesses, some of his domestic policies would be detrimental to the poor sections of society, etc. Some of his other supporters are more like dissatisfied Republicans and other kinds of conservatives, but these kinds of people being attracted to Ron Paul make sense in a way.

Continental Europe reacts differently than the U.S.  in terms of politics, there’s probably been a larger increase in the far-left (specifically amongst anarchists) in Europe than in the far-right and in Europe American Libertarianism does not exist (the word “libertarian” in Europe is another term for anarchist). England however does demonstrate a different reaction then Europe by exhibiting towards increase support for the far-right British Nationalist Party during this recession. It’s actually a mystery to me why the progressive-minded members of the libertarian/Ron Paul movement would join that movement instead of being a part of the anarchist movement.

One other part of the report, which was very interesting (and controversial), was the mention that returning soldiers and veterans are potential recruits for far-right extremists. The conservative media made a fuss about this part too, probably even more so then the other section of the report. But this does have historical verification: The Nazi Party of the 30s attracted many German WWI veterans.

This report actually creates many questions than answers…

Should we take this report seriously? Is there an actual increase threat from hateful far-right groups in the U.S.? Is the libertarian/constitutionalist movement fundamentally dangerous, as the report might subtle and implicitly suggest, and are they able to ever gain power?  Lastly, why is the American anarchist left unable to capitalize on this recession and the “populist rage” as successfully as their European counterparts and their Libertarian rivals?

Sources:

http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/04/report-warns-of-rise-of-rightwing-extremists-.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7993595.stm

This entry was posted on 16. April 2009 at 02:07 and is filed under Introduction to Sociology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.