Right Wing PopulismA crude anti-elite critique
is what unites some leftist populists, political opportunists, and right-wing
populists in a common drive to smash what
is seen as a corrupt regime.
Margaret Canovan laid out the basic themes of authoritarian and reactionary
populism:
"...a charismatic leader, using the tactics of politicians’ populism
to go past the politicians and intellectual elite and appeal to the
reactionary sentiments of the populace, often buttressing his claim
to speak for the people by the use of referendums. When populism is
attributed to right–wing figures—Hitler, de Gaulle, Codreanu, Father
Coughlin—this is what the word conjures up."
Yet forms of left populism that lack a systemic analysis can find common
ground with demagogic leaders who use the rhetoric of right wing populism.
Left populism of this sort can demonstrate weaknesses that open it to
such
seduction.
According to scholar Margaret Canovan, this kind of left populism
can involve the "[R]omanticization of the people by intellectuals
who turn against elitism and technological progress, who idealize the
poor...assume that ‘the people’ are united, reject ordinary politics
in favor of spontaneous popular revolution, but are inclined to accept
the claims of charismatic leaders that they represent the masses.”
This kind of naïve belief in the inevitable goodness of the will
of the majority can lead leftists to support political positions that
benefit the majority at the expense of unprotected minorities of all
sorts. Lani Guinier and Derek Bell have written eloquently about the
dangers of majoritarianism.
Right–wing populism can act as both a precursor and a building block
of fascism, with anti–elitist conspiracism and ethnocentric scapegoating
as shared elements The dynamic of right–wing populism interacting with
and facilitating fascism in interwar Germany was chronicled by Peter
Fritzsche in Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization
in Weimar Germany. Fritzsche showed that distressed middle–class
populists in Weimar launched bitter attacks against both the government
and big business
Beyond Populism: A Critique
of Populist Politics - by Joel Kovel
Rethinking Populism
Producerism as Repressive
Populism
Right Woos Left - Chip Berlet
- Political Research Associates (Very long study)
'Ecology'
and the Modernization of Fascism in the German Ultra-right -
Janet Biehl
Fascist
Ecology - The "Green Wing" of the Nazi Party and its Historical
Antecedents - Peter Staudenmaier
What is Fascism? - Matthew
N. Lyons
Fascism -
Dr. Roger Griffin
THE
SHOCK OF RECOGNITION:
Looking at Hamerquist's “Fascism & Anti-Fascism”
by J. Sakai
"Third Positionist" Fascism
In The US: A Case Study Of Bill White - by Mark Salotte
Dubious
Sources:
How Project Censored Joined The Whitewash of Serb Atrocities
by David Walls
The
Left and the Far Right: Curious Bedfellows? - Steve Mizrach
The Spotlight & Liberty
Lobby (now defunct but allies continue with American Free
Press)
The
Lyndon LaRouche Network
Buchanan,
Fulani, Perot, & the Reform Party
Lenora
Fulani and the Politics of Opportunism
Right
Wing Populism {you are here}
Right
Wing Anti-Globalism
Conspiracism
as a form of Scapegoating
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