The current Republican Party line and the apocalyptic mindset

As we get ready to hear Bush's wise counsel and inspiration in a few minutes, I thought I would share this.

David Neiwert sees the current Nixon-on-OxyContin, liberals-are-traitors line from Karl Rove and the senior Republicans as an example of "eliminationist" rhetoric: The hunting of the liberals Orcinus blog 06/27/05. Speaking of the kind of rhetoric to which Karl Rove treated us last week, he says:

What's important to understand is what the nature of these appeals - and their self-evident success - tells us simultaneously about the nature of the audience. Because the very nature of fundamentalist apocalypticism is profoundly dualist - entirely contingent on a black-and-white Manichean worldview - it is clear that the majority of at least the religious followers of the conservative movement are what is known as "totalists".

Fundamental to understanding totalitarianism is realizing that, contrary to the "brainwashing" model in which the totalitarian regime is imposed on a society from without and against their will, the reality is that nearly every totalitarian regime in history has succeeded because of the avid and willing participation of citizens eager to be its subjects.

As I've gone on to explain elsewhere the emergence of Manichean totalism in the American electorate has become unmistakable in recent months. The open embrace of eliminationist rhetoric by the Bush administration, after years of propagandization by right-wing agitators that made this possible, raises the stakes to genuinely serious levels.

Tags: authoritarianism, david neiwert

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