Radical Right continuities

Chip Berlet has been writing on the Radical Right at Huffington Post. This post, Roots of Right-Wing Populist Rage -- Reds to Beds 09/24/09, shows one of the lines of connection between the Radical Right of the 1950s and early 1960s (which lived on the fringes of both parties) and that of today, where it dominates the Republican Party.

That article focuses on Fred Schwarz and his Christian Anti-Communism Crusade (CACC)that he founded in 1953. He's yet another example of someone who was widely viewed as a crank extremist in the 1950s and 1960s, but whose ideology now fits comfortably with today's Republican Party. This is not a case of a former crackpot settling down to be a constructive conservative. Schwarz' crackpot notions became respectable in the Republican Party. And it's now to the point where there is virtually no opposition with that Party to what not so long ago were considered fringe notions, at least by some portion of the Party.

That post is part of a series, all with the main title "Roots of Right-Wing Populist Rage", which so far includes a piece on the Christian Right 09/21/09 and realignment 09/22/09.

Chip Berlet's work also appears at the Talk to Action blog.

In a similar vein, Sarah Posner looks at the developments showing up at the Values Voters Summit last weekend in Tea Partiers and Religious Right Court at Values Voter Summit Religion Dispatches 09/23/09.

Tags: christian right, radical right

| +Save/Share | |