In his latest book, David Neiwert, journalist and leading expert on the radical right, details how the rise of the far right lead to the election of Trump. Since the unprecedented presidential election of Donald Trump in 2016, there has been a flurry of publications attempting to explain the “alt-right”, the “fringe”, and to make… Continue reading “The Radical Right Built Trump, And He Returned The Favor”
During the Cold War (1947-1989), American foreign policy was dominated by fears of Soviet expansionism. These fears were heightened by the possibility that Communist regimes would come to power in various parts of the world. These worries were not imaginary. China went through a red revolution in 1949. Pro-Soviet regimes came to power in Cuba,… Continue reading “When you’re Right you’re Right: Russia in America’s Place”
How should we reconcile the historically low level of Americans’ negative feelings about Jews with the recent surge in attacks on Jews? The April 27 attack on the Chabad synagogue in Poway, a suburb of San Diego, California, set off alarms within American Jewish communities. The attack came six months after another lone-wolf assault that… Continue reading “Despite Recent Attacks, Anti-Semitism in the US Remains Low”
The “Goldwater Rule” established that health experts wouldn’t comment on the mental health of public officials. Trump caused experts to break that rule. Back in 1964 the Republican nominee for president Barry Goldwater received strong support from members of the John Birch society. Among other things, they expressed admiration for his commitment to winning the… Continue reading “Psychiatrists Raise Alarms About Trump After Mueller Report”
Recently, the comedian posted a crude drawing of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci – disfigured and hung upside down as they were in their deaths. For years now, Jim Carrey, known for his cartoon-like facial expressions and raucous and pointed comedy, has been sharing his own satirical art on Twitter.… Continue reading “Jim Carrey, Mussolini and the politics of comics”
On March 28th 2019, the American University School of Education and PEN America hosted the 2019 Global Education Forum, Hate Comes to Campus. Co-sponsored by the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right and Rantt Media, the forum brought together experts and students for an afternoon of discussion on the topics of free speech, campus… Continue reading “A Report From the 2019 Global Education Forum: Hate Comes to Campus”
The intelligence work that is supposed to support law enforcement is being shuttered by an administration that finds bliss in ignorance. The Department of Homeland Security’s decision to disband its group of domestic terrorism intelligence analysts effectively ends the agency’s role in providing assessments of white nationalist threats to law enforcement. The elimination of a… Continue reading “White Nationalist Body Count Swells, and Trump’s Department of Homeland Security Retreats”
At the 1952 Republican national convention – which nominated General Dwight Eisenhower as its presidential nominee and throughout the subsequent election campaign – Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy delivered speech after speech accusing the incumbent Democratic administration of ‘20 years of treason’. At the convention itself, McCarthy even claimed he had located a cabin in the… Continue reading “Treason and Party Politics in the United States”
It’s become clear that racism isn’t a side effect of far-right ideology, it is a foundational quality of radical right parties in the US and Europe. Is racism a necessary component of the radical right’s appeal? When I was conducting my research on the radical right in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I tried… Continue reading “Racism Is A Core Component Of The Radical Right”
Tom Watson promoted himself as a leading voice of Southern white supremacy, nostalgically evoking images of the “Old South” that drew legitimacy from its grounding in a combination of Jeffersonian political theory and cultural agrarianism. In 2012, I had the opportunity to spend a few weeks in Georgia, the most southern of the original colonial states.… Continue reading “A Populist’s Path: From Advocate of the People to Inspiration for the KKK”