.Paleoconservatives ..

The Far Right and the Oklahoma City Bombing

The similarity between Patriot movement rhetoric and rhetoric from the right wing of the Republican Party is striking.

"The conspiracist scapegoating characteristic of right-wing populism, including the Patriot and armed militia movements, creates not only individual acts of violence but also a dynamic where conspiracy theories and scapegoating become routine and seemingly banal. It also provides a handy recruitment device for the Far Right, readily attracting those who need to feel politically superior to others. "

"Non-Christian neonazis, such as in the pagan Church of the Creator, are sometimes able to work in coalitions with Christian Patriots because of their shared antigovernment sentiments and conspiracism rooted in historic forms of antisemitism. In fact, some conspiracist rhetoric in the Christian Right is virtually indistinguishable from far-right rhetoric. Susan DeCamp found some dozen quotes from Pat Robertson and Christian Identity preacher Pete Peters that when arranged together read like one continuous tract "promoting white nationalism." So, conspiracist antigovernment themes can cross boundaries promiscuously while the various movements and groups working in parallel remain ideologically monogamous. "

http://www.publiceye.org/tooclose/chapter-excerpt.html _______________________________ The Producerist Narrative in Repressive Right Wing Populism:

http://www.publiceye.org/tooclose/producerism-01.html

Right Wing Styles of Thought http://www.publiceye.org/research/concepts/Mapping-the-Right-01.htm#TopOfPage ________________________________________________________________________

"Paleoconservatives- Ultra-conservatives and reactionaries. Natural financial oligarchies preserve the republic against democratic mob rule. Usually nativist (White Racial Nationalist), sometimes antisemitic or Christian nationalist. Elitist emphasis is similar to the intellectual conservative revolutionary wing of the European New Right. Often libertarian"

"Buchanan’s portrayal of Bush as a symbol of the sinister Eastern elite added producerist conspiracism to the Patriot backlash against globalization and foreign competition. Buchanan’s calls for limiting immigration of Blacks, Latinos, and Asians continued through 1994 as the Patriot Movement was growing, adding a racist subtext to much of the antiglobalism on the right. "

'In the early 1990s there were other signs of right wing populist revolt. The dominionist Coalition on Revival (COR) urged the formation of "county militias" and a system of "Christian" courts, and called for abolishing the public schools, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Reserve. In 1992 Conservative Caucus leader Howard Phillips helped launch the U.S. Taxpayers Party (USTP), whose antiglobalism and hostility to the federal government attracted Birchite conspiracists, remnants of George Wallace’s American Independent Party, and militant abortion-rights opponents such as Randall Terry. '

'Populism in the electoral arena clearly heralded its revival in Ross Perot’s 1992 third-party candidacy against Republican George Bush [the first] and Democrat Bill Clinton. The candidacy began slowly. Jack Gargan, a quintessential angry populist, had an abiding disgust for elected politicians, so he founded the anti-incumbent group, Throw the Hypocritical Rascals Out (THRO). Gargan met with Perot because he thought the wealthy businessman was "the only person who can turn this country around." Perot was equivocal but hinted at interest, which Gargan saw as a signal to launch a full-blown grassroots campaign that eventually pulled Perot onto Larry King’s CNN television interview show, and then into the race. Todd Mason captured the dichotomies in Perot the man when he described him as an "Antigovernment patriot, antiunion populist, antimanagement capitalist, loyal boss who sold out twice to GM, [and] billionaire defender of the underdog." Perot’s gadfly persona worked in tandem with his populist rhetoric pitting "the people" against the entrenched elites. He also encouraged, in a mild, often implicit, way, the early stirrings of nationalist xenophobia as an antidote to globalization by multinational corporations. Perot racked up close to 20 million votes in the three-way race where he garnered almost 19 percent of the total. But columnist Michael Kelly nailed down the troubling aspects of the candidate when he called Perot "an example of the melding of populism and the paranoid style, of legitimate critic and crackpot, of giving voice to valid grievances and hysterical fears."

Patriots and Militias

It was in this context of resurgent isolationism and unilateralism that a self-conscious Patriot movement coalesced. It involved some 5 million persons who suspected--to varying degrees--that the government was manipulated by secret elites and planned the imminent imposition of some form of tyranny. This suspicion has been the basic theme of the John Birch Society since the late 1950s.

The Patriot movement was bracketed on the reformist side by the Birch Society and the conspiracist segment of the Christian Right, and on the insurgent side by the Liberty Lobby and groups promoting themes historically associated with White supremacy and antisemitism. A variety of preexisting far-right vigilante groups (including Christian Identity adherents and outright neonazi groups) were influential in helping to organize the broader Patriot movement. The Patriot movement, however, drew recruits from several preexisting movements and networks:

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