I’ve always believed that if our democracy gave way to authoritarianism, it would come from the right, never from the left. The last six years has confirmed my worst fears.
Over the course of its history, the United States has experienced numerous challenges to its democratic-constitutional government both from the right and left. This despite the fact that the Revolution of 1776 was itself a moderate rebellion that escapes definition of being either right or left, regardless of subsequent historiographical attempts to do so.
The very nature of human relationships guarantees that there will always be conflict between those who see virtue in concentrating power and those whose virtue lies in leveling society. Both offer up numerous examples to support their view. Beginning with the Patriots vs. the Tories in the colonial time to the forming of a new government and the contest between Hamilton and Jefferson, the Federalists vs. the Jeffersonian Republicans, the debate has played out with the everyday citizenry to the present time.
The most serious challenge, the Civil War, it can be argued, was a right-wing uprising. It represented the resentment and ideological beliefs of the well-heeled planter class in the South against what it saw as the egalitarian rapacity of the industrializing North. Advocating slavery as the cause of the war was the very antithesis of Marxism.
During the Twentieth Century, subsequent challenges from the left have popped up during times of unrest or economic downturns. In 1912 Eugene Debs won nearly a million votes in the presidential election, the most ever for a Socialist Party candidate. He ran for the presidency five times and might serve as metaphor for today’s fear of socialism. The truth is that Americans have always rejected socialism, communism or syndicalism in spite of flirtations with such ideas during hard times. Another truth is that Americans want to become the boss and prosper. In the United States, unlike Europe, workers became voters before they identified themselves as workers.
Authoritarianism from the right is far more plausible given the history of the country and the anti-intellectual myths engendered by our history. Most Americans have been too successful to be interested in socialism and believe fervently in the Protestant work ethic as a path to success. At the same time, they believe fervently in an individualism that is frequently contemptuous of those who lobby for government help or protection. The highly successful “Marlboro Man” advertisement, however mythical, captures our imagination about ourselves.
Socialism bashing has long been a favorite political tactic to gain votes by demagogues and far right politicians. The Palmer Raids in 1919, named after U.S Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, led to violent, often unconstitutional raids, arrests and deportations of foreign-born leftists and radicals. At the same time, Eugene Debs was arrested for violation of the 1917 Espionage Act and ended up running for president in 1920 while in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.
In the 1930s Charles Coughlin, a Canadian-American Catholic priest, reached a mass audience with his pioneering radio broadcasts spouting anti-semitism and an American variation of fascism. Empathizing economics and politics instead of religion, his popularity soared. Initially a supporter of FDR, Coughlin found greater success and more fertile ground as he moved to the right. Even Huey Long, the firebrand populist from Louisiana, an early FDR supporter, found greater success as he became more authoritarian and dictatorial in his politics. In all fairness, historians have had difficulty defining what Long was as he was a hybrid of ideas that blended right and left. The point is, however, success on the political hustings for those on the extremes – left or right – comes more easily for those who are reactionaries.
Lest we forget, Joseph McCarthy, Republican senator from Wisconsin, became the darling of the right in the 1950s as he fueled the fears of communism during the Cold War. For a brief time, he was enormously successful attacking the character and patriotism of political opponents whom he associated with an alleged communist threat. Since McCarthy there have been others who have embraced the right as a winning strategy, most notably Barry Goldwater, Republican senator from Arizona. His best selling 1960 book, The Conscience of a Conservative, empathized states rights, a strong military and vigorous anti-communism; it became the bible for countless conservatives and his ideas are often credited for the success of conservatism today.
Some things never change. Currently, there is much concern about budding democratic socialist ideas being popular with Democrats. We have seen this dance before: as elements among the Democrats become disillusioned with their leadership they lean left, and the Republicans immediately pile on, warning about socialism or communism.
It really matters little whether we have a conservative or liberal government as long as we protect and preserve our freedoms, democracy and constitutional government. We will always argue and debate the pros and cons of current politics, but it is imperative that we reject the demagoguery of the extremes.
It is my view that we have recently stooped to the promise of far right politics during the Trump administrations. We presently live on the precipice of a home-grown fascism, derived from American roots and orchestrated by a president ignorant of history and devoid of morality or ethics.