The US Tea Party and the spectre of fascism

Quote

“Democracy is talking itself to death. The people do not know what they want; they do not know what is the best for them. There is too much foolishness, too much lost motion. I have stopped the talk and the nonsense. I am a man of action. Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day.”  Benito Mussolini in a letter to the New York Times, 1928.

News
A sea change in US politics in favour of the “Tea Party” movement is emerging in the US primaries ahead of the November elections for Congress. On Wednesday, newcomer Christine O’Donnell beat veteran congressman Mike Castle to the Republican nomination for Delaware, sending a powerful message to the party elite that people want change.

Named after the Boston Tea Party in 1773, this populist movement has emerged from nowhere as an angry reaction to the massive government bailout of big corporations and costly health care reforms – all at the taxpayers expense.    

Although the current focus of the movement is strictly economic (the central tenets are fiscal responsibility, limited government and free markets), some of its leading supporters have far right political views.  Opponents on the left criticize some Tea Party members as racist, but others recognize that it is helping democracy by warning how the federal government's amassing of power is taking the country in a totalitarian direction.

Whatever the Tea Party becomes, it has won the support of nearly 20% of the US population in just 18 months, without any leadership or central organization.  It shows how quickly large numbers of angry, disaffected citizens can be rallied, especially using the internet. 

While the movement seems mostly level-headed now, it is vulnerable to being swayed by a more militant rallying cry – which is raising the spectre of fascism again in European countries such as Austria, France, Belgium and UK.

Read on...

Michael Schluter has written some brief notes reflecting on the rising threat of fascism as one of the long term implications and consequences of the West’s debt crisis.  You can read them here: www.relationshipsglobal.net/Web/OnlineStore/Product.aspx?ID=49

Walk the talk

Anger is a normal reaction to injustice and wrongdoing.  It is a powerful motivator to action.  The challenge for individuals and groups in society is how to direct that anger in a constructive way in order to right wrongs and oppose injustice – but without retaliation or revenge.  The benefits of getting this right are immense, as is the further damage of getting it wrong.  How well are you directing your anger, both personally and towards what is happening in society?

The last word

From the Bible, Matthew 16, verse 3: "You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times."