The Threats Posed by Different Strains of Right-wing/Conservative Movements in the United States

 By David Starr

There are hardcore right-wingers and conservatives in the United States that pose a further danger to the nation as time passes. The misperceptions and disinformation embraced and used by the them enhance that danger.

In a study done by R. Kelly Garrett and Robert M. Bond and published as a research article in Science Advances (06/02/2021), Garrett and Bond found out in U.S. public opinion polls that conservatives are more prone to accepting and making claims grounded in misperceptions and falsehoods than liberals. But the evidence of such a conclusion is limited to a “relatively narrow set of topics.” Garrett and Bond wrote that “conservatives’ performance might look better if we assessed beliefs about topics reflecting a wider range of issues broadly discussed by the public.”

Nevertheless, the misperceptions and falsehoods embraced by the right are enough to show that those among them are unfit to hold a political office. And for one to be wary of their opinions. The right is thus a potential threat to the degree of democracy that exists in the U.S.

When looking at the right, one may think that it’s a monolithic entity with one set of political/ideological beliefs. But there are different strains with some that overlap. In a research paper (08/2019) done for the George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, historian Mark Pitcavage examined these different strains. He first noted nativism and white supremacy, “solidified in the early to mid-19^th century, becoming staples of the far right to the present day.” In the late 1800s, “extreme hostility to socialism and communism” appeared, along with “ideological anti-Semitism.”

After the Cold War ended, “anti-government extremism” became more prominent among the right. Another name for it is the “Patriot” movement. One sub-strain of this movement is the Tax Protest Movement, which initially emerged in the 1960s. Pitcavage wrote that the anti-taxers “use pseudo-legal arguments to claim Americans have no obligation to pay income taxes…” There is thus a lack of social responsibility among them.

Pitcavage wrote about another sub-strain in the Patriot sphere: the Militia Movement, which “emerged in the 1990s as a paramilitary movement whose adherents claim the federal government is collaborating with a shadowy ‘New world Order’ to strip Americans of their freedoms.” Many in the militia movement call themselves “Three Percenters, people who compare themselves to Revolutionary War patriots opposing British rule.”

And there are, of course, the single-issue movements: Anti-abortion extremists, anti-public lands extremists, and those that are anti-immigration and anti-Muslim. To justify their reactionary causes, members would resort to violence.

Added to the rest of them are the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, etc., who have similar distorted views that would “protect” western civilization, fight government “tyranny” and bring back the old United States with its oppression against “undesirables.”

A major objective of these movements is to “save America” from “enemies” that are not “100% American.” Translation: protecting white supremacy and white privilege. And it was proven on January 6, 2021 that they will go all out to try and takeover the federal government. Fortunately, they failed with their attempted riot. But it’s unfortunate that they are not going away, at least not quietly.

Besides violence, the right has been successful in “winning” positions in state legislatures. Violating the right to vote has certainly helped them. More stringent laws have been passed by these legislatures to further suppress the vote, using, for example, gerrymandering, stricter voter ID “laws,” and even making it a crime to give food and water to those standing in line to vote.

It’s accurate to say that the Republican Party is morally bankrupt, but many of its members and those among its base don’t care. They don’t care about real facts which they deem “inaccurate” and try to play the victim when white supremacy and white privilege are challenged. This was brought up by Brynn Tannehill, a former senior defense analyst, writing a piece published (02/24/2022) in Dame magazine’s web site: “[T]he most important item on the conservative legislative agenda across the U.S. is carving out a safe space at schools and universities where their feelings will never be hurt by inconvenient facts like racism isn’t dead and LGBT people still exist.”

Tannehill also wrote how right-wingers/conservatives deny the impact of inequality by fighting against “Critical Race Theory.” “They claim that its purpose is to teach white students that they’re racist and to hate themselves, when in fact it’s quite the opposite: CRT is about how systems that developed over hundreds of years continue to create unequal outcomes today.” The right has been unable to accept this fact.

Robert Reich, a former U.S. secretary of labor, wrote a piece (06/22/2022) in the Guardian asserting that the Republicans are entirely divorced from reality when it comes to the January 6 hearings. “The first four hearings of the committee have demolished the myth of voter fraud repeated incessantly by Trump. Yet the Republican response to those hearings has ranged from indifference to hostility.” Furthermore, “[b]y not divesting itself of the big lie and embracing the truth of what the January 6 committee is revealing, the Republican party has lost its last shred of moral authority to function” as a governing party.

The outrageous claims and disinformation that right-wingers and conservatives have peddled is par for the course. One can get the jist of them in the following quotes:

“What are Democrats thinking right now? I don’t think they’re doing any thinking. Just blame Republicans, blame conspiracy theories. And enjoy being completely irrelevant, because once you get displaced from power, we’re not going to give it back. We’re not going to give that power back.”

Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA

Media Matters, 06/15/2022

“If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They’re the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox news. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.”

Donald Trump

People, 1998 (Snopes and PolitiFact concluded that Trump didn’t say this, not being able to cite a primary source. But it sounds like something Trump would say, given his other crude remarks.)

“Call your congressman. Say, ‘You know what? If you don’t start election integrity, I’m coming after you, Madison Cawthorn is coming after you. Everybody’s coming after you.’”

Madison Cawthorn

Time, 01/27/2021

“…an Islamic invasion of our government.”

(Referring to Ihan Omar and Rishida Tlaib, both who are Muslim, during the 2018 mid-terms.)

Americans “now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshipping Pedophiles out.”

(Referring to Democrats in general.)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)

The New Yorker, 10/09/2020

The danger right-wing/conservatives pose, with their falsehoods and disinformation, must be met with strong opposition. The degree of democracy in the United States depends on it.