neoconservadroid

It is a cliche of American conservatives that liberal and even centrist Democrats are sympathetic to Communism. Yet today it is the Republican Party leadership and rank-and-file right-wing activists who are using Stalinist techniques in an attempt to intimidate opposition, create an alternate, ideologically-based "reality," and enforce acceptance of that false "reality." Behind these techniques is an even more frightening reality - Stalinist-style rhetoric and ways of thought now dominate the political discourses of the American Right.

I should state right now that obviously the Bush administration and its supporters do not have Stalinist economic policies and do not engage in domestic mass murder of the Stalinist sort. I'm saying rather that there are important parallels in mentality, propaganda, and methods of intimidating dissent between the Republican Party leadership today and the Stalinist regime

As a student of the origins of Stalinist culture and propaganda, I have become more and more aware of the Stalinist tactics and mentality of much of the American Right since the virulent Clinton-hating publicity campaigns of the 1990s. The words "treason," "traitors," "unity," and "patriotism" are a good place to start in understanding this. Stalin was a great patriot and hunter of "traitors." Accusing political opponents of treason, lack of patriotism, or lack of resolution in the face of an external threat is quintessentially Stalinist. It has become a staple of Republican rhetoric since the September 11, 2001 al-Qaeda massacre. On right-wing talk radio and conservative websites, and in publications of such commentators as Ann Coulter it is routine to accuse the entire Democratic party of treason. These accusations erode the assumption, essential for a functioning democracy, that there can be a patriotic "loyal opposition" to the party in power.

Relentless insistence on unity, on the existence of an unprecedented and overwhelming external threat, and on the total moral depravity of political opposition were all integral to Stalinist propaganda, and they are a growing part of conservative rhetoric in the United States today. Hate campaigns against "wealthy" peasants, "bourgeois" engineers and professors, and "enemies of the people" became central to Stalinism. A hate campaign against gays and lesbians is a keystone of President Bush's reelection campaign, and expressions of hatred against all Muslims on right-wing websites and by talk show commentators such as Jay Severin and Michael Savage are common. "Liberals" are constant targets of charges of treason and psychopathology. Calls for their elimination (means unspecified) by Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are not uncommon.

....continues: America's Stalinist Right by Matthew Lenoe Assistant Professor of History, Assumption College, author of CLOSER TO THE MASSES. STALINIST CULTURE, SOCIAL REVOLUTION, AND SOVIET NEWSPAPERS (Harvard University Press, 2004)