CPAC veers into neo-Nazi fantasy: Was it deliberate? That hardly matters

[marmar]

CPAC veers into neo-Nazi fantasy: Was it deliberate? That hardly matters
Extremism experts on CPAC's "inadvertent" use of a Nazi-associated rune: A clear signal, with unclear motives

By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
MARCH 2, 2021 11:00AM


(Salon) Once upon a time, the Conservative Political Action Conference was a relatively traditional and "mainstream" gathering of many divergent currents on the political right.

Fueled by the obsessive racist backlash against Barack Obama's presidency and paranoid fantasies about a bogeyman fictional version of "the left," the Republican Party rapidly became more extreme, contemptuous not just of "liberals" but of multiracial democracy and reality itself. During those years, CPAC came to resemble a political zoo or circus where assorted cast-offs, broken toys and fringe figures from the Republican Party and conservative movement could gather together and hatch their nefarious plots.

As a result, during the Obama era CPAC became something of a bellwether or leading indicator of the Republican Party's embrace of right-wing extremism and anti-democracy fervor.

....(snip)....

On Twitter, author Jared Yates Sexton recently echoed Arendt with a contemporary warning:

Continuing to pretend like we still live in a two-party representative system will only give room and cover to a fascist movement that is intentionally and systematically demolishing democracy and civil liberties. We must recognize the reality of the threat.

What we've witnessed, over the past few years, is the reveal of the GOP as a fascist movement to protect the white, wealthy, and powerful, an angry and violent rejection of democracy and human dignity. There is no saving them, there is no unity, there's only avoiding tragedy.

.................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/02/cpac-veers-into-neo-nazi-fantasy-was-it-deliberate-that-hardly-matters/

[gratuitous]

1. It doesn't matter at all

As Maya Angelou said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them." If CPAC doesn't want to be identified as the gathering of the American Nazis (there's nothing neo about their violent bigotry), it's up to them to do something about it. The rest of us can see quite clearly what they're doing, and we're calling it out. All the fancy pundit analysis in the world doesn't change the plain facts.

[Iliyah]

2. They have been doing that for years . ..

[TwilightZone]

3. Intent matters...

but I would argue that it was deliberate, in which case the intent is clear.

"A clear signal, with unclear motives"

The author is putting too much thought into this. The motive is quite clear: give a shout-out to the white supremacists in the base of one Donald J. Trump and part of their own.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. "In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."- FDR

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