CPAC’s Plot Against America

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As a loudmouth crank, the idea that the American Far Right is publicly and conspicuously embracing an autocratic thug like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán by giving him a starring role at the current CPAC meeting give me pause for thought. For a number of reasons, there is not a direct 1-to-1 between the United States and Hungary politically. Should the States slide into autocracy there’s a chance that we wouldn’t stop at a Hungary-style version. We could — glup — very well careen towards an autocracy that looks a lot more like Russia or Nazi Germany.

Issues like race, the far more flexible role of women, income disparity and the being a much, much bigger nation cause the US to either drive into the ditch of hard core, old school fascism or, well, a civil war.

But I’ve all but convinced myself that we’re not going to have a civil war. The center Left in the US is just so concerned about dumb shit that it’s going to be totally outmaneuvered by American fascists like those at CPAC when the time comes. It definitely seems as though this is pretty much a forgone conclusion. The only doubt that it will happen is, well, I can’t predict the future and, as such, there’s always a chance that something I can’t expect might happen instead.

Viktor Orbán

What that might be, I don’t know.

The point is — it’s wishful thinking on the part of CPAC that they will get a Hungary-style autocracy in the United States. They are probably going to get an autocracy, but soon enough, once the connection between the governed and the government no longer exists, MAGA will consume the United States like the Nazis did Germany and, well, either get out or think long and hard about what you believe in, in the real world.

Long “Mueller, She Wrote” rants about how Trump is just about to be arrested won’t cut it anymore.

My Hot Take On The (Very Boring) ‘New Right’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about the New Right is it’s full of overwrought, over exited rhetoric that if you take at face value definitely seems an embrace of cold, hard fascism. But usually, it’s done in a rather coy, conflated manner. At least from what I can tell from Jesse Kelly’s Twitter feed, apparently “it’s a New Right thing, you wouldn’t understand, lib” in the sense apparently they want both to embrace fascism and say that they’re being “driven to it” by evil Cancel Culture libs.

The issue is, there comes a point where the dicking around about if they’re fascist or not is both dumb and boring. I would respect the New Right a lot more — and find them more interesting — if they tore off their human face and reveled their real American Fascist beliefs beneath.

If we were all the same page on what the New Right really is — modern American fascism — then, at least, we would all know the dynamics of American politics going forward.

But, at the moment, the New Right is going all Waiting For Fascist Gadot. They say, “Well, we’re not fascist yet, but those damn liberals are going to force us to become fascist!”

So that’s why the New Right is boring. They’re not only intellectually dishonest, but they’re coy, too. I know what’s going on. A lot of MAGA people are tired of getting owned by libs by giving any logic, fact-based argument any validation. As such, the New Right has decided to nullify any that a liberal articulates in the first place.

If a liberal — or anti-MAGA person– states it, they won’t listen to it.

Throw in the growing number of paramilitary groups in the the United States and a general glorification by the New Right itself and, well, I’m reminded that we’re careening towards the existential choice of civil war or autocracy that I constantly harp on.