The Tea Party on the Eve of Mid-term Elections

Earlier in the blog, I expressed the opinion that there is not substantial evidence for the rise of a fascist movement in the United States. And, even though some leading figures in the Tea Party and one of its internal tendencies have, as the Guardian (UK) reported, allied themselves, with a violent neo-fascist group in England, I am still not convinced that neo-fascism is precisely what the Tea Party as a whole intends to embrace. I must now, however, admit that the danger of a turn to overt fascism exists and try to explain why it does.

I quoted earlier in the blog the formula that says that fascism is the socialism of the middle class. I also tried to explain that the illusion that someone is “middle class,” although really a well-paid member of the working-class, is a fantasy fed  by genuine boom periods or by credit bubbles such as the one recently ended. With the disappointment, felt in both consumption and aspiration, that ensues when the boom ends or the bubble bursts, a labor aristocracy experiences the same emotions as the fading petite bourgeoisie (the class of small shopkeepers), and these emotions are largely those of fear.

The fears of a “middle class” are fears of falling into a working-class that lacks opportunities for consumption and prestige. Fascist groups have directed such fears into suspicion of working-class organizations and of socialists, who are reputed to be levelers or equalizers. This ’middle class” itself finds groups to scapegoat for reduced opportunities. It fears minorities who take jobs and university places through affirmative action and immigrants who receive support from the taxes the middle class feels itself unfairly forced to pay. It resists welfare programs that tend to equalize quality of life between the middle class and the lower orders. It feels that the American way of life is what brought its own benefits, and it fears the enemies of America, whether political or ideological. 9/11 added an immediate sense of being under siege, and one result is the anti-Islamic hysteria of one wing of the Tea Party including those in discussions with the English Defence League in the UK.

An identity coming out of all these middle class fears would seem to present a group of people ready for fascism: disappointed, robbed of their chances, scapegoating Reds (including the “Marxist” Obama),  Affirmative Action recipients (seen as African-American and Hispanic or even, simply, female), and immigrants, and ready to cleanse America of the Muslim menace. They look for a strong and charismatic Leader (Glenn Beck? Sarah Palin?). They defend their right to bear arms (as I do myself). For the most part, the Tea Party supports the costly wars that are one large factor in their threatened impoverishment. They have strong financial support and a major television network to back them up. Do they project a new form--or is it an old form?-- of patriotic, industrial, and military state? The neoconservative intellectuals serve them by putting an intellectual gloss on such a vision when they pontificate on Fox News.

I must seem pretty naïve to my faithful reader by not getting the point by now, but I still wonder whether they are, precisely, fascist. They will certainly take their revenge on their perceived enemies by assuring the election of representatives who will cut funding of social services--and giving tax cuts to the party’s wealthy supporters. They are definitely an electoral force. I don’t, however, believe that they do envision a society in which a powerful centralized government with pervasive military and police control runs the country for the benefit of the corporations--or for the benefit of what I think I’ll call the Financial, Industrial, Military, Political Complex (FIMPCO). Perhaps I take their Libertarian rhetoric too seriously. Maybe I shouldn’t believe that they dislike big government, but in the bank bailouts FIMPCO exerted its presence and power, and the Tea Party didn’t like it. With the austerity programs now, however, beginning to  wreak destruction at the state and city level, the recession will worsen. The bottom won’t, I think, be reached until 2012--without prospects for an upturn. Maybe the uniforms, armbands, and jack boots will have more appeal for these people by then. And I will be one of those who could not see the dangers.