When you need adrenaline to stay awake on the flat, boring drive between Urbana and St. Louis, the right-wing talk radio shows deliver the goods: the generic-sounding country song whose lyrics wax nostalgic about lynchings, the old lady dying in poverty who calls in to Bob on Theological Thursday for reassurance that there won't be any Catholics in Heaven. Listen to enough of this, and you may find yourself wondering about the psychology of the Right.
There are four big themes of these shows. One is religion, specifically one that's at least called Christianity. Another is aggressive nationalism, often focusing on taking more violent measures against some foreigners. A third is extreme capitalism, denying any government role in helping the poor or patching any cracks in the market. A fourth is law-and-order harshness. You may start to wonder how these fit together.
As nearly as we can tell, the founder of Christianity stood out from other Jewish rebels against the Roman state by explicitly dismissing the whole national question. As for his relation to the market, his execution seems to have been triggered by an episode of civil disobedience against money changers. He repeatedly disparaged the rich and urged aid to the poor. He advised against throwing the first stone at transgressors. So the religious element doesn't seem to fit with the others. The fit between aggressive nationalism and pure markets is also notoriously uneasy, since nationalism is intrinsically a big government project, and typically involves interference in free trade. Likewise hatred of government interference doesn't fit well with support for harsh and intrusive law-and-order measures.
Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to assume that these disparate elements are just thrown together from convenient propaganda memes, a purely cynical construct of big capital. The people spouting them clearly have the subjective conviction that they form a coherent unified world view. Furthermore, they generally are dripping with a sense that they are deeply moral, not just mean bastards. I want to suggest that they have a point, and that understanding it may help us to craft political messages more effectively, e.g. in guiding the writing of"99%" leaflets for Occupiers.
*[A version of this was previously posted but failed to appear on the "recent" list due to a DK3/DK4 transition glitch. I apologize to those very few who accidentally stumbled on it then- there's only a little new here.]
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