We are in a crisis. Big changes come out of crises. Are we in danger of a right-wing revolution?
The last few days I've been reading and hearing comments filled with incredible anger and resentment about the bail-outs and mortgage plan, coupled with calls for action, and even the word "revolution". I'm not just talking about the Freepers and NewsMax, but newspaper blogs and TV network forums and letters to the editor as well. Rush may be setting the message, but Santelli is now their champion. I think we'll be hearing a lot more from Rick.
There's a lot more in danger than just the economy.
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In the 1930's Germany was a broken county, burdened with war debts it could not pay, suffering the global effects of the Great Depression, and struggling with a collapsed economy.
That set the stage for the rise of the National Socialists and their well-known leader. They offered moral righteousness, patriotism, economic alternatives, villians to blame for the disaster, and plenty of intolerance. Germans voted them into power.
Others can draw parallels and contrasts with 30's Germany far better than I, but frankly it scares me. We all know that crisis produces changes and that big changes are driven by small groups that do the hard work at the right time: women's vote, civil rights, labor standards. The fact that we beat the Republicans by a few points in the 2008 election doesn't prevent a small group of noisy right-wingers from becoming a movement, and the current economic environment is fertile ground for revolutionaries.
Change will come. Frankly, I'm hoping this crisis leads us to a modern social democracy, not the it's-all-mine nirvana these people seem to dote on. But their simple slogans can sound so appealing. I don't know how to do that.
I hope there are some really smart people actively focused on defusing this kind of thinking. Somehow I don't think the White House can do it alone. We need the kind of sophisticated social psychology that those guys seem so good at. Ignoring it or harping "We Won Neener Neener" seems really dangerous to me.