This is the text of a talk I gave in October. It offers some historical background about two of the main factions in the non-fascist sector of the U.S. right.
When we think about the Bush administration or the conservative movement in general, sometimes there’s a temptation to see them as a political monolith, with everyone faithfully walking in lockstep. But the Bush forces are not a monolith — they’re a coalition of several different political factions. That’s part of their strength, and it’s also — at least potentially — part of their weakness. If we want to organize effectively against the right, we need to study both the strengths and weaknesses of their coalition-building work. For at least 25 years, the alliance between the Christian Right and the neoconservatives has been at the center of right-wing coalition building efforts, and at the center of the whole conservative resurgence.