Why U.S. White Supremacists Are Ecstatic Over European Election Results

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/world/us-white-supremacists-are-ecstatic-over-european-election-results-empowered-far-right



In late May, the BBC reported that "Eurosceptic and far-right parties have seized ground in elections to the European parliament, in what France's PM called a 'political earthquake'." Aftershocks from the far-right's European "political earthquake" are being felt in the United States, as America's White supremacists are celebrating like it's 1999.

It takes an experienced researcher and writer with an international perspective to dissect the recent European parliament elections and try and understand what it means to, and for, the far right in the United States. And, Devin Burghart is the perfect person for the job. In a recent post at the website of the Institute For Research & Education On Human Rights (IREHR), Burghart pointed out that for the most part, America's far right is rejoicing over the results of the elections.

"Many on the American far right, from the Tea Party to hardened white nationalists, paid close attention to the European results," Burghart, vice president of IREHR, wrote in a story titled, American Far Right Jubilant Over European Election Results. "Looking at these votes for nationalist, anti-immigrant, racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-European Union political parties — the American hard right saw hope for the future here at home."

Burghart pointed to several emergent themes including: "1) nationalist, anti-globalist arguments in the age of austerity and financial turmoil, 2) anti-immigrant politics as a winning message, and 3) the necessity of a white electoral strategy here at home."

[lob1]

1. No worries. The RWNJ's don't read international news. It's unAmerican.

[gollygee]

3. Oh no this is becoming big news with them

there's a right wing nut job writer who has been writing about it, and is very anti-Muslim and anti-Immigrant. Steyn I think his name is. I really think this will become more popular among the right wing here.

[MisterP]

5. most definitely Mark Steyn, right? (Pam Geller, but with staying power)

[gollygee]

6. Yeah that's the name

I've talked to people who think he's brilliant and take him very seriously, and he's a real anti-Islamic bigot. I mean horrible and scary.

[MisterP]

7. it's a very neat trick actually: if the crudest rabble-rousing Islamophobia or the most Victorian

misogyny were solely being distributed by fundamentalists it wouldn't have such an audience

but you drape the banner of "critical thinking" or "defending secular values" over the hatred or corpo-speak and it seems far, far more plausible
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Penn_and_Teller

[tomm2thumbs]

2. I'm sure they'll all be on their blogs telling everyone this changes everything

blah blah blah blah blah....

unfortunately, they are all talking to each other and not the majority of American voters

[pampango]

4. "1) nationalist, anti-globalist arguments ... , 2) anti-immigrant politics ..., 3) a white electoral

strategy ..."

Burghart pointed to several emergent themes including: "1) nationalist, anti-globalist arguments in the age of austerity and financial turmoil, 2) anti-immigrant politics as a winning message, and 3) the necessity of a white electoral strategy here at home."

According to Burghart, "For years, far right activists in the United States, particularly those interested in mainstreaming their particular brand of bigotry in the political arena, have looked to Europe as a source of hope and inspiration. They have also developed long-standing multilateral relationships with their European counterparts."

The "European right-wing comes of age," declared the Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC), one of the largest white nationalist groups in the United States. "Folks, I'm here to tell you that this week's election results in Europe have given me a lot of hope," proclaimed Tennessee white nationalist talk show host, James Edwards. The Virginia white nationalist think-tank, American Renaissance, called the elections "a promising shift to the Right" and hoped that "we are perhaps seeing the first rays of a new dawn after a long night."

David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and former Republican Louisiana State Representative, went straight to the anti-Semitic card. Duke wrote that, "the results of European Parliament elections held last week have at last shown that in many parts of Europe, resistance to the ideologies enforced by Jewish Supremacists — mass immigration and globalization — are being decisively rejected."

I can see why the American far-right would be "ecstatic" over the electoral success of of the European far-right. Their nut jobs are put in force celebrating with their usual brand of bigoted and nativist rhetoric.