The 1960s: Fascism Takes to the Streets�193�^ew Left violence also supported

numerous other fascist themes,�from the cult of unreason, the lust for action, the
craving for authen�ticity#talk was cheap#to a sense ot snamc uuuuc the martial
accomplishments of the�older generation. Just as many Nazi youth�T --^1" ^irtlence
served as an homage to the tme radicals and revr>1"tionaries at�home and abroad.
Black Panther envy is a recurring�theme in the history of New Left radicalism. The
blacks were the�"real thing," and the whites were desperate to gain their approval
and�suppor�fides. They cheered when black athletes at the 1968 Olympics
raised�their fists in defiance at the American iiauonal anthem, not caring
(or�knowing) that the imagery was entirely derivative of fascist aesthetics. "The
fist"�an Italian Fascist proclaimed in 1920, "is the synthesis of our theory."53
And when�George Poreman paraded an�American flag at the same Olympics, the Norman
Mailer crowd�called him an Uncle Tom.�You can tell a lot about a movement by its
heroes, and here, too,�the record reflects very pooriy on the New Left. For all
their prattle�about "participatory democracy" it's shocking how few
democrats�ranked as heroes to even the "peaef�ranke^ as heroes to even the
"peaceful" members of the movement.�activists plastered up posters of Che Guevara,
Fidel Castro, Mao�activisis piasierea up p^o^_ -, ^^^ ^,^^^_, --..^�Tse-tung, and
Ho Chi Minh. Under Rudd's leadership, the SDS�In Chicago and�elsewhere. they
chanted, "Ho-Ho-Ho-Chi-Minh!" Mao Tse-tuns's�Little Red Book of revolutionary
maxims became a huge best seller.�Mao, Ho, Castro, and even the Panthers were all
ethnocentric movements of "national�liberation." This is precisely how Mussolini
and�That Che Guevara has become a chic branding tool is a disgusting�indictment of
both American consumer culture and the knownothing liberalism that�constitutes the
filthv residne of the 1960s�The Argentine henchman of the Cuban revolution was a
murderer�"hatred as an element of stmggle; unbending hatred for the enemy,�which
pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making�him into an ettective,
violent, selective and cold-blooded killing machine.'�\pf. Guevara reveled in
executins nrisonprs. While�United Nations and af&liated elites adopted the racist
stance that�when blacks or other oppressed peoples killed each other or
killed�whites, it was a legitimate expression of Third World will to power.�Pan-
Africanism, Pan-Arabism, the Chinese way, and anticolonialism�Under doctrines of
black liberation, "revolutionary" violence was�always justified so long as you
insisted that the bloodied corpse had�somehow been an accomplice to oppression.
Whites became the new�Madness, cmelty, and totalitarianism were "in." Thugs and
criminals were heroes,�while champions of the mle of law were suddenly�"fascists."
Almost from the outset, this logic poisoned the civil rights�At Comell most of the
black sturients�were admitted on what we'd today call affirmative action,
with�lower-than-average SAT scores. Particularly revealing is the fact
that�Particularly revealing is the fact that�many of the gun-toting
revolutionaries were recruited to the school�precisely because they fit Mailer's
stereotype of the noble "ghetto�youth," the authentic Negro, and as such were
given preference over�other blacks with higher scores and better
qualifications#because�more qualified blacks were too "white."58�By the end of the
decade, the civil rights movement had for all intents and purposes become a Black
Power movement. And Black�Power, with its clenched fists, Afro-pagan mythology,
celebration of�violence, emphasis on racial pride, and disdain for liberalism,
was�arguably America's most authentic indigenous fascism. Stokely�Carmichael#at
one time the "prime minister" of the Black Panther�Party#himself defined Black
Power (a term he originated) as "a�movement that will smash everything Westem
civilization has created."59 Carmichael shared Hitler's dream of building a
folkish�racial�state upon the ashes of the old order.�"th. In the 1960s Elijah
Muhammad, the head of the Nation of�Islam, formed a cordial relationship with
George Lincoln Rockwell,�the head of the American Nazi Party. Rockwell was even
invited to�speak at the Nation of IslamNational Convention in 1962, at which�he
praised Elijah Muhammad as the black Adolf Hitler. On January�28, 1961, Muhammad
sent Malcolm X to Atterta to negotiate an�acrreement with the Ku Klux Klan whereby
the Klan would support�a separate black state.60�Meanwhile, what of the supposedly
fascistic Amencan right?�While the New Left relentlessly denounced the founding
fathers as�racist white males and even mainstream liberals ridiculed the idea�that
the text of the Constitution had any relevance for modem society, conservatives
were launching an extensive project to�restore the�proper place ofthe Constitution
in American life. No leading conservative scholar or intellectual celebrated
fascist themes or�ideas. No�leading conservative denigrated the inherent classical
liberalism of�the United States' political systan. To the contrary, Barry
Goldwaten Ronald Reagan, William R Buckley, Jr., and the conservatives�around
National Review dedicated themselves to restoring the classically liberal vision
of the founders.�What confused the left then and now about American conservatism
is that love and support for one's country do not necessarily�put one on the road
to fascism. Patriotism is not the same thing as extreme nationalism or fascism.
The Nazis klled a great many German�patriots whose love of their honeland was deep
and profound. In a�sense, one ofthe Jews' greatest offenses was that they were
patriodc�nans. It was in the 1960s thatthe left convinced itself that there�Flag
bumers became the�truest "patriots" because dissent#notjust from partisan
politics, but�from the American project itself#became the highest virtue. In
2003�52 Liberals�in the 1960s who lived through a similar degradation of decency
by�the same intellectual rot began to rebel. Confronted with an ideology�that
always assumed America was the problem and never the solution, they chose to mount
a counterassault. These patriots in both�parties became in large part that band of
intellectuals known as neoconservatives. They were given that name by leftists who
thought the�prefix "neo" would conjure associations with neo-Nazis.�. From Easy
Rider to JFK, Hollywood�has been telling us that if only the forces of reaction
hadn't killed�their Horst Wessels, we would today be living in a better, more
just,�and more open-minded country. And if only we could rekindle the�hope and
ambition of those early radicals, "what might have been"�will tum into "what could
still be." This is the vital lie of the left.�Western civilization was saved when
the barbarians were defeated,�at least temporarily, in the early 1970s. We should
be not only grateful for our slender victory but vigilant in securing it for
posterity.�Kennedy said that the torch had been passed to a new generation, he�was
referring in no small part to a new generation of progressives.�These men (and a
few women) were dedicated to continuing the�projects ofWilson and Roosevelt. When
the torch is passed, the runner changes, but the race remains the same.�In the
chapter that follows, we will show that John F. Kennedy and�Lyndon Baines Johnson
represented the continuation of the liberal�quest begun by Woodrow Wilson and his
fellow progressives#the�quest to create an all-caring, all-powerful, all-
encompassing state, a�state that assumes responsibility for every desirable
outcome and�takes the blame for every setback on the road to utopia, a state
that�finallv reolaces God.�