Far Out

The other day, when discussing something I’d written, a friend said that the only thing he took issue in it was my referring to someone in the piece as being “far right.  My friend didn’t think that was a totally correct portrayal of this particular person.

(I’m not being coy leaving out this political figure's name – it’s that his name doesn’t matter, it could be anyone, indeed in many other articles here it has been “anyone,”  others.  Referencing his name would make it seem like my point is only about him which, as will be very clear, it’s not.)
 
I understood what my friend was saying.  And in another time, I would have agreed with him – but then, in that other time, I wouldn’t have written the description of this person as I did.
 
In another time, “far right” was the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party.  The John Birchers and “Right Wing Nut Jobs” sort of folks.  There were moderate Republicans and even liberal Republicans like Jacob Javits, Nelson Rockefeller, Margaret Chase Smith and Lowell Weicker – not to mention Theodore Roosevelt.  And more. 
 
But we’re no longer in another time, and today moderate Republicans in Washington are an endangered species, and liberal Republicans are extinct.  And across the country in the GOP this is close to the same for elected officials. As I’ve noted here for the past 3-4 years, today’s Republican Party has become fascist, and if there are some Republicans who don’t hold those views, they are still enabling the party, not fighting its foundation.  They may not be fascist, but that doesn’t make them moderate.  They’re only “moderate” for today’s fascist GOP, which means most are still very conservative.
 
(Just for perspective, Liz Cheney is nobly fighting against Trump.  But make no mistake, she supported him 90% of the time when he was in office and was part of GOP leadership before she dared vote to impeach him.  She didn’t quit the leadership, they dropped her.  Liz Cheney’s issue is with Trump – to her great and admired credit.  Her fight, though, is not with today’s Republican Party.)
 
So, when I referred to this one political person as far right, it’s because that’s what today’s Republican Party is.
 
When discussing today’s Republican Party and its members, referencing them as “conservative” or “right wing” doesn’t do it justice.  They moved the goalposts.  The end zone filled with the “Right Wing Nut Jobs” that used to be 50 yards away from mid-field is now only 10 yards off.  In fact, in today’s Republican Party, the RWNJ’s of yore aren’t even the party’s Lunatic Fringe anymore, like they were referring to in the 1950s.  That’s how far-right the GOP has moved.  Not long ago, the Republican Lunatic Fringe was as far as you could go before falling off the edge.  But now, they’ve actually elected people to the U.S. Congress like Marjorie Taylor Green, Paul Gosar, Madison Cawthorne, and Matt Gaetz.  So, that’s no longer the edge.  That’s part of the foundation.  Today’s edge of the Republican Party are terrorist groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Boogaloo Bois and the neo-Nazis.  And QAnon conspiracists who think Democrats eat babies, and John F. Kennedy will be coming back to life and dead son will be resurrected to run with Trump.  And though that’s “the edge” of today’s Republican Party, keep in mind that whole “they moved the goalpost” thing – the edge is no latter as far from the center as it was.
 
(In fact, that’s a large part of why so many Republicans today refer to Democrats as radical liberals.  When much of your party is so far right that Attila the Hun is moderate, then all Democrats “look” radical to you.)
 
So, though some Republicans in Congress and across the country are, in what we might call society’s political terms, “conservative” in their specific positions on particular issues – the party they represent is far-right, and they enable it.  They’re Republicans – and today’s Republican Party is far-right.
 
On those rare occasions where it’s just clearly not proper to call someone “far right,” I don’t.  Or try not to, and try to explain who they are in today’s GOP.  (For instance, Adam Kinzinger, also on the House January 6 Select Committee.  I would not refer to him as “far right” – but he’s very conservative.  He only “looks” moderate because the rest of the GOP is out of range.)  But these people like Mr. Kinzinger are the exception.  Because…the Republican Party is far right.  And to position it and its elected leaders as anything closer to the center is normalizing them.  And ultimately normalizing fascism.
 
Today’s Republican Party isn’t right-wing – it’s far right. 
 
If only it stopped there and didn’t spill over past the Lunatic Fringe and RWNJs and fascists and embrace the white supremacist terrorist groups trying to overthrow democracy.