A controversial look at the relationship between the far right and the American conservative movement from the 1930s to the end of the Cold War
Since 2016, many commentators have expressed shock at the so-called rise of the far right in America at the expense of “responsible” and “respectable” conservatism. But is the far right an anomaly in conservative politics?As David Austin Walsh explains, the mainstream conservative movement and the far right have been intertwined for nearly a century, both emerging from a “right-wing popular front” that linked racists, anti-Semites, and fascists in a broad coalition opposing socialism, communism, and New Deal liberalism.Far from being anomalies in the broader conservative coalition, these extremist elements have been central to the creation of a right-wing political culture centered around common political enemies, a penchant for conspiracy theories, and a desire to return America to its “authentic” pre-New Deal values.The Popular Front included Merwin Hart, a New York businessman active in far-right circles who later became an apologist for the Franco regime in Spain, the indigenous "America First" movement, the movement that sought to prevent Jewish immigration to the United States after World War II, the John Birch Society, and the American Nazi Party.George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign, the fight over the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Pat Buchanan's support of Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk during the Reagan administration. William F. was Buckley Jr., editor of National Review and America's most prominent "responsible conservative," is the one who links these disparate alliances.
