In the U.S., commentators rarely talk about the “far right,” but the worrying European developments described here certainly have their American parallels. But here rather than emerging from new parties, it has largely happened within an existing one. nytimes.com/2020/02/04/opi…
To be clear, I’m not saying the GOP is identical with European far-right parties or that the party is monolithic around these issues the way a single-issue far-right party might be. Just saying the parallels are there. /2
It seems that the American commentators are generally willing to compare the two through the lens of “populism” or “nationalism,” but have been reluctant to speak of an American “far right.” To be sure, all of these terms have their limits. /3
But, understood as it is explained in this op ed, it seems that one could make a pretty good case that “far right” is as or more accurate than the other labels.(For example, I view Trump as a performative, faux populist, whose plutocratic policies favor the wealthy.) /4
I think part of the problem in the U.S. is a media framing that seeks to view the two political parties as parallel institutions at a time of asymmetric polarization./5
