With the question of how to effectively oppose the rise of fascism in the United States now in vogue, I thought it apropos to revisit this essay from 2002, The Power of Moral Sanction.
Slaying democracy: an annointment for bigotry. Watch the video.
The Far Right invests in organizing for power, while the left invests in pious posturing for profit. If the progressive philanthropic sector were to invest in research and organizing like the conservatives do, our country would be a wholly different place. But then that would require a willingness to confront the anti-democratic movement in America, something we rarely see from progressives.
Applying research for power is not lobbying or diplomacy, it is finding out what the enemies of democracy are up to, and organizing to undermine them. Knowledge is not power, it is a tool to use in acquiring it.
Young people need to be recruited, socialized, and nurtured into participating effectively in the pro-democracy movement. Understandably turned off by the fraud of party politics, where does that leave them to go in order to learn political literacy? Who will be their mentors?
Conservatives over the last thirty years have built an infrastructure for this purpose from the local to the national, providing strategic instruction, employment, and leadership training. Where's the progressive counterpart to that?
Young conservatives go into media, government, and think tanks with paychecks and a future. Young progressives go into the street or just give up.