Posted on 11/16/2012 7:03:49 AM PST by fivecatsandadog
Right wing circles as in prewar aristos and upper middle class types. The German master race sort.
The Nazis and fascists of various nations just do not fit easily into the Right/Left dichotomy. Hitler drew a great deal of his support from traditionalist nationalist circles, which by just about any standard should be called right-wing.
Of course, it was a blood-soil right wing, if not always church-crown, so it was the European variety of Rightist, going back all the way to the supporters of the old regime during the French Revolution.
What WAY too many American conservatives do is assume that the European Right of the 19th and early 20th centuries is similar to the American Right of today.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. What American conservatism is trying to conserve is the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the primary one being, "All men are created equal."
The old European Right, OTOH, was doing its very best to fight off this principle and maintain social stratification.
It's OKAY to recognize that the Nazis drew largely from the German right wing. We just need to recognize that the German Right had almost nothing in common with us. In fact, they despised America.
In 1930s Europe, as well as amidst most intellectuals in America at the time, socialist alternatives were considered the ONLY alternatives. Constitutional republics—even as early as Republican “Progressive” Teddy Roosevelt (1900) were considered passé—especially among the educated classes.
Not until the shock of the truth of the barbarism of Communism came out in the 1950s (after we knew the barbarism of the Nazis) did conservative-seriously-constitutional thinkers arise who once again believed in classical liberal principles and capitalism. 100 years ago-—intellectually—was a much worse for liberty, than today.
Very good summation. A lot of people are not congizant of the narrower spectrum of our politics compared with the rest of the world. American Conservatives would fit more in the category with either the revolutionaries of 1848 or Gladstone Liberals, in the European context. American conservativism might easily argue that it stands at the center of the spectrum of world ideologies.
Thank you. I understand why liberals like to lump conservatives around the world together. It allows them to group the Taliban with the Tea Party. Both of which groups really are conservative, it’s just that they’re trying to conserve very different things.
I don’t understand why conservatives buy into this myth. What a given conservative group is trying to conserve is the most important thing about it.
The Taliban is trying to conserve “pure” Islam.
19th century German rightists wanted to conserve the old ways of crown and church, blood and soil. Hitler took a great deal of this into the Nazi Party, arguably making it considerably more central than his theoretically socialist economic programs.
American conservatives want to conserve the principles of the Declaration of Independence, IMO the most radical revolution in world history.
We have NOTHING in common with traditional European rightists, except a common opposition to leftists. In fact, our Revolution was fought more or less against principle of the European Right.
Does use of the "new media" sound familiar?
Wasn’t he related to Werner Klemperer who played Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes?
Hitler was more pragmatic than the other leading Nazis, who were more socialist, especially those in the SA....but Hitler needed the industrialists to build his war machine, and he needed to get their support....one of those conditions was to get rid of the SA.
Yeah it was his cousin.
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