And from this Ross concludes that the Right has to acknowledge that this lunatic has a "conservative" intellectual pedigree? Hitler played European indentity politics and displayed cultural chauvinism. So did Franco and Peron. Does that mean the Right has to acknowledge them as "conservatives"???
I'll cut to the chase: Moron Ross forgets that historical European "conservatism" is very, very different from the modern conservatism that has a long history in America and which has, in the past several decades, found a home in at least Britain. American conservative criticism of Political Correctness and subversive elements of radical Islam is completely different from Continental European historical conservative criticisms of non-Europeans.
Intentionally or unintentionally, Ross played his role as New York Times house conservative very well here. Acknowledge our sins; admit we are wrong -- and give the Libs an opening to discredit us. No thanks, Ross.
Franco, si. Peron, no. Franco was up against Communists and Anarchists who murdered anyone who went to church. He saved Spain from becoming a Soviet satellite and military base. Peron was Fascist-Communist-redistributionist who was into himself.
For heck's sake, read the whole article. He doesn't explicitly make that distinction, but it's implicit. It's why he keeps saying "the continental right" and "Europe’s cultural conservatives."
The problem, though, is that there's no impenetrable wall between Europe and the US, especially now with the Internet. This nut took a lot from some US and English-language websites, and Douthat is only being honest in acknowledging that.
Connections are going to be drawn, as they were in the Gore-Unabomber matter and the response has to be more than just a blanket denial. You can certainly disagree with Douthat. His isn't the last or best word on this case. But in a world where people will tell you that a fanatical anti-Muslim is somehow in spite of everything a "Nazi-Muslim", Ross isn't a moron.