How the Right and Left Gin Up Divisive Racism for Fun and Profit Details
MY TURN Fund raisers on the Right and on the Left know that the best way to raise vast sums of money is to claim an existential threat to their base.
An even better way is to pose an existential threat to the other side’s base and then capitalize on their reaction. Humanity has had its racists since before the Big Bang (hyperbole), but their danger to the Republic has varied over time. After WW II, Left wing anti-Semitism diminished in the West but is still strong in the Russia (nee Soviet Union). As the wealthy seized an increasing share of the nation’s productivity, many on the Right felt that some type of unseen force was working against them. Primed by Fundamental Christianity’s proclivity to scapegoat non-believers, neo-Nazis and similar folk were primed to fall for any mythology which explained their declining socio-economic standing.
The Pentagon has approved leaving 5,000 troops deployed indefinitely to protect the U.S. Capitol from domestic extremist threats, down from about 26,000 deployed after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The National Guard is a federally funded reserve force of the U.S. Army or Air Force based in states. These part-time citizen soldiers typically hold civilian jobs but can be activated by state governors or the president to respond to natural disasters, health emergencies or violent protests, or to support military operations overseas. Although many Americans are skeptical of any military response to civilian unrest, the National Guard is widely seen as a reliable peacekeeping force.