Letters to the Editor
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The American Reich Wing lives and breaths paranoia
He is always manning the barricades of civilization. He constantly lives at a turning point.
That isn't just Rudy. It is the underlying theme of pretty much the entire American Reich Wing mindset. The "crisis" - the ever present "threat" - is the central motivator of the American Reich Wing and has been since William F Buckley and "National Review" became the "conservative movement" in this country.
Though Buckley pointedly moved away from the John Birch Society the defining ethos of his brand of "conservatism" has always been fear and enemy driven. Always an enemy. An ever present and uniquely evil enemy (always the most evil ever- more so than the last one) that is imbued with almost magical powers- unstoppable powers.
There is little to no room for nuance about this enemy. They are powerful beyond measure, crafty in ways that only the Reich Wing can see. So for example- the "China break" with the Soviet Union in the 50's wasn't real but just a "Ruse" to fool "useful idiots" (tagged liberals usually). And we see this today with the lumping of the entire Muslim world with hundreds of ethnic groups, languages, cultures, countries, and sects into the ridiculous individual they call "Islam" - which marches to one fiddle and wants to "take over the world".
It is little remembered today as the Reich Wing likes to claim it was their steadfast resolve while constantly being undermined by "liberals" that "defeated" the Soviet Union- but their rhetoric was actually quite pessimistic about the US chances of winning the "Cold War". Indeed- they presented themselves as the lonely defenders against an unstoppable force- the Soviet Union and global communism that the US had slim hope of defeating. This was standard rhetoric up until 1989 and the fall of the wall. I know- because I was a reich winger and I now see the constant state of hysteria and fear that I was kept in- that is the purpose of much reich wing propaganda- to keep their adherents at a constant state of anxiety and fear.
What makes Rudy different is how he plays up this aspect of the Reich Wing- one that has generally been tamed when competing for larger audiences. But the rank and file are indeed motivated almost solely by fear of an all powerful enemy that only they- Cassandra like- really grasp the full scope of the "threat" from while silly "liberals" or whomever don't "get it" like they do.