Political and Intellectual Origins of American Radicalism,Right and Left

Abstract

Radicalism has been relatively weak in America, so strong is the American consensus. In the past, most radical movements were leftist or liberal. Today, right-wing radical ism is strong. Its intellectual and political roots are found in leftist movements such as populism and the protofascism of the 1930's as well as pre-World War II isolationism. McCarthy was a link between these movements and the present radical right. The major tenet of contemporary right-wing extremism is an anticommunism which stresses the domestic aspect of the Communist threat. Because of belief in the absolute nature of the struggle against communism and a conspiracy theory of his tory inherited from leftist and isolationist movements of the past, the radical right has little faith in traditional constitu tional and political processes and stresses clandestine and mass- action methods for fighting communism. In economics, the radical right favors a return to nineteenth-century laissez-faire liberalism; in social life, it favors greater conformity to tradi tional norms. The future of right-wing radicalism depends primarily on the course of international events but also, in part, on the nature and strength of contemporary left-wing radical movements.