Commentary: The Specter of the Far Right and Its Hidden Asymmetry

“Aspecter is haunting Europe — the specter of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this specter,” is the first sentence of perhaps the most important political pamphlet in history — the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. That famous sentence would still be relevant today only if we change one word, that is, if we remove the word communism and replace it with the “far right.”  

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Commentary: Winning Italian Party Unfairly Called ‘Far Right’

Unprecedented fall elections in Italy on Sunday led to a significant shift in the government, which will almost certainly see Giorgia Meloni, head of the relative newcomer political party Brothers of Italy, take over as the nation’s first female prime minister.

Brothers of Italy won the most seats in parliament, after securing about 26% of the vote, and her center-right coalition will have control of both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. In the lower house, the center-left Democratic Party came in second with about 19% of the vote, the populist 5-Star Movement third with over 15%, the nativist League (Lega) came in fourth, and the center-right Forward Italy party of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi came in fifth, with both Lega and Forward Italy winning over 8%.

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UVA Fellow, Former George Mason Professor: Overthrow the Government if Trump Wins

University of Virginia (UVA) postdoctoral fellow and former George Mason University (GMU) professor David Walsh called for government overthrow if Democratic challenger Joe Biden loses the election.

“Here’s the thing: if the worst-case scenario happens next week, Americans don’t need to just ‘protest.’ They need to actively try to topple the government,” wrote Walsh. “Also worth nothing that the military has already made it clear that in such a scenario, they’re not going to back Trump.”

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Analysis: When Tragedy Strikes, WaPo Turns Focus To The ‘Far Right’

by Peter Hasson   The Washington Post provoked an online backlash on Monday after publishing an article that said the recent terrorist attacks targeting Christians in Sri Lanka fueled “far-right anger in the West.” The article, labeled as analysis rather than straight reporting, provided just the latest example of the Post reframing a global tragedy around the “far right.” Critics took the Post to task for making mass murder of hundreds of Christians about the “far right” and for casting skepticism on the persecution that Christians face across persecution around the world. (Pew Research Center lists Christians as the religious group most subjected to religiously motivated harassment from both state actors and non-state actors.) “To some, it was further proof that Christians in many parts of the world are under attack,” Post reporters Adam Taylor and Rick Noack wrote. National Review editor Charles Cooke tweeted in response: “For whom was it not evidence of this?” "To some, it was further proof that Christians in many parts of the world are under attack." For whom was it not evidence of this? — Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) April 22, 2019 Additionally, the Washington Examiner’s Becket Adams wrote: “Yes, right-wing reactionaries have…

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New York Times Calls Soros Paid Protesters a ‘Well-Worn Trope of the Far Right’

by Andrew Kerr   The New York Times accused President Donald Trump of rehashing a “well-worn trope of the far right” in his Friday morning tweet labeling anti-Kavanaugh protesters as paid professionals funded by liberal billionaire financier George Soros. The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2018 The “elevator screamers” in Trump’s tweet are an apparent reference to the protesters who confronted Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake just prior to his decision to call for a supplemental FBI investigation into Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that she was sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh while the two were minors. Protesters on Thursday also confronted Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, asking to have a discussion while shouting at the senator, who was getting into an elevator. He caused an outburst when he said, “when you grow up, I’ll be ready” to have a discussion. “He called them ‘paid professionals’ and intimated that they are paid by George Soros, a liberal financier who…

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