The slide of the "extreme center" towards fascism becomes increasingly visible throughout the West
by system failure
Part 1 - The rise and transformation of the extreme center
The starting point of the political component of what is considered "extreme center" today, could be placed in the early 80s. The political dominance of neoliberalism begins with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in the US and UK respectively.
It is perhaps impressive that this first wave of political dominance of the neoliberal ideology came with the help of the most conservative part of both American and British societies. It is characteristic that Reagan's rise to power became possible with the help of the Christian Right, which mobilized millions of conservative Americans, who until then had abstained from the electoral process.
The political dominance of neoliberal ideology concluded about a decade later, in the early 90s, with the total ideological transformation of the Democrats in the US, under President Clinton, whose party fully embraced neoliberalism. The same thing happened in the UK with the Labour Party under Tony Blair, but also, in almost the entire West, since both the Popular Right and the Social Democrats were completely taken over by the powerful capitalist lobbies.
Until the September 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, neoliberalism was essentially imposed on Western societies mainly through a cultural totalitarianism. Yet, through this attack in the heart of America, the political elites found a pretext to pass measures limiting civil liberties, always in the name of fighting terrorism. This was necessary to preserve the dominant ideology, since the dysfunction of the neoliberal machine had already begun, with its failures becoming more frequent and distinct. It is not accidental that the great anti-globalization movements, such as those in Seattle and Genoa, appear around that time.
A big financial meltdown, comparable to that of 1929, was almost certain. It came with the 2007-08 subprime mortgage crisis in US. Yet, this time, we didn't see the state becoming a protection shield for the working class to slow down the aggressive capital - by raising taxes on big business, by public investments and social programs (as was done with Roosevelt's New Deal). On the contrary, especially the financial capital came out of the crisis even stronger.
With the trade unions, the real Left and any opposing ideology (especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union), essentially dead, but also, with suppressive measures already in place in the name of fighting terrorism, it is no surprise that the big capital came out of the crisis even stronger. At the same time, the middle class has been almost destroyed.
But the crisis also brought to the surface a wild capitalist civil war that had been growing in the background during the previous years, inside the motherlands of neoliberalism. The two most important events as a result of this war, were the rise of Donald Trump to power and Brexit.
Both these events were a first significant victory for that part of capital that was sensing a threat by the highly aggressive expansion and ideological domination of the liberal capitalist faction.
Therefore, the terrifying rise of the far right across the West, is nothing more than a counterattack by the capitalist forces who felt to be threatened with annihilation. So, they need their own separate ideology (with the corresponding electoral army), against neoliberalism. Taking advantage of the destruction brought by neoliberalism to the popular masses and the complete absence of the real Left from the political arena, these forces resurrected and mobilized far-right ideology, investing on the conservative reflexes of a large part of Western societies.
Thus, the extreme center has today come to be the political tool of the liberal capitalist faction, which now receives a great pressure from two main factors: first, from the capitalist forces within the West with which it is in civil conflict, and second, from the rapidly growing Russia-China bloc that is rapidly breaking away from the dollar monopoly, attracting more and more countries from the global south.
Exactly because of this growing pressure, the extreme center acquires increasingly authoritarian characteristics. At the same time, it tries to maintain a progressive facade, mainly through the weaponization of the Woke movement and the corresponding agenda, in order to limit the loss of progressive voters.
As a result, the extreme center came to be characterized by a peculiar fascism that becomes increasingly apparent.
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