Vlaams Belang and Right-Wing Bloggers

Who would have thought that a Belgian extreme-right political party would make headlines in the U.S.?

It all started when one Charles Johnson, an American conservative blogger who runs a website called Little Green Footballs (LGF) took a closer look at some of the people invited to a 2007 meeting of the 'Counter-Jihad Alliance' held in Brussels. Many American or U.S.-based conservative bloggers also attended the conference, where Filip DeWinter of the Belgian Vlaams Belang party delivered a report on the 'Islamization' of Belgium at the conference.

Johnson took a closer look at Vlaams Belang (the 'Flemish Interest' party), and didn't much like what he saw. The party leader, DeWinter, has a cross of Odin on his office bookshelf, consorts with other extreme-right figures such as Jean-Marie Le Pen and Nick Griffin of the British National Party, and gives interviews to radio shows such as 'The Political Cesspool' when he visits the U.S.:

Pulling on my hip boots and wading into “The Political Cesspool” radio show, I discovered a real viper’s nest of white supremacism and race hatred; the online archives of their show read like a who’s who of White Power nuts, Holocaust deniers, and antisemites that you have to see for yourself to really believe.

On the show’s official web site, at the bottom of the page, you’ll discover links to two of the most notorious hate groups in the US: the Holocaust-denying Institute for Historical Review, and the white supremacist group Council of Conservative Citizens.

Johnson, to his credit, has launched an open and sustained attack on these parties, and has urged his fellow conservatives to keep away from European far-right parties: "LGF is as anti-jihad as anyone on the web; but I do not accept that we’ve reached the point where we should embrace these kinds of people as allies, simply because they’re hitching a ride on the bandwagon and saying the right things when the spotlight is on them." The last link also discusses the Swedish Democrats party, some of whose members used to have the unfortunate habit of parading around in public in Nazi uniforms.

One of the key characteristics of an American-style first-past-the-post two-party system is that it squeezes out third parties. This is, of course, bad news for the socialists, but it's also bad news for right-wing fringe parties that would probably arise and prosper in a proportional-representation system. Vlaams Belang is currently represented in both Houses of the Belgian Parliament, as well as the European Parliament, and gets millions of Euros in government funding under Belgian campaign-finance laws. Belgian mainstream parties follow a cordon sanitaire policy to avoid coalitions with Vlaams Belang, but there are signs that the party's steady growth will make a cordon sanitaire policy hard to manage (as has happened in other European countries such as Austria and France).

Thanks to America's bland two-party system, the big mainstream parties soak up all the oxygen, leaving essentially no room for third-parties. The third parties that get traction are usually run by charismatic and well-financed political outsiders who single out a specific issue. They fizzle once the election is over. Lots of leftish Americans would like to see a proportional-representation system in the U.S., on the theory that this would open up political space for a 'real' American left-wing party, keeping the milquetoast, compromised Democrats honest. Perhaps, but it would also open up space for right-wing and regionalist parties. And we might realize, to our chagrin, that there's just as much support for those people as for the left, despite socialism's surprising popularity among young Americans...

Comments

[M. Möhling]

@Wastl
> An incomprehensible post

Here's Steve Sailor putting it into a nutshell: "Obama is far more of an opportunist than a fanatic, a moderate head cohabitating uneasily with a leftist heart."

He adds:">http://www.vdare.com/sailer/080330_obama.htm">adds:

Obama reminds me of a famous incident in Charles De Gaulle's career. When in 1958 he journeyed to war-torn French Algeria, where the French Army's mutiny had propelled him back into power, he stared out for a long moment at a waiting throng of European residents, then pronounced four words: "Je vous ai compris—I have understood you."

The mob went wild with joy.

De Gaulle understands us! He will make everything right.

Nonetheless, much to the surprise of the pied noir Europeans who cheered De Gaulle that day, the French president then proceeded to give Algeria to the rebels, dooming Algeria's one million Europeans to exile for life and their Arab allies to death.

He understood them fine, better than they understood themselves. He just had other priorities.

Indeed, that's the Healer when he speaks of race relations or blue collar's woes. Mobs go Le juste-milieu goes wild with joy, second tears flow.

[M. Möhling]

@B-Boy

> If it helps, the word was actually a link to the
> "Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler" blog but Typepad ate it
Poor you. Hungry? Just kidding--had you succeeded linking the expletive, you'd have made quite some case both for yourself and your cause. btw, re Adolf & stuff: going anal is fatal--both for logic and laughs. Just don't, Teutonic Knight.

> An incomprehensible post...
Hopefully, that's only true for anti-anti-idiotarians; maybe I shouldn't show off quoting old fogeys--might put them off.

> ...with a link to a VDARE screed in it
So someone read it, which is good, though he didn't get it, which is not. Then again, some creed's strictures don't allow to judge arguments on their merits. Basti, why don't you unwind and show some balls, occasionally? Metaphorically speaking, of course, young rascal. Don't make us swoon.

[Sebastian Koppehel]

@MM:

> Well, Adolf Hitler thought his opponents were idiots too
So do I, more often than not, and so did Mr Einstein.

Yes, in other words: nobody likes idiots, "anti-idiotarian" is a useless qualification and to give it as an answer to the question of your political affiliation or your general worldview is stupidness.

Anyhow, you wedged in some 'assholes', which is both shrewd and lissome (our host seems to have set the tone for his acolytes--good for him), yet, it doesn't quite make for a succinct argument.

If it helps, the word was actually a link to the "Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler" blog but Typepad ate it.

I sure am glad that Johnson censors fascist comments even though censorship is totally fascist or whatever and also undermines any attempt to "check the accuracy" of allegations about what was written there. The point remains that the anti-Jihadist scene has for a long time attracted, among all kinds of people, a rather unsavoury crowd of racists. There is no sense in suddenly pretending to be shocked by it. Maybe Johnson was surprised to actually see these people show up in public, and as a European political party with a strange Germanic name no less ...

Bonus Möhling goodness: An incomprehensible post with a link to a VDARE screed in it. Yay! \o/

[M. Möhling]

> myself: leftofascist Chicago Dem's corruptocracy
Leftofascist? Now that's outré (Wastl, just what are you doing to me, enthralling young hoodlum, you?). While being a legitimate flout for the Fixers' Palestinian little helpers in windy constituencies, and true for Messrs Wright & Ayers, it's too much of a good thing for the rest: guys going for graft as is customary. You gotta give'm guys their due.

[icr]

This is the kind of guilt-by- association stuff that the late Sen. McCarthy was attacked for.

Attacking someone for speaking on a radio show betrays a clear totalitarian sensibility. Did he SAY anything on the radio show that you find objectionable? Most likely you have no idea what he said and don't even care.

And just in case you forgot, Obama consorted(rather closely)for over 20 years with the black equivalent of a Christian Identity(KKK)preacher.

[M. Möhling]

Alright, that was pleasure, now for business--Basti's bell invites me. It is a knell that summons me to utmost beastliness the regular stuff. Mr Johnson, our host, and Wastl--last but not least!--gallantly smoked out a viper’s nest of white supremacism and race hatred (our host having some finer points to add, of course). So, here's a racist--as some must say--, claiming Mr Obama to be a racist, too. Obama has be a frequent issue of interest here--if not of burning passion--, so this seems not overly OT.

Mr Sailor scrutinizes "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance", which is nice, as it sold well, yet got seldom read and talked about. Mr Sailor and his editor are seemingly pleased with themselves, the print edition's art work is tacky, and his study is complacent, often loquacious. To be fair, this fits its subject well. Besides, his work provides ample context on the era Mr Obama writes about, the theories he debated, and quite a number of extensive money quotes. He makes the case that Mr Obama is a neurotic, obsessed ...racist, no less. And a post-colonial fighter, not a lover. I'm neither smart nor perceptive, so I find his arguments convincing.

I rest my hopes on Mr Obama having dealt leftofascist Chicago Dem's corruptocracy right what it takes to make it there, and anywhere. So he might not want to forfeit history's glories by being a presidential sucker. I'm not overly confident, though. The president espouses Mr Paulson's tempsoc, and consequently the predatory lenders profit mostly, while the predatorily lendeed (may I say so?) get to suck--a recurring theme, sorry. I wonder how the president's Chicago Dem's corruptocrats will assess this development. They will be appalled in all likelihood.

[M. Möhling]

@Wastl, Esq.

> Well, Adolf Hitler thought his opponents were idiots too
So do I, more often than not, and so did Mr Einstein. While I'm a proven thought criminal now (and so's Adolf--to a lesser extent, of course), you'll give Albert some leeway. Don't drink and drive, some say, don't froth and write, I'd suggest. Sucks big time, quality-wise. Anyhow, you wedged in some 'assholes', which is both shrewd and lissome (our host seems to have set the tone for his acolytes--good for him), yet, it doesn't quite make for a succinct argument. And yes: self-respecting lefties don't consider themselves to be anti-idiotarian--and they are not, indeed.

> Well, my last comment would have made much more sense if
> "You can use HTML tags ..." had not been a blatant lie...
Not quite, any which way. And no, while Typepad sucks, and sucking is an issue at hand, it's not software who's doing the sucking here, for once.

> ...So here's an insight into the viper's nest of white supremacism
> and race hatred that is LGF's comment system: drmenlo.com/lgfquiz
I had a script check drmenlo's accuracy. Four out of fourteen nests remained. Claims Johnson: "I wrote all the backend software, and I have ways of cleaning up the site." With monthly comments in the four-digit range that seems reasonably successful. Yet,--and of course--Johnson is a Nazi for tolerating some commenters presumably on purpose, as is Andrew for tolerating me (and worse scum), so far. Don't you hold it against him, though, as repressive tolerance conquers all--yes, he's got a plan. Besides, he's got you, and you're neither asshole nor scum, but strikingly smart and perceptive. Good for him, again.

[Sebastian Koppehel]

Well, my last comment would have made much more sense if "You can use HTML tags ..." had not been a blatant lie.

So here's an insight into the viper's nest of white supremacism and race hatred that is LGF's comment system:

http://www.drmenlo.com/lgfquiz/

[Sebastian Koppehel]

I discovered a real viper’s nest of white supremacism and race hatred

Oh how shocked the proprietor of LGF must have been to see a nest of white supremacism and race hatred.

@MM:

Johnson doesn't consider him self right-wing, he feels to be anti-idiotarian--rightly so.

Well, Adolf Hitler thought his opponents were idiots too.

(By the way, contrary to what the last link says, my impression is that the term "anti-idiotarian" is exclusively used by right-wing assholes of the worst order, no self-respecting leftie blogger would touch that word with a 3.048 metre pole.)

[M. Möhling]

> an American conservative blogger

Actually, a Jazz guitarist turned blogger, anti-creationist, anti-communist and--as some must call it--Islamophobe. Most conservatives share the latter two abominations, and present political Gesäßgeographie puts it into the right wing pig pen, yet, there's nothing inherently conservative to it. Both real-existiert-habender-Sozialismus and Islam cared and care for societies that are invariably, or without variance worth speaking of, authoritarian, repressive, and regressive. Johnson doesn't consider him self right-wing, he feels to be anti-idiotarian--rightly so.