Here we go, folks. The American right wing is starting to push violent, overtly fascist European groups as models for the conservative movement.

For once, the paranoid obsession behind this big idea isn’t anti-Muslim bigotry (but it isn’t far away, see below); Cliff Kincaid of “Accuracy in Media,” the politically influential extreme right wing organization behind the Newsbusters website, says the mainstream Republican Party is being contaminated with teh ghey:

Here in the U.S., former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman took to the pages of The Wall Street Journal on November 21 to make the ‘conservative case’ for backing gay marriage. But there can be no ‘conservative case’ for gay marriage, unless the term ‘conservative’ is redefined as the British Conservative leaders are trying to do.

[…]

According to this logic, American conservatives should applaud the fact that, on December 1, the first same-sex couple was ‘married’ in the West Point Cadet Chapel of our nation’s military academy. This is a consequence of Obama’s gays-in-the-military policy.

The real lesson from what is happening in Britain is that if the Republicans go down this road, conservatives will revolt and the GOP will suffer an even more significant decline than we saw on November 6, when a number of social conservatives sat out the election. Surrender could also lead to more persecution of social conservatives.

Social conservatives are “persecuted?” Who knew?

In the face of all this homosexuality advancing like an inexorable tide, persecuting all wingnuts in its path with its superior fashion sense, Kincaid suggests that the best way forward for the Republican Party is to take a page from the book of the overtly fascist English Defence League. Hey, great idea! Where do you think he got it from?

This British Conservative Party has watered down traditional conservatism to such an extent that some conservatives have formed an alternative, the English Defense League (EDL), which has spawned the British Freedom Party.

This group has been strongly attacked in the media, here and abroad, as “far-right” or worse. But I had the opportunity to meet their leaders, Kevin Carroll and Tommy Robinson, at the 9/11 conference in New York City sponsored by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer which was designed in part to organize resistance to global Islam and safeguard our right of free speech against the advance of Sharia, or Islamic law. You can watch the speeches by Carroll and Robinson and draw your own conclusions. Carroll and Robinson want a patriotic alternative to the British Conservative Party that will promote traditional values.

American conservatives and their media should take a hard look at what is really happening in Britain. We had to turn to a relatively new conservative channel in Canada, Sun TV, for important news and information about how Carroll and Robinson and their supporters are being targeted by the “conservative” government there. Carroll was actually imprisoned for exercising his political rights. Robinson is still in prison on charges that he entered the United States illegally and has sent Pamela Geller a letter about his plight, which is published on her website.

For reference, here are some images of the people Spencer and Geller have been enthusiastically supporting for years, and who Cliff Kincaid considers excellent right wing role models. (Click to enlarge.)

And here’s a video of EDL thugs at an anti-Muslim demonstration, attacking a local restaurant:

Also see:
Cliff Kincaid | Southern Poverty Law Center