Austria’s Fascist Renewal

A young dark-haired blue-eyed Austrian with fascist ambitions rises through the ranks. Does that sound familiar? It is quite understandable if it does. However, we are not talking about Adolf Hitler but his possible reincarnate Heinz-Christian Strache. Not only is he the charismatic leader of the far right Freedom Party, but he is a mentee of the party’s former leader, Jörg Haider. Before we draw conclusions on the ideological posture of Strache, there is one pivotal question that must be asked. How can a country that should have learned from the horrors of World War II vote 18% in favor of a party susceptible to fascism? Together with Jaider’s Alliance for the Future of Austria taking 11% of the votes, it amounts to 29% supporting far right ideologies. Keep in mind, the nation in question is Hitler’s homeland. Therefore, it has to be said that Austria itself is susceptible to reverting back to the sentiments of its most notorious son. If that were not the case, neither the Freedom Party nor the Alliance would have gotten the second highest number of votes combined.

The percentage of votes may sound like very little until you put them in perspective. Here are the results including other political parties:

The Social Democrats, a centrist party, won approximately 30% of the votes along with the election itself.

The conservative People’s Party took 26%

The Freedom Party took 18%*

The Alliance for the Future of Austria, 11%*

These numbers alone tell us that in Austria, fascist principles are second only to centrist ideals. Therefore, the world should be vigilant.

Should we be concerned about Strache? We are talking about a man who calls Muslim women who wear the burka female ninjas. There are also claims that he insults homosexuals in his spare time. The accusations do not end there. He is a man believed to be closely tied to neo-Nazis. He does of course deny any such link. The primary evidence at this time appears to be a picture of Strache giving a three finger Nazi salute. He defended himself by claiming it was simply of picture of him ordering three beers. That “evidence” itself cannot tell us if this man is in fact a Nazi. Further observations of his actions as a politician will.

Dinesh D’Souza’s Attack On Michelle Obama

What is a rule of the political game according to Dinesh D’Souza? The number one rule must be to belittle the wife of a presidential candidate. That is exactly what he did here. According to Dinesh, Michelle Obama is a racist who probably has a negative influence over Obama:

Could Obama’s wife be largely responsible for the candidate’s damaging associations with crackpot race-baiters like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the Reverend Michael Pfleger? In sum, could Obama’s wife be a large part of his political problem?

He diatribe goes much further:

Will Barack Obama be ultimately forced to distance himself not just from the Reverend Wright and the Reverend Pfleger but also from his own wife?

Distance himself from his wife? Should D’Souza’s wife distance herself from him? What we have here is clearly a malicious and desperate attack on D’Souza’s part. When you have no real argument against a political candidate, by all means attack his wife. He could have taken Obama to task on the abortion issue or the war in Iraq. That would obviously have been too much of a right thing to do. We all no, there are no ethics in politics.

–Lorraine M. Nowlin