ABSTRACT
I feel that the contributors to this volume have done a major service by identifying differences and distinctions between right-wing groups. With such help, we who are not aligned with the right may do our work or make our decisions more wisely and effectively. I also admire the ways in which these authors exercise the discipline that Peter Elbow named “the believing game”: immersing in others’ points of view in order to understand more fully their assumptions and visions. The analysis and research reported in this volume correct a liberal temptation to dismiss familiar right-wing themes or else to hear only their many iterations, that is, to “lump” rather than to “split.” I have found it useful to learn about distinctions between hate groups and am grateful to the volume’s authors for their care and discipline in documenting attitudes that may be anathema to them. In this day and age, it is imperative that U.S. citizens be aware that their nation may be wrested from them by ideologues of the far right.
