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Conservatism has played a signif role in the development of US pol notwithstanding the revolutionary tradition in the US. In the absence of a crown & a nobility, conservatism has centered around the Constitution & the instit of private property. Deeply perturbed by the appearance of New Deal & Fair Deal welfarism, many conservatives hoped the security state was a passing phenomenon. The persistence of the Cold War & the acceptance by the moderate Eisenhower regime of the New Deal reforms have left many conservatives profoundly disturbed. Anti-communism developed around the investigative function of Congress as the chief device used to combat liberalism. Since 1960 a secret org, the John Birch Society, has been created which advocates radical action, such as the impeachment of the Chief Justice. The Supreme Court is the current focus of criticism. The strategy of the extreme right appears to be the splintering of the Repulibcan party. Amply financed by the nouveaux riches, especially the oil beneficiaries of special tax privileges, widespread propaganda is being spread to inflame the unthinking masses. The radical right has some resemblance to fascism but should not be so regarded unless stronger leadership & more violence develop. AA.

Radicalism has been relatively weak in the US, so strong is the Amer consensus. In the past, most radical movements were leftists or liberal. Today, right-wing radicalism is strong. Its intellectual & pol'al roots are found in leftist movements such as populism & the protofascism of the 1930's as well as pre-WWII isolationism. McCarthy was a link between these movements & the present radical right. The major tenet of contemporary right-wing extremism is an anticommunism which stresses the domestic aspect of the Communist threat. Because of belief in the absolute nature of the struggle against communism & a conspiracy theory of history inherited from leftist & isolationist movements of the past, the radical right has little faith in traditional constitutional & pol'al processes & stresses clandestine & massaction methods for fighting communism. In econ's, the radical right favors a return to 19th-cent laissez-faire liberalism; in soc life, it favors greater conformity to traditional norms. The future of right-wing radicalism depends primarily on the course of internat'l events but also, in part, on the nature & strength of contemporary left-wing radical movements. AA.