Topic Tuesdays Dinner and, Definitely, Discussion!

We Have A Speaker!

David Austin Walsh is a historian, and works at UVa.

He argues in his provocative new book, subtitled The Conservative Movement and the Far Right, that these two have been intertwined for nearly a century, born out of a “right-wing popular front” opposed to socialism, communism, and New Deal liberalism.

Far from being outliers in the broader conservative coalition, extremist elements were foundational in the creation of a right‑wing political culture centered around shared political enemies, a penchant for conspiracy theories, and a desire to restore America to its “authentic” pre–New Deal values (blurb mostly cribbed from https://www.fpri.org/event/2024/taking-america-back-the-conservative-movement-and-the-far-right/).

Other than that, this will be our usual convivial conversational Tuesday skeptics' dinner!