~Revolution from the Middle~ is essentially an anthology of op-ed articles compiled by conservative journalist Samuel Francis from Chronicles Magazine. Francis is perceptive even if it misses the mark. He makes the contention that Middle America must become self-conscious or be crushed in a gigantic pincer movement by the Left Coasters, the Neoconservatives in orbit around the Beltway and the Limousine Liberals of the Northeastern Establishment. Internationalism coupled with runaway immigration from the Third World, cosmopolitan urbanization, decadent entertainment, vanity and crass materialism are the seeds of discontent sowed by the elites. If the crisis goes unabated, Middle America will be assimilated into a cultural and spiritual void. Francis hopes to thwart the dawning of America as a new Tower of Babel seething in a moat of cosmopolitan decadence and one-worldism. The book is thought-provoking and should not be ignored by conservatives.
Francis breaks with luminaries like Russell Kirk and Erik Von Kuehnelt-Leddihin who for principled reasons rightly refuse to conflate conservatism to being an ideology (as they otherwise deem ideology undesirable.) Francis on the other hand reasons that there is little left to conserve. As such, conservatives need to take a cue from communist theoretician Gramsci and adopt an insurgent ideology, albeit one of a restorationist, traditionalist and counterrevolutionary nature. This counterinsurgency should strive to displace the hegemonic ideology of the transnational elites. Cognizance of the modus operandi of the Left has led Francis to believe that we must emulate their tactics to effectively fight and win a culture and political war. Gramsci proposed "a long march through the institutions," which would lead to the creation of a veritable state within a state. The Leftist ideology would topple the "bourgeoisie superstructure" from within, graft itself onto the existing state and gradually throw residual elements of the old order off.
To the dismay of the Right, it seems that the cultural overlords have already achieved their Fabian goals when conservatives break from traditional conservatism to become in Francis' words 'Middle American Radicals' (MARS) (c.f.,
The Radical Center: Middle Americans and the Politics of Alienation
). Paleo-conservatives may fault Francis for conflating conservatism to an insurgent ideology. Neoconservatism is an ideology that retooled New Deal liberalism with sprinkles of conservative nostrums to appeal to America's nominally conservative elements in counterpoise to the political Left. To his credit, Francis' pessimism is not tainted with the resignation that so many other avowed conservatives have. Francis thinks Middle America shouldn't go out with just a mere whimper, but fight to the end, and in Nietzschean terms, embracing the 'will to power.'
In analyzing some of the finer points of Francis' conservative counterrevolution, which may be familiar to Buchananites of the Old Right, he itinerates an America First platform of opposition to globalization as well as opposition to runaway immigration, which is displacing the distinctively European-Western culture upon which the U.S. was founded. He feels that Middle America's interests lie in preservation of the social insurance schemes wrought out in the New Deal and empowering the welfare state for Middle American interests. I cannot concur with this point. The New Deal paved the way for egalitarian leveling and dependence-breeding, which has debilitated Middle America's power. His essential point is that Middle America needs to be forceful in asserting itself. It must assert Middle America's interests while upholding, fortifying and restoring our Western culture and traditions. Middle America may become detached from its cultural and traditional roots if she does not meet the challenge posed by the political Left, globalism and multiculturalism. Middle America will then be submerged into an amalgam underclass numbed by propaganda and bread and circuses from the transnational elites.
Perhaps true blue American conservatism has already died. And if so residual elements of the old order in the South, Midwest, and the Western U.S. are having a hard time coming to grips with this reality. In this case, these musings are just a sad obituary by a reactionary on the Right. Or perhaps this prophetic book is a foreshadowing of deepening conflict between an increasingly self-conscious Middle America and its cultural tormentors, the liberal, cosmopolitan, transnational elites.
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