Well, I think you are quite right, Jonah. I **do** feel a thrill of satisfaction when I read stuff like that Spectator piece. That’s not because I’m a BNP supporter. They are a cleaned up, coat’n’tie version of the old street-fighting, antisemitic National Front, who I once saw in action at close quarters, a thing I’ve written about here on NRO. However, I hate some of the same things they hate. Their solutions aren’t always my solutions, and it isn’t exactly a case of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” — I don’t want these people as friends. One can still get a thrill of satisfaction at the victories of one’s enemy’s enemy, though — as I suppose even quite conservative Brits & Americans did at the victories of the Red Army in WW2. I think “celebratory” is a bit strong; but yes, I’m pleased to see people like the BNP poking a finger in the Establishment’s eye. Establishments are a necessary evil, but they need to be poked frequently as a reminder that they are supposed to serve us, not we them. That’s the function of minor parties and factions. Don’t Buckleyites all know this?

Same thing for my attraction to US populism. There are so many things the elites don’t want us to know, don’t want us to talk about. It’s stifling. A lot of political conversation in the West resembles tea and cucumber sandwiches at the Vicarage. I chafe at that, and turn with relief to a Bill O’Reilly, a Lou Dobbs, a Michael Savage. (I’ve been on Michael’s show.) And in the larger political realm, if we don’t try to speak the truth to each other, and discuss everything openly and frankly, we end up with wrong policies and problems that could have been averted, as we now see with illegal immigration. Now the BNP’s policies are wrong too; but at least they are talking about things that need talking about, things the big political parties would prefer swept under the carpet. There is more than one road to perdition.

The strongest political emotions I’m aware of in myself are (1) an aversion to being pushed around by wealthy, snobbish, entrenched elites, and (2) a detestation of cant, lying, and sentimentality (all the same thing, really). The whole PC/MultiCulti/”Compassionate conservatism” complex plays right into both emotions. One of the things I love about America (only one) is that there is much less of (1) over here — I mean, it’s harder for well-padded elites to push ordinary people around in the USA. There used to be more cant and public lying here, because of the race issue, but I think the US & UK are about equal there now. Anyway, both things need constant vigilance and periodic protesting. That’s the job of populists: not to overthrow the Establishment — I don’t believe that can happen in an Anglo-Saxon country, and don’t wish it to — but to keep the Establishment on the strait & narrow. For that, I like them. Not celebrate, just like.