They are definitely using Nazi strategy to act as secret police, but the secret police in this case are being used to form an ever growing army and gain ground in democratic cities for the right. At it’s core, the history of the New Right, can be traced back to the same strategy and movement that kicked off the civil war.

Oligarchs have been trying to undermine and overthrow democracy in the U.S. for hundreds of years using essentially the same race based strategy the entire time. This time, the confederates have infiltrated the federal government, and are using executive power to dismantle democracy and break apart the Union. Americans are now relying on their own state/local laws and protections, and what’s left of checks and balances, and the rule of law at the federal level, to defend themselves and their country. Meanwhile, the executive branch and most of the supreme court are actively working against them.

There is no doubt that they are relying on Carl Schmitt’s leadership principle when they argue the president has unchecked authority over judges. It’s a lie, but convincing their supporters that it’s true, is necessary to disguise their betrayal of the U.S. as constitutional. They can’t just come out and admit that they’re trying to overthrow democracy (yet), hence the War of Passive Aggression.

Eventually, they hope to do what they’re doing in Memphis, all over the country. They were welcome into TN bc the governor is a fellow Confederate. However, they need to remove any road blocks that get in the way of their unchecked power, especially to gain ground in blue states with Governors who are using the law to push back.

Democracy is the thorn in their side, and an ongoing threat to their oligarchy. The entire U.S. conservative movement has always depended the Mudsill theory or a caste system. Essentially, when Peter Thiel says “democracy and freedom are incompatible,” the quiet part that he doesn’t say out loud is that “freedom,” in a world lead by Thiel and other conservatives, means the freedom to labor under the men who are in positions of leadership due to a God given or natural order.

They believe in a natural hierarchy, and use race as a way to in-group and gain support while actually exploiting and oppressing everyone who is not “chosen by God to be a natural leader.” They create laws and policies that protect their interests, eliminate market competition, and keep people distracted and focused on maintaining their own status in the hierarchy rather than joining together to rise up against the Oligarchs.

Southern Oligarchs depended on slavery in order to keep themselves in power. James Hammond, the man that is credited with Mudsill theory, (the idea that there must be, and always has been, a lower class or underclass for the upper classes and the rest of society to rest upon) was a wealthy plantation owner and supporter of natural law. He viewed white laborers in the north, who weren’t born into familial wealth, but were able to build wealth through their labor, as a revolutionary threat. (In other words, if slavery was outlawed, and any free man could build wealth, how could he exploit slavery and slave labor to maintain his “God given” position at the top?)

The need to control the masses and prevent toppling of what is allegedly “a God given hierarchy,” is at the heart of the New Right movement. Though it’s definitely not something they care for people to associate with their think tank, the founder of the Heritage Foundation, Paul Weyrich, actually tried to get a Catholic priest in D.C. defrocked for holding an inter-faith all races welcome peace vigil the night MLK was assassinated. Ten years later, he was receiving funding from Joseph Coors to create Heritage, and putting together their first policy strategy, Mandate for Leadership (which would eventually become Project 2025).

Weyrich himself first entered politics by campaigning for the staunch anti-communist Barry Goldwater, who unsuccessfully ran for presidency using the Southern Strategy, which relied on gaining support of white southerners by playing on fears of the civil rights movement dismantling of Jim Crowe laws.

There is debate among modern Republicans, regarding Goldwater’s true motive for opposing the civil rights movement. With many arguing it was motivated by a libertarian small government mindset. Regardless of Goldwater’s motives, his opposition helped Republicans gain a foot hold of the white southern vote in the south for the first time since Reconstruction, and even though it is perhaps a lesser known consequence, it inspired a young Paul Weyrich to become politically active and begin his life’s work of right wing political organizing and strategizing attacks against democracy and equal rights.

Interestingly, it is worth noting that later in life, Goldwater adamantly despised the Moral Majority and New Right movement created by Weyrich and religious figures like Jerry Falwell. When Falwell publicly opposed the nomination of SCOTUS justice O’Conner by stating every good Christian should be concerned, Goldwater suggested that good Christians ought to kick Falwell in the “ass.” (according to Republican John Dean, the quote was always kick Falwell in the “nuts”).

If you’re interested, these are 2 really good books that never get much attention, but do a much better job explaining all this:

For Weyrich/the New Right: The Radical Mind: The Origins of Right-Wing Catholic and Protestant Coalition Building

For the history of American Oligarchy, from the Civil War all the way to Barry Goldwater and Peter Thiel: How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing fight for the Soul of America