What was striking about the Glenn Beck rally was its familiarity, not its strangeness. Everything about it was a repetition of messages and ideas reinforcing the version of American tradition that `imagineers' on the right have promoted for decades. A national identity erased of color or class or gender or religious plurality. A restoration fantasy of "taking this country back" (to the pre-civil war 1850's at least, if not the 1760's). The banal invocation to "do good" while acting really badly against anyone defined outside of the Christian nation.

In a similar vein, Jane Mayer's expose of the Koch brothers in the New Yorker was also eerily familiar -- another excellent analysis of the strategic funding and ideological commitment of right wing donors. How many times have we read this story? Yet, each decade it seems that mainstream and even progressive minded people newly "discover" the Right. We are reminded (again) that they have built a comprehensive totalitarian infrastructure (from ideas to action to communication). Liberals are shocked to realize how much money the ideological Right commits to consolidating its political power. People bemoan the collapse of a moderate wing of the Republican party. Alarms are sounded and everyone goes on as usual.

Sadly, there is a shortage of ideas about how to respond to and how to defeat the Right wing culturally and politically. This column is an effort to think about progressive strategy and invites others to offer their experiences.

One certainly has to know whom one is up against. Research and analysis is critical. Research on the right has shown how religious conservatives married cultural conservatism to economic conservatism; links between the intelligence communities and the right; links among hard right militias and racist elements in this country; funding trails between mainstream donors and fanatic shock jocks; links between US religious groups and global missionaries whose actions result in terror and violence against LGBT people. The research shows us an ideologically broad coalition that effectively unites across class through its nationalism, racism and misogyny.

But our research is not sophisticated enough to help us develop our vision of the future and put it out to America. Our think tanks fail in developing ways to communicate beyond a narrow elite base. We need to think how we can address the worries and anxieties of the rank and file followers of the Right - even the ones who are falling for racist and misogynist appeals with our very different message. To defeat the right, we are going to have to offer a coherent and inviting vision, a different kind of nationalism....

Only a handful of think tanks monitor and study the Right (e.g. Political Research Associates, People For the American Way, Southern Poverty Law Center to name three). Liberal and progressive philanthropy has desperately underfunded the study of how to respond to the Right because it correctly fears that Right wing Congress-men will turn their regulatory ire on the Right's enemies. The fear is warranted but cannot excuse cowardice. A lot more funding needs to be directed immediately to stem the neo-fascist movements growing in the United States.

She recommends a number of books to get started. I am honored to note she included one of mine.

Read, for example: Sara Diamond (Roads to Dominion), Jean Hardisty (Mobilizing Resentment), Rick Perlstein (Nixonland), Chip Berlet (Eyes Right or Right Wing Populism in America), Frederick Clarkson (Eternal Hostility), Chris Hedges (American Fascists), Michele Goldberg (Kingdom Coming), Max Blumenthal (Republican Gomorrah), Kevin Phillips (American Theocracy), Jennifer Burns (Goddess of the Market),Dan Gilfoff (The Jesus Machine), Amy Ansell (Unravelling the Right),Michael Kazin (The Populist Persuasion), David Niewert (In God's Country). These are just a handful of suggestions; there are dozens more great books documenting the roots, intersections, tensions, and ideologies of Right wing movements in the US.