The Right Resurgent in Europe

A detailed article by the Washington Times:

It's a phenomenon seen across Europe: Deep anxieties over security
and unemployment have fed a sharp shift to the right, forcing mainstream
politicians to embrace policies that just a few years ago would have seemed the
exclusive terrain of ultranationalist forces. These
policies mainly aim to reassert the primacy of the home culture with language
requirements, citizenship tests and tougher criteria for prospective
immigrants.

For example:

In the Netherlands, a powerful nationalist movement sprang up
around charismatic Pim Fortuyn and won a place in the coalition, only to fall
apart after Mr. Fortuyn was assassinated in 2002. But his ideas live on in the
citizenship tests and deportations of asylum-seekers, which are now Dutch
policy.
In October, Austria's two rightist parties won more
than 15 percent of the vote -- far short of the stunning 26.9 percent that
firebrand Joerg Haider received in 1999 but enough to trouble the moderate
majority. The anti-immigration Danish People's Party,
formed only 12 years ago, is the third-largest faction in Denmark's parliament.
Far-right parties also made electoral strides last year in Sweden and Belgium.
In Germany, far-right parties remain a fringe movement,
but hold seats on three regional legislatures in the formerly Communist east.
Officials say crimes by far-right groups and attacks against foreigners rose 16
percent last year.

This would be good news for conservatism, save for the fact that Europe always does things in the extreme. Look what happened to France 200 years ago when they tried to duplicate the American Revolution. In recent times, Europe's answer to standing up to communism gave us Hitler. America and Britain has always managed to damper the Continents tendencies toward extremism, yet it always meant a war and much precious blood spilled.