Pym Fortuyn was a politician from the Netherlands who was assassinated in 2002 during his first election campaign for the Tweede Kamer (the lower house of Parliament). His political outlook, particularly his anti-Islamic and immigration restriction stance, polarized Dutch politics in the aftermath of his assassination, with a huge shift in the political representation in Parliament. However, compared to other nationalistic politics in other countries, his ideology, known as Fortuynism, posited a rather unique focus on the preservation of political freedoms from restrictions by cultures, religions or governments.
Fortuyn, who was openly gay, was pro-LGBT rights (including same-sex marital recognition), pro-drug, pro-euthanasia, pro-abortion, pro-divorce…he would, in most cases, be a political nightmare for a U.S. social conservative.
He also saw the immigration of Muslims en masse to the Netherlands as a threat to the Netherlands; but rather than for strictly cultural or religious reasons, he saw the Muslims as a political and social threat due to the cultural and religious backgrounds from whence they, who would eventually become an important voting demographic in the country, came. In other words, Islam, as both a culture and a religion, was a political affront to the gains in civil rights which Fortuyn, an openly gay man, had long supported.
To that end, he formed his own party (which dissolved at the national level in January of this year after years of riding on the value of Fortuyn’s name brand in the Dutch media and not offering any new or viable candidates), the Pym Fortuyn List and ran for the Tweede Kamer. He gained notoriety in the press, and condemnation from the left-wing parties in the country, for both his stance on the immigration of Muslims to the country and his confrontational style of rhetoric in the public eye. But just before Election Day, Fortuyn was gunned down by an animal-rights activist who was fearful of Fortuyn’s populist-style “scapegoating” of “vulnerable minorities” in the country; the man who assassinated Fortuyn is currently serving an 18-year sentence, and his earliest parole date is in 2014.
Fortuyn’s ideology, IMO, represents a political trend that may gain a foothold in other Western countries where same-sex marital relations (primarily championed by left-wing parties) is already, or will eventually be legalized. In other words, Fortuynism is an early look into the political neoconservatism of the 22nd century.
I can imagine neoconservatism by that time as retaining a few of the features of current neoconservatism while completely dropping others:
- still *very* economically liberal
- socially liberal, but increasingly easy on the multicultural and multireligious sauce (and especially hostile to religious fundamentalist ideology, particularly Islamism, as a political or social force)
- using the military as a tool for projecting domestic economic and social policy (now much more liberal) to an international audience
Yes, I can see the military used further down the line as a big stick for “humanitarian purposes”.
I can also see gay conservatives (aka “Log Cabin Republicans”) gravitating towards places of prominence within this latter-day neoconservatism, as it will be much more aligned with their views while being less hostile to their sexual orientations and subsequent lifestyles.
Of course, just because gay conservatives (who are not really welcomed by the Republican leadership and are seen with wary eyes by the LGBT left) will eventually become the faces of neoconservatism doesn’t necessarily guarantee an immediately more libertarian, Netherlands-like outlook on drugs, euthanasia, the death penalty and copyright/intellectual property laws, which are likely to be the preserve issues of the left and/or libertarians for a longer while.
In other words, an increasingly LGBT-friendly American neoconservatism does not necessarily equate with the Nettherland’s Fortuynism.