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Anarchism, Fascism or Communism, it seems it doesn't really matter which direction you are extreme in as long as you go over the top.
The most important thing in the choice of politics is to be extreme. Only macho testosterone filled politics will do. Social democracy, conservatism, Christian Democracy and consensus are all anathema. The current Government should always be smashed and entirely new concepts put in its place.
In the late 1960s America was full of young Communists and radicals who sought to overthrow the bourgeois government and replace it with true people's democracy. The people voted for Nixon in huge numbers.
Now there are anarchists of both extreme left and right varieties looking to sweep away the government all together. Both groups are quite confident in the rightness of their views and that the people, once freed of the tyranny of representative democracy, would wholeheartedly embrace their particular flavour of government-free sweetness and light. The newly freed and enlightened people would then follow their “true urges”, whether that is pure capitalism and nationalism or vegan pacifist feminist lentil weaving multiracial co-operatives. Either way it is the end of the world as we know it.
Of course just holding extreme views is not enough, you have to be seen to be holding them. That means you need a uniform, the uniform is usually worn to show your freedom of choice and individuality, so it is vital that it looks the same as everybody else's expression of their individuality.
I went through it all. I had that image of Che Guevara on my schoolbag one week, the next I dressed in black and the closest I could get to jackboots. A year later I had independently worked out the basic principles of a form of agrarian anarchism. Fortunately within the next few months I was introduced to some more mainstream liberal and social democratic principle and I came to the conclusion that they actually made a lot of sense. By focusing on the basic principles and their history I could see the sexy and macho radical elements within these political movements. Liberalism, democracy, republicanism, social democracy all were, in their time deeply sexy radical ideas. There was plenty to get excited about in conventional politics.
I found out that supposedly exciting political ideas such as communism and anarchism were actually based on old and dull writings that were no more intrinsically exciting than the founding principles of modern western liberalism. Liberalism had its romantic heroes too. The heroes of the English, French and American Revolutions were all passionate men filled with radical ideas and vision. While they might not have been quite as photogenic as Che Guevara or quite as electrifying orators as the great Fascist dictators the men who set the foundations of modern mass movements of social democracy and liberalism were not dull establishment figures and their views made much more sense than those of the extremists. I also liked the way they were committed to government by consent, which seems the only way to keep order and achieve desirable goals without tyranny.
Throughout my time at university I belonged to the Social Democratic Party, a centrist party with a whiff of vigour, novelty and a slight hint of radicalism. I have retained that unusual mix of the mainstream and the radical to this day, although the party I was a member of broke up in disarray.
“Don't vote, it only encourages them”
Most extreme political solutions are based on mistaken principles. Anarchism is based around the idea that a government is not necessary. Unfortunately there is no option to run without a government any more than there is an option to run society without the knowledge of weapons, you cannot put the genie back into the bottle. There will be a government, good or bad. If the good people do not ensure that there is a good government there will be a bad one.
What would happen if they held an election and nobody showed up?
There would be a coup. Somebody would seize power. It is unlikely that they would be vegetarian feminists, it is unlikely they would cut your taxes. It is unlikely they would have spiked hair, although they might have spiked hats.