This is Corey Robin’s scholastic polemic on the philosophical, historical and sociological incision into the minds of intellectual conservatives, slavery apologists, neoliberals, fascists, nativists, theocratic tyrants, white supremacists, libertarians, authoritarians, imperialists, neoconservatives, ethnonationalists, free-market ideologues and absolute monarchists. It emphasizes the political theory of reactionary forces through examining its upstarts, pitfalls, deviations and contradictions. Conservatives have a narrowed and selective view into history where their actions are seen as epistemological and rightful while the costs are naturally ordained on others. Conservative intellectualism finds its voice in recreating and eulogizing a revisionist past devoid of any past ills to bring into the present. It is an anti-progress and contradictory enterprise insipid of political, scientific and socioeconomic intellectualism. It defines the “social” in human existence to be “static institutions” irrespective of the innate human need for “progress, freedom and equality”. There are common threads through history that defines the reactionary mind and its prerogatives including social hierarchy, absolute power, economic exploitation, obsessive disgust of societal progress condemned as decadant decay, blind loyalty in the form of nationalism, rejection of modernity, mythologized violence, singular identity for a designated will, disdain for critical thinking, utmost economic inequality, intolerance of the tolerant, rugged individualism for the submissive majority in contrast to the bequeathed few, mythologized and romanticized view of the past, masculine virality, obscure-divide–obfuscate tactics to coral the masses in the form of democratic feudalism, abstract to apocalyptic sense of violence, an exaggerated sense of dispossession, shameless adaptability through hypocrisy (absorbing the energy of rising revolution) appealing to the masses by redirecting the anger of societal socioeconomic inequalities towards “external actors and/or domestic agitators” and condemnation of the “decadent, weak and cowardly” old regime then building a new power structure that whimsically mimics the old regime. Essentially, aristocracy, tyranny, social darwinism, nihilism, obliteration of knowledge, immoral interpretation of traditionalism, theocracy, the subjectivity of capital/class, the adovocation of markets, devaluation of labor, quantification of humanity as utility, pseudo-scientific racism/eugenics, hubris, social control and paternalism are the reactionary ideologies evoked to stave off their perception of civilization decline through rising calls for egalitarianism of opportunities. These are their dogmatic virtues in the pursuit of the so-called “sublime”. Positioning on the rigid hierarchy is defined by class, gender, capital, military ranks, labor, race, and education. This caste system provides different access to liberty, capital, civil-human rights, freedom and state protection. Therefore, it is socio-economic-political feudalism for absolute order and submission at all costs. This power structure stretches from the public to the private parts of society.
Policies aren’t their animated vehicle for action but instead instigated to act “unequally and oppositely to any rising egalitarian democratic forces and focusing on their disgust against the societal change of their old order of social mores”. Freedom to oppress, subjugate or dominate not the freedom from wants nor inhumanity is the governing principle of a reflexive conservatives. The usurpation of the hierarchical order of the private to the public square evokes fear that evokes melodramatic scenes of an anarchic, defanged, dystopic and lackluster society in the mind of reactionaries. Therefore such usurpation needs to be quenched through by any means necessary. Simply, the reactionary mind is the defined by the “polity of a melodramatic fear and victimhood”. “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely and such attained corrupted power becomes a source of incoherence, delusional statis and contradictions“ should be a bumper sticker of the reactionary movement. The pursuit of reinstituting power over an insurgent left bereft of understanding its implications is the sole vigor for the rise of counterrevolutionaries. They mimic the mass movements of the left but arm their following with delusional, immaterial and superfical power to oppress the “others” and protect the dominating power. Upon achieving success with the annihilation of the left, the precipitation of incoherence, inertness and incompetence comes to bear. It is therefore apparent that the counterrevolutionary movement is cynically “quixotic”. In dealing with the incoherence and contradictions in its philosophies and governance, they choose to become insincere, bored, visceral, apathetic, and non-reflective; in a short form, they resort to “gaslighting”. This inability of ideological self reflection nor policy advocation could lead into the downward spiral of evolving from megalomania into cultish-fanatic nihilism. This is a predicate for spectacular mass violence of the fascistic order devoid of humanism, liberty, progress and rationality”. Thus an an Orwellian state is born.
William F. Buckley made a confession to Corey Robin. Capitalism is “boring,” said the founding father of the American right. “Devoting your life to it,” as conservatives do, “is horrifying if only because it’s so repetitious. It’s like sex.”
This hierarchy is manifest destiny for reactionaries because the “others and lessers” lack personal virtue, have a poor work ethic, culturally deficient, lack discipline, unintelligent, show weak competitive animal spirits, biologically inferior and are easily captured by personal vices. Social hierarchy is therefore a natural order of which opportunities, wealth, capital and status should always be given, taken, owned and protected for the professional-managerial class, aristocrats, whites, elites and monopolists. Edmund Burke, Georges Sorel, Alexis de Tocqueville, Ayn Rand, Joseph de Maistre, Thomas Hobbes, Ludwig von Mises, Antonin Scalia, John Calhoun, Winston Churchill, Phyllis Schlafly, Richard Nixon, Irving Kristol and Francis Fukuyama are some of the reactionary figures of which Corey Robin builds his coherent political theory. It is unusual that he didn’t delve into William F. Buckley, Newt Gringrich, Southern Strategy practitioners and white Christian evangelicals. It is the top ten best political books I have ever read.
This book affirms my belief that Donald Trump is not heterodox from the conservative toolbox but instead, another bombastic machination of the arc of counterrevolutionaries. Trump simply is an incoherent and incompetent neo-fascistic vulgarian.
The difference is—-more malignant narcissism, more blatant white nationalist appeal, more willful incongruence to science and truth, and more rampant incompetence. The keyword is “more”. Trump is simply an accelerant to an already burning fire. Trump in my view is the perfect conservative; the hybrid of white identity politics, conspiratorial theories, melodramatic cultural resentment, megalomania, bottomless unscrupulousness, plutocracy and authoritarianism. Robin pointendelty stated that caveat to his strain of conservatism is that he openly exposes how rigged, vacuous and casino-like capitalism is, moral emptiness in politics, the fake bravado of the elites and foreign relations is centred on economical transactions not humanitarinism.
It is not a coincidence that social democratic societies ooze of the egalitarianism of opportunities not an outcome, radical economics, dynamic pluralism, symbiotic relationship of citizenry/society with the state, intellectualism and morality within the bounds of contextual rationality while conservative-totalitarian-fascistic societies bathe in the pool of visceral, incoherent, amoral, anti-democratic, plutocratic/oligarchic, repressively hierarchal and nihilistic characteristics in a loop of incoherence.
3. Post Civil rights backlash: political realignment and the birth of the modern-day conservatism.
Martin Luther King led Selma march in 1965Malcolm X at his Brooklyn rally, New YorkGeorge Wallace: Democrat Governor of AlabamaLewis Powell Jr: Supreme Court Justice from 1971 to 1987Burger Court at the helm of a swing to judicial conservatismNixon at his Georgia rally for his 1972 reelection campaign to gain Southern Dixiecrat votes.Evolution of Nixon’s voting bloc in capturing white voters in 1972 through Southern Strategy
The principles of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were on the 1964 Presidential ballot culminating in the overwhelming win by Democrat Lyndon Johnson over Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964. The 1964 election and subsequent passage of progressive policies for African Americans on the foundation of the Civil rights movement led by polar opposites of Marin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, was the final monumental phase of political realignment where southern white Dixiecrats aligned with Republicans and African Americans (formerly majority Republicans) realigned with Democrats. The realignment started in Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency and finalized during Lyndon Johnson’s tenure. This realignment was the foundation of the Southern Strategy of politics built from the roots of George Wallace’s racist and southern states’ rights populism which appealed to the white resentment, especially in the South as Jim Crow laws started to disintegrate. The passage of the Civil Rights laws solidified the Reconstruction Amendments which has been abused under the racist guise of States Rights and the War on Poverty agenda legislation (Medicare, Medicaid, and increased education funding) all under the Greater Society by Lyndon Johnson’s agenda in alleviating racial and economic societal problems. This was the height of domestic liberalism in America which was hampered by the antipathetic view of the Vietnam war by liberals. The modern-day conservatism was tooted from the platform of Barry Goldwater’s failed bid for the 1964 presidency.
The infamous philosophical template of modern-day American conservatism in the Republican party sparked from the Lewis Powell Jr’s memorandum in 1971 titled the “Attack on American Free Enterprise System,” as a backlash to the rapid and widespread liberalism and/or liberal intellectualism, Ralph Nader’s consumer rights, social justice, middle-class quasi-socialist policies and 1964 election loss.It called for the union of all corporate interests to dominate American democracy using media, think tanks, political lobbying, schools, legal centers, and academic journals inherently to create an ultra capitalistic utopia by removing any public perceptions on any institutionalized socio-economic egalitarian construct in United states. This gave rise to Heritage think tank and Cato Institute of today. Lewis Powell within Burger Court was part of the conservative tilt that abandoned the liberal Warren’s Court of workers’ rights, social welfare and civil rights for a more corporatist, elitist and white-centered advocation which continued till to the present Robert’s Court.
In 1968, Nixon ran on the platform of the spurious “Law and order” which was a dog whistle for criminalizing the Black panther party, black civil rights groups, Anti-Vietnam war protesters, women rights advocates and gay rights advocates. It was built on the historical precedent of white supremacy, Christian fundamentalism and white-male chauvinistic patriarchy which is aligned with Powell’s memo to fight against any form “liberty for all”, especially against African Americans.
Nixon built on the environmentalism of Theodore Roosevelt to set up the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970. Richard Nixon in his reelection bid in 1972 assimilated a segment of the free enterprise principles of the Lewis Powell memo, the George Wallace’s Southern Strategy, rural and conservative values, anti-liberal intellectualism and support for Vietnam War support in his highly polarized voting bloc called “The Silent majority”. This became the platform of the Republican Party which gave him a 49 states win over George McGovern, the Democratic Presidential candidate.
Nixon shifted his economic ideals from the traditional Republican position of austerity and the Austrian school of economic thought to the Keynesian school of economic thought to stimulate economic growth, reduce unemployment and curb cost pull inflation associated with rising oil prices through increased federal spending. In 1971, Nixon took the monetarist economic theory approach by disengaging the dollar from gold which was the global monetary standard established at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference to primarily curb global inflation of which dollar money supply was pegged to the finite amount of gold reserves. Nixon committed these economic engagements in the face of a recession, reduced market liquidity, rising costs of War on Poverty programs, rising trade imbalance, rising costs of Vietnam war and rising inflation. This created the current fiat monetary system with the dollar as the reserve currency. It immediately devalued the dollar causing US exports to be attractively cheaper consequently adding to GDP growth rate. The hybrid approach of Keynesian fiscal policy, wage-price control mechanism, and Monetarism monetary policy saved the US economy in the short term. In the long run, it created large deficits, high inflation with corresponding interest rates hikes, the rise of unemployment, accrued debt from the increased money supply, slow to negative economic growth all culminating in the economic stagflation of the 1970s. The Watergate scandal and its cover-up derailed the Republican conservative movement as Richard Nixon’s resigned. Nixon’s presidency defined the final phase of the socio-economic, political and racial domestic shift into modern-day conservatism.
4. Modern conservative movement: Ultra-conservative Christians, Reaganomics, Fox News, NRA, and legislative gridlock.
Ronald Reagan and Jerry Falwell of the Moral MajorityRalph Reed of the Christian coalition
Ayn Rand: Author of Atlas Shrugged.
William F. Buckley J. and Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan: 40th President of USA (1981-1989).Charles Heston of NRARoger Ailes and Rupert MurdochRush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Grover NorquistNewt Gingrich and his “Contract of America” political platform
The insertion of Milton Friedman’s monetarism, William F. Buckley Jr’s conservative intellectualism, revised Southern strategy, and Jerry Falwell ‘s Moral majority catapulted Ronald Reagan’s landslide victories over Jimmy Carter at the backdrop of 1979 Iran hostage crisis and Walter Mondale in 1984. Ronald Reagan’s presidency completed the unfinished momentum of the Nixon Presidency revising into the “The New Right” which combined social conservatism, pro-business, anti-union, anti-welfare state, neoconservative foreign policy, and anti-communism.
Ronald Reagan seized on the racial and social backlash to liberal movements of the late 1960s to 1970s. The fight primarily against desegregation, affirmative action, 1973’s Supreme court decision on Roe vs. Wade favoring abortion, anti-school prayer, drugs, and the sexual revolution was the essence of Jerry Falwell’s Moral majority to restore Christian religiosity into the American society. This was the first time social conservatism became political establishing itself cornerstone of the New conservatism within the Republican party. It is also seen that the Republican party evolved from constitutional religious secularism into ultrafundamentalist Christian sectarianism. This instituted a base of white working-class whites and southern white Evangelicals. The moral majority evolved at the end of Reagan’s tenure into Ralph Reed’s Christian Coalition. Ronald Reagan used racially coded diction including ” states rights”, “welfare queens”, “affirmative action” , to “busing” and launching his campaign in the racially controversial Philadelphia, Mississippi in raising white resentment under a revised Southern strategy of being racially poignant.
The National Rifle Association (NSA); the gun rights advocacy and lobby group took an unprecedented step into the political arena by backing Ronald Reagan 1980 in response to the Gun Control Act of 1968 of which they previously supported but changed tune with the influx of funding from gun manufacturers. They evolved from a gun safety advocacy group to a politically driven lobbying group for unhindered gun rights at the backstop of the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution. They became an arm of the “New Right” of the Republican party.
Reaganomics was the economic doctrine rooted in the objectivity philosophy of individualism and laissez-faire capitalism inspired by Ayn Rand, William F. Buckley Jr’s classical liberalism and supply-side economics of Arthur Laffer’s Laffer curve (an extension of Milton’s Friedman’s monetarism). The famous quote of Ronald Reagan, “Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem” defined the era of Reaganomics. Small government and states rights became the cornerstone of modern Republicanism. It built on the principles of reducing tax rates (federal, marginal, income, corporate), of top income earners and wealth holders, reducing federal spending through constraining entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid and Social security), deregulating from capital markets, banking, fossil fuels, telecommunications to the environment, expansive free trade and increasing interest rates (reducing money supply). This was set in motion to counter the economic stagflation of the 1970s. Reaganomics had an average 3% GDP growth rate, unemployment dropped to 5% and inflation dropped below 3%. It was set to unlock economic growth using free markets in alleviating the socioeconomic status of the populace by solving societal problems. This economic doctrine nicknamed “voodoo economics by George Bush or trickle-down economics” expected massive reinvestment into means of production, human capital, and financial capital but such expectations were limited. The following criticisms were raised with Reaganomics including it shifted the tax burden to middle to lower class causing a wealth and income distribution remain at the top 1%, accrued massive debt of high interest and deficit spending due to tax relief for the wealthy, encouraged government bailouts of banking sector due to their unregulated speculations, weakened the collective bargaining power of unions, increase in poverty levels and tax avoidance schemes using international tax shelters began. Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times on middle to lower-income families especially on social security to cover up for the deficit spending and growing debt.
Newt Gingrich came into Congress in 1979 and started an ideological conservative crusade with his egotistical, bombastic and divisive rhetoric in cleansing any “moderates” or “Republicans in name only” or “Rockefeller Republicans” within the Republican party. He became a major core of the “New Right” on the Congressional floor with aim of creating a Republican majority in the House since 1954. This became the template of legislative intransigence leading to congressional gridlock. The dogmatic test was on the principles of Reaganomics and social conservatism of which Republicans had to make a public position. Grover Norquist under the American for Tax reform advocacy promoted and lobbied for reduction of tax revenues especially for higher-income earners to all prospective and incumbent Republicans. He even created the “Taxpayer Protection pledge” that bonded all signatures of Republicans to an uncompromising position with taxes in 1986. Even Newt Gingrich supported the independent candidacy of Ross Perot over George Bush due to his stance for bipartisanship primarily over increased taxes on the wealthy, massive debt and deficit spending from the Reagan years. The propagandist hysteria became front stage as Gingrich and his cohorts derided any liberal legislation using subjectively colorful colloquialism e.g. Clinton national health care plan diminished as Democrats vote-buying of primary minorities, expanding social welfare became government takeover of hard work, useful domestic investment became American bankruptcy, domestic violence prevention diminished to the massive federal bureaucracy, strengthening teachers unions became liberal indoctrination, expanding public schools diminished became to school choice primarily institutionalizing private schools, affirmative action became reverse discrimination, separation of church and state became losing our Judeo-Christian lineage and gun control became infringement on the 2nd Amendment of US Constitution. It was apparent that the appeal used elements of Southern strategy and Reaganomics to coalesce primarily “angry working-class white men”. This agenda, an extension of the Norquist pledge culminated in the “Contract of America” legislative promise of Grover Norquist in the 1994 midterm elections which ushered in a Republican majority in the House with newt as Speaker of the House. It consequentially shifted the Republican party farther to the right. Rush Limbaugh, a conservative radio host was instrumental in delivering the “Contract of America” to his large viewership with which he became an “Honorary member” of Congress when the Republican takeover occurred.
Roger Ailes, a small television producer turned aide under Richard Nixon co-wrote a manifesto called “A Plan For Putting the GOP on TV News” in 1970 to plainly use staged spectacles and grandiosity to convey conservative viewpoints on television in the form of propaganda as a backlash to the “liberal establishment media” and the “Walter Cronkite’s model of objectivity”. This was at this premise, was to be paid for and broadcasted by the Nixon’s’ White House. This was the blueprint finally reached its fruition in 1996 with the formation of Fox News network at the helm of Roger Ailes as the brainchild and Rupert Murdoch as owner. The network under the previous guise of “Fair and balanced” moniker sent sarcastic tremors through the world with its hyper-partisanship, ultra-nationalistic rhetoric, name-calling, racially-tinged diction and trivialization of scientific to historical facts. The sensationalized coverage of the Monica Lewinsky scandal by Fox News, 9/11, Obama years to Trump years made it clear that FOX news is a political arm of the Republican agenda. The tactics of Fox News has spread into the society that has percolated into other “alternative” conservative media outlets including Breitbart, Drudge Report, and son on unfortunately making them pertinent in politics
5. The continual devolution of Trumpism.
With the demonization of government under the tutelage of Cold War hysterics, Reaganomics advocates and neoliberal acolytes within the Democratic party, society has shifted from a more egalitarian socio-economic group-think or functional collective consciousnesses to a self-defeating short-sighted individualism of which fruits of the average worker’s productivity are stingily soaked up by plutocrats. Corporations from fossil fuel, technology to banking live in their facade of capitalism. They collect yearly subsidies aka corporate welfare, stash profits in tax havens, lobby for light-touch regulation and tax reductions while blaming the remaining populace as “lazy” and deems themselves as “successful”. The sad irony is major corporations are highly subsidized and receive tremendous tax incentives which are hypocritical to their dogmatic market libertarianism. Corporations are primarily motivated to profit from nature and human beings while the government is of a primary motive to serving the populace for a higher standard of living. It is not natural for corporations to mitigate societal problems for humanitarianism, that is the government’s job. Plutocrats want socialism for themselves combined with bottomless tax relief but austerity for the 99%. This societal self-defeating misinformed dogma especially within Republicans in the age of anti-intellectualism consequently catalyzes xenophobia, cynical distrust in societal norms, sexism, susceptibility to propaganda, and racism as the basis of economic and political correction. This phenomenon was replicated through time including the Glided Age, Roaring Twenties, End of the Century and the New Millennium. The misguided far-right populism of Trump nicknamed Trumpism which has been lurking finally surfaced at the aftermath of the Great Recession and election of the “first African American” president with the emergence of the Tea party movement. It is quite clear that the reactionary impulses of the Republican Party of the past till present cause fissures in the American fabric in the name of retaining political power at all levels of government especially from the Nixonian era. With Trump, Republican establishment made a Faustian bargain with Trump for passing their legislation, retaining a political majority, appointing judges and deconstructing the state bureaucracy in exchange for his mercurial, abhorrent, divisive, pseudo-fascist and amoral leadership. The safeguards within the Republican party through the establishment has been weakening and finally upended because of their adjudication of screening extremist views in their party. Consequentially, they ideologically locked themselves into “Alex Jones conspiratorial wing”, “alt-right”, “Christian right” and the “far-right” in comparison to Democrats who range from “Manchin: Pure-Centrist”, “Obama-Clinton: Thirdway” to “Bernie Sanders: Democratic socialism”. The far-right John Birch society who were regarded as “far right-libertarian ideologues” and extreme relative to the before the 1990’s Republicanism under the stewardship of the billionaires Koch Brothers and their plutocratic circles have funded the magnetic pull of Republicans further to the right. They built a network of legal centers, scientists, universities, political action committees, lobbying, private education advocacy, and think tanks to disseminate their philosophy reciprocally made them stalwarts of the modern-day Republicanism. Therefore “Moderate republicans” are almost extinct. This inherently makes the political polarization asymmetrical. This is what Obama, Centrist Democrats, and the other neoliberals failed to realize in their disastrous attempts to purse centrist policies that further dragged them outside of “Franklin Roosevelt-JFK idealism” into “Reaganomics” but the current ascending Progressive Democrats have always understood.
The antagonism to government, science, racial diversity and collective progress of which they pride themselves has devolved them into an extreme version of Senator Jesse Helms legislative philosophy of “No”, reactionary, “social Darwinism”, “conservative Christian sectarianism, summing up their pursuit of intransigent political ideology and intellectual dishonesty instead of “what is possible?” or “How can we progress?” or “How do we fix?”. Whereas, the inherent political trait of “progress” and “reform” within the liberal space has churned ideas for debate in resolving American problems concerning time from race to socio-economics. Liberals understand four philosophical and sequential rationale that are indiscernible to most Republicans which are “learn from the past”, “time moves forward”, “the world and people evolve” and “what type of future do we want”. Therefore the tenets of economic progress and technological advances of which conservatives overwhelmingly support through market capitalism irrevocably produce reciprocally dynamic changes in a society breaking their rigid traditionalism.The world cannot be stuck in 1776 or 1864 or 1950. The tools of science, regulated markets, objective facts, ethics, history, democracy, civics, the accountable justice system, collective empathy, cultural integration, secularism, intellectualism, education, human rights, and government accountability should be the crux of a productive society in the inevitable future. The acceptance of neoliberalism in the form the “The Thirdway” in Bill Clinton and Barack Obama stifled the essence of reform in liberalism by supporting more unregulated markets, expansive military imperialism, globalization, market monopolization for an exchange in social and racial inclusion. They feel the Republican delusion that unregulated financial markets are the only tools in resolving social progress encapsulated in the infamous 80’s “Greed is good” moniker. The essence of a great society is the massive spending power of the middle class in a high aggregate standard of living. The unregulated corrupting influence of chronic accumulation of wealth within a few hands proceeds to concentrated power diminishes human welfare, social institutions, social mobility and democracy which progressive liberals including Theodore Roosevelt (to an extent), Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Bernie Sanders understood.
Republicans have become deficient to use such tools to build a future. Therefore, Republicans are funding the “uneducation” of America through reduced federal spending and the spread of non-factual propaganda to retain their political and plutocratic power. Generally, Americans are approaching a point of resigned cynicism with the current system with the window for an accelerant of change to accommodate the present and project for the future particularly with race and socioeconomics slowly closing. But there are two types of change namely positive or negative. Trump as an authoritative populist against Bernie Sanders as a Progressive populist were ying-yang of the American populism movement. Unfortunately, America chose a marketing charlatan of negativity, Donald Trump who demonizes immigrants and minorities as the reason for the economic despair of middle-class whites. Rather than reducing the power of plutocrats of which he belongs to, push for more democracy, retooling and regulating the consequences and rules of globalization for the people rather than for corporate bodies (automation of assembly lines, job outsourcing, cheaper-streamlined supply chains, and more computerized-algorithmic workplace) and use immigration as a tool for humanitarianism and economic growth. The lines of propaganda, conspiracy theories, racism, regressive intellectual punditry, and journalism became blurred in the ensuing years on Fox news. With the death of Roger Ailes, Donald Trump has assumed the informal role as both “President of United States and CEO of FOX news” as the “Foxification” of the White House continues.
“Make America Great Again”, the visceral slogan which personified the Trumpian era swept the political arena in 2016. It is in continuation of the American history of “white identity politics”. The fear of the immigrants and minorities in a climate of economic despair is a virulent strain in White America especially Republicanism. White identity politics is the backlash of a more egalitarian society. Republicans fail to realize that to end racial diversity in America and unify under the racially indiscriminate term of being “Americans” is to address structural-socioeconomic racism in its historical predicate and its ongoing evolution which continually denies minorities that ability to fully assimilate into the identity of being American. But what does it mean? What time is this greatness? This question evokes a symbolic “Ouroboros” response. Generally, Republicans point to the 1950s of perceived glorious times. Does it mean a time of well-regulated capitalism with reasonable wealth inequality and socialistic stopgaps but blacks were under apartheid? The search for recreating such a past is very subjective and nuanced. They choose a time that is particularly great economically for the race group but socially regressive for the other racial groups. The pursuit of such anachronism permeating within Trump supporters blinds them from reality. It is undoubtedly evident that the ebbs and flows of race, gender, theocracy, individual vs. collective philosophy, and socio-economics defines every grain of the Conservative movement. It is in continuation of the American history of “white identity politics”. The fear of the immigrants and minorities in a climate of economic despair is a virulent strain in White America especially Republicanism. White identity politics is the backlash to a more racially egalitarian society that is colloquially captured in the conspiratorial slogan of “racial equality is white genocide” and an incorrectly ascribed status of racial victimization. Republicans fail to realize that to end racial diversity in America and unify under the racially indiscriminate term of being “Americans” is to address structural-socioeconomic racism in its historical predicate and its ongoing evolution which continually denies minorities that ability to fully assimilate into the identity of being American. Trump exudes the personification of “strong man” identity, as he proclaims, in which all societal problems can be solved through him. The keyword “man” calls for a patriarchal homage that totalitarianism invigorates. This essence of absolute masculinity in a leader promulgates the societal acceptance for women to be submissive, subjugated and demure in the pursuit of gender traditionalist utopia. This concept is in line with the theocratic strain within the Republican party which commonly demeans demurred feminist concept as “uncouth” rather than a civil-economic rights issue. The innate narcissism in Trump captured in his “strong man” persona, invites the populace to reside their trust in him regardless of the truths and to the detriment of the other balances of power steals a page of the famous 1984 book. Therefore “Truth isn’t truth, believe in me instead”. This sociological blindspot has rendered most Republicans in a trance of “blind loyalty” in the adherence of the rotten seeds of authoritarianism. So conclusively, nationalism, racial supremacy, anti-intellectualism, absolute male patriarchy, singular religion, blind loyalty, limited press, asymmetrical power to the executive branch are all tenets of fascism. History never lies, ask Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Franco, Noriega, and Amin.
In Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s book called “How Democracies Die”, they stipulated four major totalitarian traits in a leader to which Donald Trump is performing exceptionally. I will edify and add a more up to date totalitarian characteristics of Trump. They include:
Rejection of the weak commitment to democratic rules of the game: Does Trump reject the Constitution or express a willingness to violate it? Does Trump suggest a need for anti-democratic measures e.g restricting to banning basic civil or political rights? Does Trump endorse the use of extraconstitutional means to change and/or retain his government such as armed mass protests? Does Trump attempt to undermine the legitimacy of elections by refusing to accept credible electoral results?
Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents: Does Trump describe Democrats as subversive or opposed or enemies to the existing constitutional order? Does Trump claim Democrats constitute an existential threat either to national security or the prevailing way of life? Does Trump describe Democrats as criminals whose supposed or intent in violating the law disqualifies them from full participation in the political arena?
Toleration or encouragement of violence: Has Trump tacitly endorsed violence by their supporters by refusing to unambiguously condemn it and punish it? Has Trump praised or refused to condemn other significant acts of political violence, either in the past or elsewhere in the world?
Readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents including media: Has Trump supported laws pr policies that restrict civil liberties, such as expanded libel or defamation laws, laws restricting protests, criticism of the government, civic organizations or political organizations? Has Trump threatened to take legal or punitive action against critics in rival parties, civil society or the media? Has Trump praised repressive measures taken by other governments either in the past or elsewhere in the world?
“Yes” is the resounding answer to the above questions.
The self-inflicted wound from the past and the pursuit of the past continue to rotten society, manifesting into Trumpism. People look at Trump as an “aberration out of irrationality” but I see him as the “ripened Republican of sown rotten seeds in Republicanism”. His mercurial ways capture the devolution and hypocrisy of the Conservative movement from Nixon’s era. The more moderate Abraham Lincoln-Theodore-Roosevelt-Dwight Eisenhower strain within Republicans is nearly non-existent and shows itself more within the Democratic party. The Nixon-Reagan-Trump strain is the Republican party of which asymmetrical polarization exists in American politics. Republicans have become more conservative with time relative to the accommodating degree of freedom in liberal values within Democrats. Therefore, the sway between incrementalism to wholesale changes in society through government policy and well-regulated capitalism gives room for compromise or grand advancement rest mostly within Liberals and/or Progressives.
Trumpism=mercurial+anti immigration+ normalized racialized radicalism+Conservative courts weakening to evisceration of racial minorities, workers and poor people rights+white supremacy+ authoritative sycophants of a cult-like figure+ illiberal democarcy+ conspiracy theories+ever expanding unitary executive power+dteehimonization of the first African American president as an “other”, “illegitimate” “unAmerican”, “Muslim fanatic” and “Marxist” + Republican party’s disgusting tolerance for extremist views+ malignant narcissism+Nixon’s penchant for corruption and criminality+corrupt self enrichment in public office + Reaganomics+ rollback of civil liberties of minorities, women and gays+voter suppression laws+ news media turned reality tv+Southern strategy-white supremacy+choice to be stubbornly ignorant+Sarah Palin+ 2010 decision of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission+doorway to totalitarianism+Shelby County v. Holder (2013)+Newt Gingrich-Mitch McConnell’s case for ideological intransigence and breaking down congressional norms +two way mirror relationship of Trump with Fox News+conspiratorial far-right new sources equated as news.
It is self-evident the real socio-economic strains, opioid drug epidemic particularly with rural white men, degraded intellectual public sphere, reduction of an educated populace, lack of civic and corporate criminal accountability in past few years (Iraq War and Walstreet’s associated 2008 recession), adapted nationalistic-authoritarian dogma and fear of demographic changes in the society has caused an accelerated dive within the Republican Party into apathetic normalization of corruption, baseless conspiracy theories, amorality, “alternative facts”, demagoguery and neo-fascism in the name of “owning the libs”, “perceived existential threat”, “righteous incivility”, “short-sighted sense of individualism” and “overt-covert white supremacy” at the expense of a future democracy, informed civilization, empathy, and a fair social class stratum.
This epitomizes plutocracy, nepotism, cultural apathy, white privilege, aristocracy and crony capitalism at its best bridging into an Orwellian state to the detriment of meritocracy, trust in social institutions and shared prosperity.…. The idiosyncratic pursuit of knowledge, power, and authority that kept America as a hegemony has begun to crumble in utter shock, awe, caricature, and disbelief…
My mum eloquently said in addition to my iteration, “In Trump we trust, exudes the bad and ugly, America has been exposed as a fragile democracy, and the path to the future is either tyrannical or progressive”
The etched words in the constitution “We the people” have not been lived up to….the story of slavery, Jim Crow, Native American genocide, institutionalized-governmental racism, De-jure racialized laws, xenophobia, militarism, corruption and crony capitalism tear into the Jeffersonian penmanship of “We the people” leaving behind trails of facetiousness, resentment, societal disharmony, and hypocrisy.
Facing History is tough but learning from it, is easier and rewriting the lanes for the future is easiest.
“It cannot happen in America” is now an ironic statement that every third world citizen used to repeat in critiquing their countries particularly dictatorship. This is equivalent to the “American Dream” social mobility message within American society. Looking at the today’s scene, it should be rewritten as “It happened here, there and will happen in America too”. American exceptionalism was an effective public relations campaign to other nations to cover up its highly unstable and disjointed societal fabric. The belief was a successful self reinforcing myth until Donald Trump showed the true reality. The age of Demagogic Authoritarianism within vast socioeconomic disparities is here to stay in America.
Rich vs. poor, urban vs. rural, meritocracy vs. working class, black vs. white, racial diversity vs. whiteness, facts vs. conspiracy theories, plutocrats vs. 99.9%, representative democracy vs. authoritarianism, liberal vs. conservative, progressive vs. neoliberal, Liberal corporate media vs. conservative corporate media, Christian identity vs secularism, modernity vs. traditionalism, science vs. opinions, welfare state vs. unfettered feudal capitalism, patriarchy vs feminism, liberalist foreign policy vs realist foreign policy, globalization vs. protectionism and capital vs. labor.
Such aspirations has hit the wall of bewilderment, disgust and near obsolescence as the United States of America tapers off into a Shakespearean tragedy or worse, a foreboding dystopian glimpse of a civilization’s end mimicking the decaying Roman’s empire or personifying sun-burnt Icarus of Greek mythology. America has sold the world its societal purity of exceptionalism but time has unveiled an undeniable decaying foundation of a decadent feudal like uber- capitalistic class with air-filled meritocratic self aggrandizement and a growing economically deficient and uneducated populace in despair. This growing populace in despair are seduced by the allure of a revisionist past, conspiracy theories and apathy which sets the table for a demagogue to exploit.
Donald Trump, the orange and vulgar authoritarian, is not the source of American predilection for destructive discordance. He is the consequence and embodiment of a lurking societal virus with various tentacles through its history, a more “selected valorized history”. The societal virus is the construct of “whiteness” not European lineage but “whiteness”. This sets the inevitable path for a bleak hybridized corporatized-white nationalistic- overt totalitarian future. The name “neo-fascism” bears its ugly head.
America is under the auspice of immorality, hubris, megalomania, violent militancy, hypocrisy, legislative toxicity, antiscience, ill-informed conspiratorial psyche, uber-plutocracy, white Christian-ethnonationalism which is accelerating into the inevitable abyss of anarchical nihilism of future apartheid state or worse, civil war.
The nascent neo-fascism is built on the fear of losing the finite space of “power” from the grips of privileged whites ordained by exploitative history, privilege, media, culture, and socioeconomics to which present day most Republicans and some Democrats exploit to financially enrich the elites while excluding immigrants, gays, and minorities. Unsurprisingly this transaction adversely affects poor and middle-class whites through economics. But poor and middle-class whites’ blinded ignorance reinforces narrowed “visceral” feelings of basking in culturally being white” offered by rich white elites but marginal monetary gains. This entitlement also earns them the rights to absurd loop of victimhood to which immigrants, gays, and minorities are focus of their ire. They propagandizes the facetious adage of “Racial equality is white genocide”. Whites generally haven’t realized that African Americans are the vessels of which the constitution is expected to live up to. The founding fathers despite their choice to continue in the social economic exploitation of blacks through slavery left a hypocritical constitutional loophole of which African Americans based their existence on.
The lines
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”
or
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”
pushes for democracy, separation of church and state, equal citizenry and anti-white supremacy which is inspired by the enlightened philosophies of Paine, Voltaire, Rousseau and Montesquieu. So inadvertently, African Americans’ plight is the true embodiment of what the “spirit of Americanism” should be. It took until 1968, for these ideals in those words to “start” bear fruit. But the days reactionary anti-democracy has begun.
Government of the people, by the people, for the people as Abraham Lincoln proclaimed in Gettysburg is unfortunately now reshaping to Government of the lobbyists, bought by the plutocrats, distorted and propagandized by the corporate media, protected for the oligarchy in the name of white Christian ethnonationalism with the consent of the governed.
The current state of affairs in American politics is a chaotic gumbo of political circus, governmental inefficiency, angry populace, political polarization, racial disharmony, surreal politicization of facts and media propaganda. The lines between lies and truths are becoming indiscernible. These affairs have been grown on a petri-dish of corporate greed, plutocratic lobbying, ultra Christian fundamentalism, government-sanctioned mass surveillance apparatus, expensive public healthcare, lack of public spending on infrastructure and education, expensive military-industrial complex, unscrupulous political campaign system leveraged by elite circles, unethical revolving door of private enterprise and governmental offices, outlandish wealth and income inequalities, corporate-friendly media, public ignorance and/or dissonance, selective memory on complex racial history and white driven nativism. Regardless of the aforementioned problems and the current appalling caricature, America’s hegemony with economic resources and influence still stands but its luster wrapped in American exceptionalism is drastically waning with the rise of multipolar world powers (especially China and Russia), far-right populism, trade protectionism and pessimistic views of globalization. These problems are compounded by the dysfunctional political parties with which Republicans have a major share of the blame. I will venture into five major historical episodes in the devolution of Republicanism namely:
Civil war: Abraham Lincoln era
Abraham Lincoln: Among the founding fathers of the Republican party and 16th (First Republican) President of the United States (1861-1865).The ugliness, despair, subjugation, and terrors of slavery
The continuation of African American slavery was the underlying root of the American south’s decision to secede from United states resulting in the Civil war (1861-1865). The prior financial shocks in America which affected property ownership, bank liquidity, and employment hardened the resolve of Southerners in continuing free labor of slaves. The cultural divide of the educated Northern elites who were tolerant of black freedom but skeptical of black economic empowerment and social integration relative to rural southerners driven by utmost white supremacy widened. The Confederate soldiers led by General Robert Lee of the South lost to the Union soldiers led by General Ulysses Grant of the North which in essence supported the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. It also cemented the Reconstruction amendments (13th, 14th, and 15th) to the Constitution that abolished slavery, established citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws for African Americans and prohibited discrimination in voting rights of citizens on the basis of race respectively. Much to the dismay of history, Lincoln was driven more by consolidating political power rather than a moral prerogative in abolishing slavery to maintain the Union of States. Despite such national progress, the viral strain of white supremacy enveloped in the flag of the confederate rebel flag never died instead became part of the socio-economic, political, and cultural discriminatory fabric primarily in the American South through the reconstructionist Jim Crow and Black codes laws of which the infamous Ku Klux Klan arose. The Republicans, therefore, abandoned the black suffrage and the pursuit of racial equality in the Reconstruction era to reach a mutually tolerable relationship with Southern Democrats.
Abraham Lincoln instituted the early economic foundation of Republicanism; mercantilism and free-market capitalism within its borders built on subsidized domestic production by manufacturing and industrialization, trade protectionism, nationalized banking system, income tax, and progressive tax system and common fiat paper currency. These were instituted to invest in the poor-middle class, created social mobility climate, invest in infrastructure, integrated national markets and supply chains for a nationalized economy and reduce the shocks of past financial crisis but it consequently created a monopolistic and corrupt power of the few selected by a centralized government of which Republicans and their associates benefited which exacerbated wealth and income inequalities in the ensuing Gilded Age era.
2. Progressivism: Teddy Roosevelt era.
Crony capitalism, plutocracy, and corruption benefiting from the suffering of workers.Theodore Roosevelt: Republican, 26th President of United States (1901-1919) and face of the Progressive era.“White” Women suffrage
The Progressive-era starting in the late 1890s to 1920 was a political, scientific, socio-economic and moral pushback on the excesses of the prior Glided age. The societal rampant corruption of politicians, inefficient industrialization, urbanization, corporate monopolies, poverty-stricken working-class, hazardous working conditions, child labor, immorality, gender, massive income to wealth inequalities and contaminated foods and drugs were elements of the Glided age. Course corrective anti-Social Darwinist philosophy through regulation, incentives, scientific engineering, education, constitutional amendments, anti-trust and labor laws, preservation of natural resources, direct democracy and injection of religiosity were under the progressive umbrella.These principles were the revised platform of the new Republican party at the helm of Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt envisioned a well regulated capitalistic society with the coexistence of strong unions and competitive corporations within the confines of a non-corruptible sovereign democratic government. Despite such reforms, the progressive era still ended with the emergence of the Roaring Twenties era with which wealth and income inequalities worsened.
Anti monopolistic laws (Sherman Act and the Clayton Act), Federal Trade Commission Act, lowered Tariffs, Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act, 16th Amendment instituted a graduated federal income tax, 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverage, Environmental protection executive orders, 17th amendment to the US Constitution allowed direct election of U.S. Senators, 19th amendment to the US Constitution allowed women to vote, rise of muckraking journalism exposing political and corporate corruption, scientific management, or “Taylorism for industries, settlement house movement for poor urban areas, expansion of child and veteran welfare, the reformative Social Gospel for churches and child labor laws were some the major progressive infrastructure through the presidencies of Republican Theodore Roosevelt, Republican Howard Taft to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
Despite the great tenets of progressivism, there were ills that either not addressed or worsened. The social engineering concept of eugenics was promulgated by some progressives to produce a “more genetically superior society of white Anglo Saxons” in which racial minorities, poor people, immigrants and mentally-physically disabled were allowed to be legally sterilized, segregated, discriminated and barred from miscegenation. Immigration Act of 1917 and National Quota Law of 1921 limited immigration of Italians, Jews, Eastern Europeans, and Asians because of the xenophobic labor force attributing immigrants as the cause of the low wages and hazardous workplaces and maintaining a homogeneous Aryan-Scandinavian majority. The Progressive-era was particularly regressive to African Americans starting with the Plessy vs. Ferguson of Supreme Court decision of 1896 that called for racial segregation, the most expansive erection of confederate monuments in American history propelled by the inaccurate, glorified and revisionist “Lost Cause” propaganda, the mainstream resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan reaching 4.5 million at its peak, the “Great Migration” of some blacks from the South to the North for economic opportunities (faced workplace and housing discrimination, racial segregation on government offices, reinforced Jim Crow policies at voting booths through poll tax and literacy tests, and the progressive economic welfare package were limited to the black populace).
Donald Trump “Mr anti-political correctness”: Republican Presidential aspirantBernie Sanders “Mr middle class”: Democratic President aspirant.
The presidential race has heating up in the past few weeks by the emergence of Billionaire Donald Trump (Republican) and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (Democrat). They have raised eyebrows by their populist rhetoric that strikes a chord with people’s frustration with the stagnated partisan government thereby embracing the underdog persona.People are apprehensive towards dynasties of Bush and Clinton to clash again by setting the stage between Hilary Clinton and Jeb Bush so they are now persuaded by the populist voices of Trump and Sanders. This ever-growing political capitalization is mildly reminiscent of the past wave of Barack Obama (2008), Bill Clinton (93), Ronald Reagan (1980) or John F. Kennedy (1960). In comparison to other flash in the pan (populist) candidates in the past like Fred Thompson, Ralph Nader, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rand Paul, Barry Goldwater, Bob Dole, Ross Perot and so on, it seems that Trump and Sanders will be in the headlines for a substantive period. Trump is presently leading the Republican metaphoric clown car race with a 20-22 percent lead while Sanders has overtaken Hilary Clinton in New Hampshire which is a key primary battleground state. People are apprehensive towards dynasties of Bush and Clinton to clash again by setting the stage between Hilary Clinton and Jeb Bush. The present tidal wave of these candidates are likely to dim out before their respective party’s presidential nomination. I believe that Donald Trump emergence is less sustainable compared to Bernie Sanders and I will explain why.
Donald Trump; the bigger than life personality that exudes emotion, pride, charisma, witty and decisive politically-incorrect candor. He has rose to Republican stage by ruffling feathers with the establishment Republicans, making misguided accounts on Mexican illegal immigration, somewhat misogynistic banter with Megyn Kelly(Fox News) and Hilary Clinton and his quick to respond trigger fingered Twitter responses. He has shown great appeal and support from the Tea party faction of the Republican party who are tired of their representatives not conservative enough or aren’t sticking to their anti-Barack Obama stance. Donald Trump is a visual and auditory reminder for the dissent for the current Republican caucus. There is a growing dysfunction between the Tea party and the establishment because of Donald Trump. Donald Trump who is not been cuddled by the finances of Super-PAC and party’s contributions has openly pronounced his campaign could be personally resourced. Trump has stolen the hearts of Republicans who want a ” conservative man of the people” candidate with a blunt and honest tongue which are at the core of Barry Goldwater-era conservatism and Ronald Regan. The problem with Donald Trump is “Donald Trump”. Trump words will eventually catch up with him, his words not policies has been the foundation of his campaign. Trump will continue to ruffle feathers as time progresses and might run into a huge hole of controversy that he might not recover from. Soon, people might begin to wonder if this “Trumpmania” is a rouse for shock value that eventually spill to bigger business opportunities or set the stage for a new television show. Trump has followed the typical Republican script of “attack existing policies with no alternative ideas”. His bandwagon fans are more captivated about what he would say next not necessarily what he would for the America. In a short summary, Donald is surely flashy, controversial and commanding but with no ideological vigor and substance that can either last long enough for the final nomination or even face the eventual Democratic candidate.
Bernie is often seen as cranky, charismatic, talkative, intuitive and resourceful. Bernie Sanders often described as a democratic socialist (which is antithetic to 80’s Reganomics) has been a staunch advocate for stronger middle class economy, higher taxes on the extremely wealthy class, increased minimum wages,stronger unions regulation of Wall-street, de-monopolizing the banking sector,universal pre-kindergarten, free higher education, infrastructure development, anti-Super PAC and reducing corporations’ lobbying. He and Elizabeth Warren are the strongholds of the far left (progressive liberals). He has taken on the social and economic issues as his primary core of his campaign. He wants to reduce income and wealth inequality which is a pervasive economic condition hitting America. His has never been swayed from his ideology which often causes friction with some business friendly Democrats. Liberal progressives have wanted a voice against the now prominent center minded Democrats, which are prominent because of the emergence of the far-right winged Tea party who occasionally subverted government indirectly pulled Democrats to the center. His emergence is also attributed to America’s weariness of family dynasty of Clinton. Bill and Hilary Clinton have in the political spotlight for over 20 years and have been directly and indirectly involved in shaping the present day government. Finally, people gravitate towards Bernie fiery oratory that has provided a spark among in the hearts of Americans. Some moderate Republicans prefer Bernie to Hilary as seen in massive crowd turnout in conservative cities in Dallas (8000), Houston (5000), Phoenix (11,000). His populist agenda is garnering attention across party lines which might create stronger momentum relative to Trump. Bernie’s chances are limited by his inability to really connect with minority and women votes thereby expanding his base. He has been overshadowed by Clinton in those constituencies.Also, he has not fully used his current pedestal to inform his foreign policy stance. He has an good record in foreign policy voting which includes voted against Iraq war, voting against removal of Saddam Hussein, voted against reauthorizing troops in Iraq and voted for troops withdrawal in 2007. This election is going to be ultimately on foreign policy which Hilary has a leg up over him since she was a former Secretary of State. The economy has been resurrected from financial grave and heads upwards but still needs additional reforms to strengthen its trajectory but the electorate are infatuated with ISIS, Iran nuclear deal, NSA spying and Ukrainian crisis.
Bernie and Trump share a passion that is antagonistic towards the current mold of government in both parties and are generating a populist buzz that resonates with the American’s angst of the establishment which will keep them afloat in the polls for a while. Trump and Bernie are both emotional, astute and charismatic but Bernie has more ideological substance and resounding analytic agenda relative to Trump. Trump might inadvertently run as independent because of the growing resentfulness with the Republican establishment who deem him as “callous” which he will hurt them by stealing some of their caucus indirectly solidifying the Democrats (Bill Clinton) narrow win (Remember what Ross Perot did to George Bush in 1993 election). Trump is a controversial divider within the Republican party while Bernie is a economic mouthpiece of the forgotten progressives which is will surely cement the Democrats base even if he loses. Sanders’ progressive platform has started pulling Clinton closer to the left in order to win the Democratic nomination so by all means he has made impact. While Trump words are colloquially; “accidents that keeps happening” rendering establishment republicans, Tea party and Fox news to their ungoing embarrassment .Regardless both candidates are still faced with an uphill battle to reach the final nomination but Bernie has a better chance.
But how cool with it be if Trump won the Republican nomination which will surely deliver the next POTUS to Democrats………..We can only dream..
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