This is a brilliant analysis. Two complementary aspects:
First, as is widely known, there is a shift to the right in many European countries, and the question arises as to the extent to which this, too, is not a sudden collapse of a previously intact democracy, but rather a radicalization of agents who had long since ceased to be democratic. In Germany, for example, there was never an ideological purge (in a good sense) after the Second World War: individuals in state institutions who were ideologically committed to National Socialism were only partially replaced, and a certain "old smell" of the regime persisted and persists to this day – one of the possible hypotheses about how fascist tendencies persist for decades while a ostensibly existing democracy exists.
Second, I think it's very good how you contrast the two social orders (A white Christian ethno-state with strict hierarchies of race, gender, religion, and wealth on the one hand; an egalitarian democracy embracing a pluralistic society on the other) and don't say: here is a democracy and here is not a democracy. First, a focus on the concept of democracy requires a critical examination of the term itself (were the societies that first called themselves democratic democratic by today's standards?). Second, the common definition as "rule of the people" is de facto only indirectly realized everywhere—typically as a parliamentary democracy. In these constellations, there are always aspects where it is actually questionable to what extent a particular outcome can be attributed to data that represent the "will of the people" (e.g., gerrymandering, electoral college). Sometimes, to a liberal observer, this appears to be a necessary measure to preserve an egalitarian, pluralistic society that simultaneously requires a strong government to protect it; and sometimes, however, it also appears to be a manipulation of democratic instruments to abolish this.
This is an outstanding essay. It's the best exposition I've read of the origins and character of the faction currently dominating American government and furiously driving the country toward several kinds of disaster.
I've been watching this slow-motion train wreck for six decades now. I'm a child of a middle-class white woman with delusions of gentility, who grew up in Jim Crow North Carolina, remembered it fondly, and never forgave the federal government or the Democratic party for their roles (however belated and qualified) in ending that reign of terror. She and the other adults among whom I grew up grumbled incessantly that Republican politicians such as Richard Nixon weren't genuine conservatives, largely because they weren't sufficiently dedicated to undoing the social progress of the mid-20th century and even earlier. Those adults were fundamentalist christianists*, and they considered themselves a persecuted minority. Even as a child, it was obvious to me that they weren't actually persecuted in any meaningful sense, but per this essay, they craved "cultural domination and affirmation". Back then, people like them were culturally and politically marginal. Arguably, they still are culturally marginal, but they've become politically potent, and like their kindred spirits in every repressive state, they aim to use political power to crush cultural resistance to them.
Make no mistake: such people don't believe in democracy; they never did. Democracy is acceptable to them only so long as it doesn't threaten the objectively indefensible social order in which they do believe.
The only thing I would add to this essay's summary of how such fools came to define American "conservatism" is the influence of decades of lavishly funded and practically unrestrained reactionary propaganda. When I was a child in Los Angeles, nothing on TV consistently affirmed the idiocies to which the adults in my life were committed.** But for about 30 years, Fox "News" and a host of accomplices on TV, radio, and the web have done that, enlarging, galvanizing, and marshaling the perennial mob of bigots and ignoramuses (as Clarence Darrow called them a hundred years ago) into the most powerful voting bloc in the increasingly disunited States of America.
-------
*I don't call them Christians. What they believed, as manifested by how they lived, had little in common with Jesus of Nazareth, as depicted in the first four books of the New Testament.
**The closest thing was "Firing line", but William Buckley was too highfalutin and Catholic for fundie tastes.
This is true and the root of our problem. I think if points to how we can best counter the madness, the best antidote.
I like the word ‘Legacy’ rather than ‘Heritage’ to talk about the best of our history, because the things we want to celebrate are gifts, from the past made to the future. It is all the aspirations and contributions of those who came before who believed in the promise of our country, the promise of Freedom, no matter how many times they were disappointed. ‘Heritage’, generally refers to something passed down by prior generations and can’t escape the connotations of attitudes and beliefs ossified by time.
We are trying, with all our efforts, to find ways to remind our people of the wonderful legacy we all share. It’s an anchor to hold onto against the flood of lies, hate, cynicism and apathy that beats against us all, these days. We are all responsible for protecting this legacy and must not let it be stolen.
Orwell reminds us in 1984 , that ‘those who control the past, command the future’. The incoherent fiction that the trump worshippers write of our history isn’t meant to convince any but their initiates. Like all mis-information, it is a mass of contradiction, not meant to convince any group of truth but to confuse and dispirit them so that they will give up on believing anything. The goal is to leave all but their true believers in a state of complete cynicism and apathy.
These selfish fools and corrupt confederates would author a new ‘Dark Age’. One that like Churchill warned, ‘might be made more deep and pernicious by the lights of perverted science’.
Let’s look to our history and every corner of our culture for the stories that can remind people what we aspire our country to be.
Even the MAGA know their confederate king would sell them out for a price. The best of our history is wonderful legacy not a casino’s winnings to squandered by cheats and fools…in their hearts they must know that too.
This is interesting, but like so many pundits, ignores the elephant in the room: That the radicalization of the right wing has been engineered through 40 years of nonstop propaganda.
Discussing “Red America” without mentioning that is like discussing a poisoning as though it were a mysterious illness. You might spin interesting theories, but you won’t stumble across a cure while refusing to look at the cause.
The absurdly expansive interpretation of the first amendment that has been in vogue for the last few decades has quite deliberately turned it into a suicide pact. After all, one thing you’ll never hear from the media is that the media is the problem.
This is an incredibly incisive constellation of the American experience. You and Mike Brock have your fingers on the pulse of this flailing beast we call a republic. I can’t wait to read Part III.
I agree with all you have written here, but I don’t see any reference to the malign influences of foreign players like Russia and Israel, social media algorithms, or the way the DNC swatted down the Sanders campaign in 2016…all very real pieces of the total picture.
When i was a student I encountered family and followers of the conservative writer Russell Kirk. All of them believers in American order. This is a highly illuminating and insightful analysis, and the new right radicalism is definitely light years away from traditional conservatism. But I do detect a faint echo of that earlier discourse, with its belief in a "natural" order of things.
Great analysis. It mirrors my thoughts entirely. I think that 2 supreme court cases mobilized the radical right: Board of Education and Engel v. Vitale (banning prayer in schools).
This is excellent. I can’t help but wonder if we’ll ultimately get to just raw truth….will it become so volatile in America that the “messaging” from both sides will be stripped down to the essential truth of what we face as a nation: it’s racism.
Left: “No matter your color, creed, or identity, you belong”
Right: “If you’re not white (or Christian), you’re a blight. If you’re not straight, it’s you we hate”
The use of the phrase "persecution complex" alone was a lightbulb moment for me. Thank you for this piece as it really shed so much light on this cancerous MAGA agenda.
Thanks a lot for summing up the complex roots and contexts for the present mess. What about the new (?) strand of techbro ideology/politics of Musk, Thiel, Karp et.al.? To me it looks like they represent a new chapter.
Beautiful, sobering analysis of our current predicament in the U.S. and of the deep-seated historical forces that have brought us to this point in our history.
I cannot help but believe that the far-right has made a Faustian bargain with Trump, particularly the Christian-based element. Trump’s close involvement with the human trafficker and pedophile Epstein will inevitably be blown out into the open, effectively destroying his Presidency and bringing about his ultimate and irrecoverable downfall. Pedophilia remains one of the ultimate, unforgivable sins in America, and there’s almost never any coming back from it once convicted, whether that conviction happens in a court of law or in the court of public opinion.
The Christofascist pastors recently featured on CNN may be able to look the other way, but many of the rank and file of their flocks will reel in revulsion and disgust at Trump’s exposure and the pastors’ failure to rebuke and condemn him. Indeed, many Christians are already fleeing Churches that have sold out their witness for proxy and favor by the Trump regime. This exodus will only accelerate.
None of this will resolve the deep fundamental divide in this country, however. Trump’s collapse may only mark a temporary setback for the far-right until they can coalesce around a new movement figure, likely someone far more polished, shrewd and cunning. That won’t be JD Vance.
Moreover, the Democratic faction must quickly realize and come to terms with the fact that the GOP is in totality a party of bad faith actors who have open contempt for Constitutional rule of law and will continue to seek to undermine and destroy it. These people will not play nice and things wont go back to pre-Trump “normal” no matter how much we may wish it. Those of us who value democracy and plurality are going to have to appreciate the stakes and resolve to defend them as if our world and future depends on us doing so.
How do you factor in the legacy of the Know Nothing party? It seems to me that the current extremist war against the 'other' was always with the Republican Party. Remember the compromise that birthed the Republican Party was due to various factions who strongly favored a 'back to Africa' policy. This was in line with the Know Nothing's anti-immigration leanings. But the real, unsettled question for the KN's was who was considered 'White Christians'? Certainly they did not consider Irish or Italian Catholics (or the Melungeon) as either white or christian. Their 'back to' fervor wasn't only in regard to the soon to be freed African slaves. They were in favor of limiting and denying citizenship to all manor of Catholic immigrants, including those from what we'd currently consider 'white' Europeans.
After the Civil War when it became clear to the KN's that the South had no intention of falling in line with the 'back to' policy. And the Republican party also wasn't keen on losing cheap immigrant labor for the industrial boom that follow the war. That's when I would mark the schisms that would eventually realign both the Democratic and Republican Parties.
It's ironic that this current culture war has the Catholics and Protestants forming a detente of sorts in order to gain and hold power. They do have patriarchal ideology in common but in fact, they are widely separated internally and externally as to who they consider White and Christian. I wonder how long their detente can last given the Reformation's roots and power and money struggles predate our Revolution by hundreds of years.
And ultimately, their split will come down to who controls the indulgences (money) just as it was 500+ years ago. I cannot help wondering if the real reason we see so much politicking from the pulpit is because of the money that's going into campaigns instead of collection plates? Religion has become a major industry and media empire in the US. And that is driven by money, not piety. Which is why the true believers are so shocked about Epstein. They are as pissed at their leaders who have been holding Trump up as some sort of messianic figure as they are their Orange Idol God.
Outstanding, clear analysis. Thank you, I will be sharing this article. I write about climate change and overshoot. This takeover of science denying fascists couldn't come at a worse time. The entire concept of nation states competing with each other is deadly. If we can't see the planet as a whole living being, and live in unified support of her, we will likely be extinct in a handful of generations. The myopia of race, religion and politics is fatal.
Here's another angle on this smart appraisal. There are different sweeps of history, and they all help us understand the current moment. In looking from an evolutionary perspective, another dating for how our current situation originated would go back 2,000 years to when we stopped being matriarchal, where we were of the earth rather than competing with one another, like the indigenous cultures that carried on that way.
Two thousand years ago we got the sun god, where we put God outside ourselves and became subservient to it. Where we used to be divine creatures in a sacred universe, we became sinners looking for redemption, which led to all the sins of self-service that now eclipse our humanitarian proclivities.
If I ran the world, I’d have everyone listen to Anne Baring. This is her lifework and she is brilliant. Here’s the most recent of my Substacks with video of her:
How about NO concept of god ? Any history of religion is a study of evil. We don't need to believe in a mythical, never verified being to find purpose,or know right from wrong.
This is a brilliant analysis. Two complementary aspects:
First, as is widely known, there is a shift to the right in many European countries, and the question arises as to the extent to which this, too, is not a sudden collapse of a previously intact democracy, but rather a radicalization of agents who had long since ceased to be democratic. In Germany, for example, there was never an ideological purge (in a good sense) after the Second World War: individuals in state institutions who were ideologically committed to National Socialism were only partially replaced, and a certain "old smell" of the regime persisted and persists to this day – one of the possible hypotheses about how fascist tendencies persist for decades while a ostensibly existing democracy exists.
Second, I think it's very good how you contrast the two social orders (A white Christian ethno-state with strict hierarchies of race, gender, religion, and wealth on the one hand; an egalitarian democracy embracing a pluralistic society on the other) and don't say: here is a democracy and here is not a democracy. First, a focus on the concept of democracy requires a critical examination of the term itself (were the societies that first called themselves democratic democratic by today's standards?). Second, the common definition as "rule of the people" is de facto only indirectly realized everywhere—typically as a parliamentary democracy. In these constellations, there are always aspects where it is actually questionable to what extent a particular outcome can be attributed to data that represent the "will of the people" (e.g., gerrymandering, electoral college). Sometimes, to a liberal observer, this appears to be a necessary measure to preserve an egalitarian, pluralistic society that simultaneously requires a strong government to protect it; and sometimes, however, it also appears to be a manipulation of democratic instruments to abolish this.
This is an outstanding essay. It's the best exposition I've read of the origins and character of the faction currently dominating American government and furiously driving the country toward several kinds of disaster.
I've been watching this slow-motion train wreck for six decades now. I'm a child of a middle-class white woman with delusions of gentility, who grew up in Jim Crow North Carolina, remembered it fondly, and never forgave the federal government or the Democratic party for their roles (however belated and qualified) in ending that reign of terror. She and the other adults among whom I grew up grumbled incessantly that Republican politicians such as Richard Nixon weren't genuine conservatives, largely because they weren't sufficiently dedicated to undoing the social progress of the mid-20th century and even earlier. Those adults were fundamentalist christianists*, and they considered themselves a persecuted minority. Even as a child, it was obvious to me that they weren't actually persecuted in any meaningful sense, but per this essay, they craved "cultural domination and affirmation". Back then, people like them were culturally and politically marginal. Arguably, they still are culturally marginal, but they've become politically potent, and like their kindred spirits in every repressive state, they aim to use political power to crush cultural resistance to them.
Make no mistake: such people don't believe in democracy; they never did. Democracy is acceptable to them only so long as it doesn't threaten the objectively indefensible social order in which they do believe.
The only thing I would add to this essay's summary of how such fools came to define American "conservatism" is the influence of decades of lavishly funded and practically unrestrained reactionary propaganda. When I was a child in Los Angeles, nothing on TV consistently affirmed the idiocies to which the adults in my life were committed.** But for about 30 years, Fox "News" and a host of accomplices on TV, radio, and the web have done that, enlarging, galvanizing, and marshaling the perennial mob of bigots and ignoramuses (as Clarence Darrow called them a hundred years ago) into the most powerful voting bloc in the increasingly disunited States of America.
-------
*I don't call them Christians. What they believed, as manifested by how they lived, had little in common with Jesus of Nazareth, as depicted in the first four books of the New Testament.
**The closest thing was "Firing line", but William Buckley was too highfalutin and Catholic for fundie tastes.
Excellent
This is true and the root of our problem. I think if points to how we can best counter the madness, the best antidote.
I like the word ‘Legacy’ rather than ‘Heritage’ to talk about the best of our history, because the things we want to celebrate are gifts, from the past made to the future. It is all the aspirations and contributions of those who came before who believed in the promise of our country, the promise of Freedom, no matter how many times they were disappointed. ‘Heritage’, generally refers to something passed down by prior generations and can’t escape the connotations of attitudes and beliefs ossified by time.
We are trying, with all our efforts, to find ways to remind our people of the wonderful legacy we all share. It’s an anchor to hold onto against the flood of lies, hate, cynicism and apathy that beats against us all, these days. We are all responsible for protecting this legacy and must not let it be stolen.
Orwell reminds us in 1984 , that ‘those who control the past, command the future’. The incoherent fiction that the trump worshippers write of our history isn’t meant to convince any but their initiates. Like all mis-information, it is a mass of contradiction, not meant to convince any group of truth but to confuse and dispirit them so that they will give up on believing anything. The goal is to leave all but their true believers in a state of complete cynicism and apathy.
These selfish fools and corrupt confederates would author a new ‘Dark Age’. One that like Churchill warned, ‘might be made more deep and pernicious by the lights of perverted science’.
Let’s look to our history and every corner of our culture for the stories that can remind people what we aspire our country to be.
Even the MAGA know their confederate king would sell them out for a price. The best of our history is wonderful legacy not a casino’s winnings to squandered by cheats and fools…in their hearts they must know that too.
This is interesting, but like so many pundits, ignores the elephant in the room: That the radicalization of the right wing has been engineered through 40 years of nonstop propaganda.
Discussing “Red America” without mentioning that is like discussing a poisoning as though it were a mysterious illness. You might spin interesting theories, but you won’t stumble across a cure while refusing to look at the cause.
The absurdly expansive interpretation of the first amendment that has been in vogue for the last few decades has quite deliberately turned it into a suicide pact. After all, one thing you’ll never hear from the media is that the media is the problem.
This is an incredibly incisive constellation of the American experience. You and Mike Brock have your fingers on the pulse of this flailing beast we call a republic. I can’t wait to read Part III.
I agree with all you have written here, but I don’t see any reference to the malign influences of foreign players like Russia and Israel, social media algorithms, or the way the DNC swatted down the Sanders campaign in 2016…all very real pieces of the total picture.
Sounds about right.
When i was a student I encountered family and followers of the conservative writer Russell Kirk. All of them believers in American order. This is a highly illuminating and insightful analysis, and the new right radicalism is definitely light years away from traditional conservatism. But I do detect a faint echo of that earlier discourse, with its belief in a "natural" order of things.
Great analysis. It mirrors my thoughts entirely. I think that 2 supreme court cases mobilized the radical right: Board of Education and Engel v. Vitale (banning prayer in schools).
This is excellent. I can’t help but wonder if we’ll ultimately get to just raw truth….will it become so volatile in America that the “messaging” from both sides will be stripped down to the essential truth of what we face as a nation: it’s racism.
Left: “No matter your color, creed, or identity, you belong”
Right: “If you’re not white (or Christian), you’re a blight. If you’re not straight, it’s you we hate”
Thank you, Professor Zimmer.
The use of the phrase "persecution complex" alone was a lightbulb moment for me. Thank you for this piece as it really shed so much light on this cancerous MAGA agenda.
Thanks a lot for summing up the complex roots and contexts for the present mess. What about the new (?) strand of techbro ideology/politics of Musk, Thiel, Karp et.al.? To me it looks like they represent a new chapter.
Beautiful, sobering analysis of our current predicament in the U.S. and of the deep-seated historical forces that have brought us to this point in our history.
I cannot help but believe that the far-right has made a Faustian bargain with Trump, particularly the Christian-based element. Trump’s close involvement with the human trafficker and pedophile Epstein will inevitably be blown out into the open, effectively destroying his Presidency and bringing about his ultimate and irrecoverable downfall. Pedophilia remains one of the ultimate, unforgivable sins in America, and there’s almost never any coming back from it once convicted, whether that conviction happens in a court of law or in the court of public opinion.
The Christofascist pastors recently featured on CNN may be able to look the other way, but many of the rank and file of their flocks will reel in revulsion and disgust at Trump’s exposure and the pastors’ failure to rebuke and condemn him. Indeed, many Christians are already fleeing Churches that have sold out their witness for proxy and favor by the Trump regime. This exodus will only accelerate.
None of this will resolve the deep fundamental divide in this country, however. Trump’s collapse may only mark a temporary setback for the far-right until they can coalesce around a new movement figure, likely someone far more polished, shrewd and cunning. That won’t be JD Vance.
Moreover, the Democratic faction must quickly realize and come to terms with the fact that the GOP is in totality a party of bad faith actors who have open contempt for Constitutional rule of law and will continue to seek to undermine and destroy it. These people will not play nice and things wont go back to pre-Trump “normal” no matter how much we may wish it. Those of us who value democracy and plurality are going to have to appreciate the stakes and resolve to defend them as if our world and future depends on us doing so.
How do you factor in the legacy of the Know Nothing party? It seems to me that the current extremist war against the 'other' was always with the Republican Party. Remember the compromise that birthed the Republican Party was due to various factions who strongly favored a 'back to Africa' policy. This was in line with the Know Nothing's anti-immigration leanings. But the real, unsettled question for the KN's was who was considered 'White Christians'? Certainly they did not consider Irish or Italian Catholics (or the Melungeon) as either white or christian. Their 'back to' fervor wasn't only in regard to the soon to be freed African slaves. They were in favor of limiting and denying citizenship to all manor of Catholic immigrants, including those from what we'd currently consider 'white' Europeans.
After the Civil War when it became clear to the KN's that the South had no intention of falling in line with the 'back to' policy. And the Republican party also wasn't keen on losing cheap immigrant labor for the industrial boom that follow the war. That's when I would mark the schisms that would eventually realign both the Democratic and Republican Parties.
It's ironic that this current culture war has the Catholics and Protestants forming a detente of sorts in order to gain and hold power. They do have patriarchal ideology in common but in fact, they are widely separated internally and externally as to who they consider White and Christian. I wonder how long their detente can last given the Reformation's roots and power and money struggles predate our Revolution by hundreds of years.
And ultimately, their split will come down to who controls the indulgences (money) just as it was 500+ years ago. I cannot help wondering if the real reason we see so much politicking from the pulpit is because of the money that's going into campaigns instead of collection plates? Religion has become a major industry and media empire in the US. And that is driven by money, not piety. Which is why the true believers are so shocked about Epstein. They are as pissed at their leaders who have been holding Trump up as some sort of messianic figure as they are their Orange Idol God.
Outstanding, clear analysis. Thank you, I will be sharing this article. I write about climate change and overshoot. This takeover of science denying fascists couldn't come at a worse time. The entire concept of nation states competing with each other is deadly. If we can't see the planet as a whole living being, and live in unified support of her, we will likely be extinct in a handful of generations. The myopia of race, religion and politics is fatal.
Here's another angle on this smart appraisal. There are different sweeps of history, and they all help us understand the current moment. In looking from an evolutionary perspective, another dating for how our current situation originated would go back 2,000 years to when we stopped being matriarchal, where we were of the earth rather than competing with one another, like the indigenous cultures that carried on that way.
Two thousand years ago we got the sun god, where we put God outside ourselves and became subservient to it. Where we used to be divine creatures in a sacred universe, we became sinners looking for redemption, which led to all the sins of self-service that now eclipse our humanitarian proclivities.
If I ran the world, I’d have everyone listen to Anne Baring. This is her lifework and she is brilliant. Here’s the most recent of my Substacks with video of her:
Really really really how we got into this mess
We need a different conception of God
https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/if-at-first-or-at-second
How about NO concept of god ? Any history of religion is a study of evil. We don't need to believe in a mythical, never verified being to find purpose,or know right from wrong.
Click my link. That's the story.