Abstract
As Hillary Clinton warned that Donald Trump was aiding the Alt-Right’s movement to take over the Republican Party by making extremism acceptable to mainstream Americans, white nationalists were celebrating it. What does this mean for American democracy? Political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argue that Trump’s election to the presidency signals a threat to American democracy because (1) he has “no real allegiance to democratic norms” and (2) because the Republican Party failed to maintain those norms by catering to Tea Party extremism which undermined mutual toleration and institutional restraint. This chapter argues that Trump’s successful presidential bid and the 2016 GOP platform stem from an ideology of white racial normalcy and a race-based nationalism that emerges out of Southern Civil Religion, thereby reinventing nineteenth-century Herrenvolk democracy for the twenty-first century. It examines how the rise of the Alt-Right was legitimized through neoconservative appeals to white victimology, the erosion of traditional values, and the crisis of fragmentation allegedly posed by cultural pluralism and liberal democracy, and how its agenda was codified through the 2016 GOP platform.
[Racism] is simply passionate, deep-seated heritage, and as such can be moved by neither argument nor fact. Only faith in humanity will lead the world to rise above its present color prejudice.
—W. E. B. DuBois, Darkwater (1920) (William Edward Burghardt Dubois, Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Howe, 1920), 73. https://web.archive.org/web/20110116164908/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=DubDark.xml&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=6&division=div1)
But what about the White people that are left behind? What about the White children who, because of school zoning laws, are forced to go to a school that is 90 percent black?… Who is fighting for these White people forced by economic circumstances to live among negroes? No one, but someone has to. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.
—Dylann Roof, “Manifesto” (2015) (Dylann Roof, “Manifesto,” https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2108059-lastrhodesian-manifesto.html)
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Notes
- 1.
Seema Mehta, “Transcript: Clinton’s Full Remarks as She Called Half of Trump Supporters ‘Deplorables,’” Los Angeles Times, September 10, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-transcript-clinton-s-full-remarks-as-1473549076-htmlstory.html
- 2.
Daniel Strauss, “Clinton Regrets ‘Deplorables’ Comment, Bashes Trump for ‘Hateful, Divisive Campaign,’” Politico, October 9, 2016. https://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/2016-presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-deplorables-229494
- 3.
David Jackson, “Trump Seeks to Profit from Clinton’s ‘Deplorables’ Remark,” USA Today, September 15, 2016. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/09/15/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-basket-of-deplorables/90352670/
- 4.
See Bill O’Reilly, “Talking Points,” Fox News, December 20, 2016; Philip Bump, “Bill O’Reilly Rose to the Defense of White Privilege in America’s Presidential Voting,” Washington Post, December 21, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/12/21/bill-oreilly-rose-to-the-defense-of-white-privilege-in-americas-presidential-voting-process/?utm_term=.a53fd8a0f92e
- 5.
Scott Neuman, “Photos of Dylann Roff, Racist Manifesto Surface on Website, “National Public Radio, June 20, 2015, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/20/416024920/photos-possible-manifesto-of-dylann-roof-surface-on-website; Dylann Roof, “Manifesto,” https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2108059-lastrhodesian-manifesto.html; Masha Gessen, “Why the Tree of Life Shooter Was Fixated on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society,” The New Yorker, October 27, 2018, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/why-the-tree-of-life-shooter-was-fixated-on-the-hebrew-immigrant-aid-society; William K. Rashbaum, Alan Feuer, and Adam Goldman, “Outspoken Trump Supporter in Florida Charged in Attempted Bombing Spree,” New York Times, October 26, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/nyregion/cnn-cory-booker-pipe-bombs-sent.html; Brian Feldman, “Mail Bombing Suspect Cesar Sayoc Was Extremely Online,” Intelligencer, October 26, 2018, http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/mail-bombing-suspect-cesar-sayoc-tweeted-threats.html
- 6.
See Tonnia L. Anderson, “For the Common Good: Re-inscribing White Normalcy into the American Body Politic,” in Intersections of Whiteness, eds. Evangelia Kindinger and Mark Schmitt, (New York: Routledge, 2019), 19–37.
- 7.
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1952), 174.
- 8.
Colm McKeogh, Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian Realism/Christian Idealism (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007), 199.
- 9.
McKeogh, 198.
- 10.
Niebuhr, Irony, 170.
- 11.
Ibid, 24–25.
- 12.
Ibid, 37.
- 13.
Ibid, 2.
- 14.
C. Vann Woodward, The Burden of Southern History, 3rd ed. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1993), 199.
- 15.
Charles Reagan Wilson, Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865–1920. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980; reprint, Athens: University of Georgia Press 2009), 15.
- 16.
Wilson, Charles Reagan. “The Religion of the Lost Cause: Ritual and Organization of the Southern Civil Religion, 1865–1920.” The Journal of Southern History 46, no. 2 (1980): 219–38. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/2208359
- 17.
Ibid, 7.
- 18.
Ibid, 7–8.
- 19.
Joel Olson, “Whiteness and the Polarization of American Politics,” Political Research Quarterly 61, no. 4 (2008): 704, 705. http://www.jstor.org.usao.idm.oclc.org/stable/20299771
- 20.
Rich Pearlstein, “Exclusive: Lee Atwater’s Infamous 1981 Interview on Southern Strategy,” The Nation, November 13, 2012, https://www.thenation.com/article/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/
- 21.
Ian Haney Lopez, Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism & Wrecked the Middle Class (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 18.
- 22.
Steve Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, “How a Democracy Dies,” The New Republic, December 7, 2017. https://newrepublic.com/article/145916/democracy-dies-donald-trump-contempt-for-american-political-institutions
- 23.
Juan Cole, “Warning to US: Erdogan Has Used Same Techniques as Trump to De-Democratize Turkey,” Common Dreams, June 25, 2018. https://www.juancole.com/2018/06/warning-techniques-democratize.html. Accessed June 30, 2018.
- 24.
Politico Staff, “Full Text: Donald Trump 2016 RNC Draft Speech Transcript,” Politico, July 21, 2016. https://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/full-transcript-donald-trump-nomination-acceptance-speech-at-rnc-225974
- 25.
Asawin Suebsaeng, “Steve Bannon Pushed Trump to Go Full Andrew Jackson,” Daily Beast, March 17, 2017. https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-pushed-trump-to-go-full-andrew-jackson
- 26.
H.W.Brands, “Trump as the New Andrew Jackson? Not on Old Hickory’s Life,” Politico Magazine, January 29, 2017. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/andrew-jackson-donald-trump-populist-president-history-214705
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Susan B. Glasser, “The Man Who Put Andrew Jackson in Trump’s Oval Office,” The Global Politico, January 22, 2018. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/22/andrew-jackson-donald-trump-216493
- 28.
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- 29.
Sean Wilentz, “America’s Lost Egalitarian Tradition,” Daedalus 131, no. 1 (2002): 75. http://www.jstor.org.usao.idm.oclc.org/stable/20027738
- 30.
Olson, “Whiteness and the Polarization of American Politics,” 704, 708. http://www.jstor.org.usao.idm.oclc.org/stable/20299771
- 31.
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality, 1887, ed. Keith Ansell-Pearson, trans. Carol Diethe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 20.
- 32.
Ibid, 21.
- 33.
Ibid, 21–22.
- 34.
Jones, Robert P., et al., How Immigration and Concerns about Cultural Changes Are Shaping the 2016 Election: Findings from the 2016 PRRI/Brookings Immigration Survey (Washington D.C.: Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI)/Brookings Institute, 2016), 2, 17.
- 35.
Clara L. Wilkins and Cheryl R. Kaiser, “Racial Progress as Threat to the Status Hierarchy: Implications for Perceptions of Anti-White Bias,” Psychological Science 25, no. 2 (2014): 445. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797613508412
- 36.
Wendy Brown, “Wounded Attachments.” Political Theory 21, no. 3 (1993): 400, http://www.jstor.org.usao.idm.oclc.org/stable/191795
- 37.
See David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick, “Donald Trump’s Racism: The Definitive List,” New York Times, January 15, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/15/opinion/leonhardt-trump-racist.html
- 38.
Editorial Board, “The Most Extreme Republican Platform in Memory,” The New York Times, July 18, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/opinion/the-most-extreme-republican-platform-in-memory.html?_r=0
- 39.
Ibid.
- 40.
Republican National Committee, Platform Committee, Republican Platform 2016 (Cleveland: Consolidated Solutions, 2016), 9–10, https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL[1]-ben_1468872234.pdf
- 41.
Henry Barbour et al., Republican National Committee, Growth and Opportunity Project (2013), 4, http://goproject.gop.com/rnc_growth_opportunity_book_2013.pdf
- 42.
Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream (New York: Anchor Books, 2009), xvi.
- 43.
Newt Gingrich’s Twitter feed, March 18, 2013. https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/313673503599624192
- 44.
Jennifer Rubin, “GOP Autopsy Report Goes Bold,” Right Turn (blog), Washington Post, March 18, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2013/03/18/gop-autopsy-report-goes-bold/?utm_term=.ecebc209b84f
- 45.
Kyle Cheney, “Trump Kills GOP Autopsy,” Politico, March 4, 2016, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/donald-trump-gop-party-reform-220222
- 46.
Edwin Meese III, “Rebuilding the Reagan Coalition,” Heritage Lectures, no. 988 (2006): 4, http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/rebuilding-the-reagan-coalition
- 47.
Ibid, 8.
- 48.
See Herbert J. Gans, “This is How the Republican Party Plans to Destroy the Federal Government,” The Nation, February 13, 2017, https://www.thenation.com/article/this-is-how-the-republican-party-plans-to-destroy-the-federal-government/
- 49.
Meese, 8.
- 50.
Michael Gerson, “How to Save the Republican Party,” Commentary Magazine, March 1, 2013, https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/how-to-save-the-republican-party/
- 51.
James Davidson Hunter, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America (New York: Basic Books, 1991), 42.
- 52.
Republican National Committee, Republican Party Platform, 31.
- 53.
Ben Johnson, “2016 Republican Party Platform Hailed as Most Pro-Life, Pro-Family Ever,” Life Site, July 20, 2016, https://www.lifesitenews.com/new s/2016-republican-party-platform-the-most-pro-life-ever
- 54.
Republican National Committee, Republican Party Platform, 9–10.
- 55.
Wendy Brown, “American Nightmare: Neoliberalism, Neoconservatism, and De-Democratization” Political Theory 34, no. 6 (2006): 708. http://www.jstor.org.usao.idm.oclc.org/stable/20452506
- 56.
Niebuhr, Irony, 146.
- 57.
Nick Visser, “GOP Senator Cindy Hyae-Smith Just Made a Joke About Public Hangings in Mississippi,” Huffington Post, November 11, 2018, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cindy-hyde-smith-public-hanging_us_5be8d74ce4b0e84388995677; Willa Frej, “GOP Senator Says Voter Suppression Is a ‘Great Idea,’” Huffington Post, November 16, 2018, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cindy-hyde-smith-voter-suppression_us_5beea9b7e4b0c19de3fecb10
- 58.
See Caroline Sommerfeld, “Steve King: Bring Pride Back to Austria,” unzensuriert.at, September 2, 2018, https://www.unzensuriert.at/content/0027654-Steve-King-Bring-Pride-back-Austria; Jenna Amatulli, “GOP State Lawmaker Screams ‘N∗∗∗∗r,’ Brandishes Bare Butt on ‘Who Is America?’” Huffington Post, July 25, 2018, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rep-jason-spencer-screams-n-word-brandishes-bare-butt-on-who-is-america_us_5b5545b1e4b0de86f48e5a5e
- 59.
Avi Selk, “Political Violence Goes Coast to Coast as Proud Boys and Antifa Activists Clash in New York, Portland,” The Washington Post, October 14, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/10/14/political-violence-goes-coast-coast-proud-boys-antifa-activists-clash-new-york-portland/?utm_term=.719ee787 142b
- 60.
Alan Rappeport, “Hillary Clinton Denounces the ‘Alt-Right,’ and the Alt-Right is Thrilled,” New York Times, August 26, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/27/us/politics/alt-right-reaction.html?_r=0; Dana Liebelson and Matt Ferner. “Even If Trump Loses, White Nationalists Say They’ve Won.” Huffington Post, November 2, 2016, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-white-nationalists_us_581a103be4b0a76e174c51bb
- 61.
Ibid.
- 62.
Ishaan Tharoor, “What the World’s Nationalists Can Learn from Turkey and Erdogan,” Washington Post, June 26, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/06/26/what-the-worlds-nationalists-can-learn-from-turkey-and-erdogan/
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Anderson, T.L. (2019). Herrenvolk Democracy: The Rise of the Alt-Right in Trump’s America. In: Battista, C., Sande, M. (eds) Critical Theory and the Humanities in the Age of the Alt-Right. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18753-8_5
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