The historical origins of Trumpism (2)

It is important to realise three important facts about the new centrality of right-wing extremists in American politics.

First, Trump did not create this movement ; though he certainly gave it legitimacy, by publicising the conspiracy theories of the birther movement. The extremists have long recognised his value to their movement (for details see David Neiwert, 'Alt-America' (2017) ).

Second, these rather heterogeneous movements (they often disagree among themselves about emphases and tactics) (see Vegas Tenold, 'Everything you love will burn' (2018)) have been around for a very long time. In its various incarnations, the Ku Klux Klan has been the longest lived of all American far-right groups. However, there has been a proliferation of such groups since the 1970s, fuelled by multiple causes: a distrust of the growing power of federal government ; reaction against the civil rights movement ; disillusionment with United States as a result of defeat in Vietnam ; liberalisation of American immigration laws from 1965 ; disorientation as a result of fundamental changes in the American economy (see Neiwert, 'Alt America' ; George Hawley, 'Making sense of the alt-right' (2018) ). Movements which have been around for as long as this will not disappear when Trump departs the scene (as he may do sooner than he desires, owing to quite a number of pending criminal prosecutions).

Third, Trump grafted on to the existing Republican Party a layer of grievances, which stem from real economic and political causes, and were not imagined by Trump. His view that America was being taken advantage of by its trading partners, and that it was expending its treasure fighting other people's wars have been a consistent part of his world view for many years, and are shared by many others. (see Brendan Simms and Charlie Ladermann, 'Donald Trump: the making of a world view' (2017)). His views on immigration are entirely consonant with his 'America First' views on international trade and foreign military interventions. Isolationism and nativism have been excluded from 'respectable' political discourse in America since the 1930s: that does not mean that policies based on those world views do not find a very receptive audience among those whoc onsider themselves victims.

The question that then arises: is how did the Republican Party become infected by this political virus ?

(To be continued)