The cult of the former president is generating a solid political and social movement that is engulfing the former conservatives
The phenomenon of Trumpism has not only transformed the Republican Party, but has engulfed it into a mass populist movement that prioritizes emotional experience and connection with the leader through direct worship of his person. The national coalition that Donald Trump helped prop up on the shoulders of the Tea Party in 2016 has supplanted the traditional, predominantly white professional class that dominated the Republican Party with a multi-ethnic working-class majority.
While this Faustian pact has benefited and enriched both sides, the truth is that the political formation is now Trump’s hostage and relies more on the former president than on the party. Right now, the reality is that Republicans can’t get rid of their media leader and the burden that comes with it because Trumpism doesn’t exist without Trump, no matter how hard his subsidiaries try to clone him. The key to this phenomenon is that the former president knows better than anyone how to connect with the working class, who are often abandoned and despised by Washington and the majority of both parties. It is a unique connection that also encourages prejudice, hatred, anger and even violence. Deep rooted.
Just as the attack on Capitol Hill took place in January 2021, Trump could spark riots if he is ever arrested and convicted of the myriad crimes for which he is under investigation. Extremists have already threatened FBI agents who recently searched his home in Mar-a-Lago, where he kept documents classified as top secret by the White House. The violence is on the surface. In fact, the number of mass shootings in the United States has increased since his nomination as president in 2016. The Southern Poverty Law Center has also recorded an 800% increase in hate crimes committed by individuals they identify with its angry rhetoric.
But it would be wrong to attribute its creation to the former president alone. Latent anger predates Trump. For decades, far-right propaganda via radio shows and blogospheres has sparked anger and civil war unchecked and in full view of everyone. Trump has cultivated and praised it. He has turned it into political capital and, as seen on January 6, an attempt to secure life in politics.
But Trumpism cannot be reduced to a labor movement. The new extremism also ties in with other trends running through America’s economic and social demographics. Robert Pape, a security threat specialist, led a study at the University of Chicago focusing on nearly 400 inmates — many of them accused of participating in the Capitol attack — showing that hate crimes are committed by whites (93%) and men ( 86%).
The predominant profile in this other emerging sector of radicalism, however, is far from conforming to the stereotype of unemployed, shirtless and without loss associated with extremist groups, and consists of mature professionals with their own businesses and relatively well adapted to society. They have a high level of education and generally no ties to the organized far right. More than half are professionals such as company CEOs, doctors, architects, accountants and lawyers. Of the total number of participants, only 7% were unemployed and 13% were members of violent groups.
Many of the insurgents also don’t live in die-hard Republican counties in Deep America, but instead live near Democrats or blue counties that Joe Biden handily won. However, the common denominator of all these countries is the changes in their local demographics: the provinces where the non-Hispanic white population has declined the most are most likely to generate radicalism. The ethnic group appears as the element of discomfort.
In times of great social change and economic uncertainties, racial fear seems to encompass all other social fears. And the far right has helped create the specter of this fear with fear of perceived ethnic change, based on the supremacist theory of the “great replacement.” He argues that minorities and immigrants have a deliberate plan to displace the white population, and the Democrats would support the plan. Much of the population consumes this type of disinformation through far-right channels such as Fox News, One America, and Newsmax, and countless radio and social platforms.
As a result, 21 million Americans believe that President Joe Biden is illegitimate and that violence is justified to restore Trump. In this effort to sow disinformation and ignorance, the GOP has joined the worst players: Republicans largely remain in the shadow of the former president in the current primaries. Trump and the new generation of Trumpists thus continue to damage the credibility of a party formerly characterized by the defense of law, order and democratic institutions.
But the truth is, Republicans are incapable of getting rid of the former president. Trumpism is now the hallmark of mainstream republicanism, and for many, his turn towards right-wing extremism has reached an irreparable point. The former president’s influence has made the primaries difficult, even for the candidates he supports with the sole aim of defeating the Republicans who voted against him in impeaching Congress for the Capitol Hill attack. Of the ten caucus colleagues who voted against him in 2021, only two survived the primaries, a staggering series of losses and forced retirements of lawmakers like Liz Cheney, who under normal circumstances would have easily been re-elected.
Still, the votes are testing the Trump candidates, especially in the most contested states, and the general consensus is that Trump is more than beneficial, but harmful. The party is stuck with eccentric candidates with no qualifications, whose argument to deny Biden’s previous victory will not work in the next election. Except in the right-wing media bubble and conservative states, of course.
Candidates like Harriet Hageman, the extremist who defeated Liz Cheney by nearly 40 points in the Wyoming primaries this week and whom Biden calls a “human trafficker,” may not survive November’s midterm elections. The electoral council presents Republicans with major challenges in races for the Senate, state governors and the selection of the attorney general and secretary of state.
The ideological issue aside, the Conservatives face fundraising problems. They are rethinking their advertising strategy to convince states where they could lose seats, such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arizona. The Republican National Committee funded the former president’s legal defense against personal lawsuits and government investigations, adding a bill worth nearly $2 million.
The president, Ronna McDaniel, recently warned Trump that he will stop paying the bills if he officially announces his presidential candidacy before the November midterm elections. Because if he does, it’s foreseeable that Trump will become the primary recipient of money from Republican affiliates, donors and sponsors, which would reduce the fundraising opportunities of the Senate and House candidates.
For Democrats, Trumpism can benefit them. They prefer to face extremist candidates who are much easier to beat in the general election, and they certainly want Trump’s toxic baggage in the November electoral equation. The polls prove them right. A Fox News poll conducted last week revealed a drastic change in American parents’ voting intentions — 28 points in favor of Democrats — and up to 2 points among men. The poll shows Republicans and Democrats tied at 41% in the congressional races.
The political map is therefore in full transformation and, according to experts, currently reflects the impact that the abortion ban has on parents. In the background lurks a peculiar climate of volatility, as evidenced by Trumpism’s violent response to the FBI’s search for the Mar-a-Lago mansion. It confirms not only the former president’s control over Republicans, but also the control he exercises over the entire nation.
Source: La Verdad
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