@thomaszimmer.bsky.social
Historian - Democracy and Its Discontents - Newsletter: Democracy Americana https://democracyamericana.com - Podcast: Is This Democracy https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/is-this-democracy
Is this some elaborate joke I’m just not getting? I am the author! You are commenting on my work. This is my newsletter.
Not only have you not read the piece - you couldn’t even be bothered to check the byline before insinuating some BS critique? Be serious.
Sunday Reading:
From Abraham Lincoln to… Donald Trump?
The history of the Republican Party in two parts: Key moments, actors, and dynamics - and a framework (in about 8,000 words) for how to think about continuity, change, and radicalization in the past and present of the American Right:
What is the purpose of this kind of “Just asking…” insinuating? The pieces are out. There is no dancing around. At all. If you want to find out, put in the work to actually read. This type of innuendo based on *not* reading is silly and unfair.
Donald Trump has significantly exacerbated and accelerated the rightward radicalization of the Republican Party. But he didn’t cause it.
There will not be a return to „Grand Old Normalcy“ – and with this Republican Party, there will not be liberal democracy in America.
Please consider subscribing:
For decades, Republican elites have clung to the idea that they would be able to control the extremist, far-right popular energies on the base they kept stirring, harness them for their own purposes. It has never worked – and instead turned the GOP into an instrument for the extremists.
This outcome was not inevitable. The anti-democratic tendencies that dominate today’s GOP have pulled the party to the right for decades. But there were alternative paths available. Republican elites, in particular, had agency – but chose to go along with or actively further the rise of extremism.
It’s the story of how a party with anti-slavery origins first became a “big tent,” then came to be dominated by Modern Conservatism, and has since gone the way of the conservative movement: Taken over by extremists who had always been part of the rightwing coalition, but never so powerful.
In Part II:
- The ethno-nationalist revolt under Pat Buchanan and the GOP’s aggressive embrace of “culture war” politics in the 1990s
- the mainstreaming of militant nativism after 9/11
- the Right’s unhinged reaction to the first Black president and Trump’s rise
- the future of the GOP.
Part I covers a lot of ground:
From the GOP’s anti-slavery origins in the middle of the nineteenth century to the party emerging as the parliamentary arm of the American Right, dominated by the conservative movement, by the end of the Cold War.
lol. That’s obviously key.
Sunday Reading:
From Abraham Lincoln to… Donald Trump?
The history of the Republican Party in two parts: Key moments, actors, and dynamics - and a framework (in about 8,000 words) for how to think about continuity, change, and radicalization in the past and present of the American Right:
I end my history of the Republican Party with a question: What comes after Trump?
We are most likely looking at a prolonged, chaotic, and dirty struggle between different radical factions and different shades of extremism.
Donald Trump has significantly exacerbated and accelerated the rightward radicalization of the Republican Party. But he didn’t cause it.
There will not be a return to „Grand Old Normalcy“ – and with this Republican Party, there will not be liberal democracy in America.
Please consider subscribing:
Donald Trump has significantly exacerbated and accelerated the rightward radicalization of the Republican Party. But he didn’t cause it.
There will not be a return to „Grand Old Normalcy“ – and with this Republican Party, there will not be liberal democracy in America.
Please consider subscribing:
An opening for voices of moderation? Don’t hold your breath. They have long been banished from the party. The most likely scenario is that JD Vance and anyone who desires to lead the GOP will aggressively placate the extreme fringes in their bid to succeed Trump.
Considering how much the Republican Party has been shaped by a cult of personality around Trump, how much it has functioned as an extreme version of personalist rule, there will inevitably be a power vacuum if and when Trump exits the stage.
As a political brand the “Grand Old Party” lends legitimacy to Trump and MAGA, which helps explain why so many people who would never themselves identify as radical have nevertheless given themselves permission to make common cause with the extremists in charge of the GOP.
However, because Trump took over the GOP from within, he has not been limited to the support of the hard-right base. He has been able to count on the votes of the vast majority of people who identify as “Republican.” Political identities are sticky - and Trump benefits from negative polarization.
But as a vehicle of MAGA power, the Republican Party has been indispensable. The MAGA base makes up about 15 to 20 percent of U.S. adults – those whose political identity is tied up in the movement. That would not have been enough to catapult Trump to power had he run as an independent candidate.
I’m using both terms all the time. “Ethno-nationalism” is a well established concept. Nothing inaccurate about it.
Institutionally, today’s GOP is weak. A large chunk of its base is not devoted to the party, but personally loyal to Donald Trump. There is no party apparatus that could realistically police the fringes or steer the selection process of candidates; GOP primaries generate ever more radical people.
I end my history of the Republican Party with a question: What comes after Trump?
We are most likely looking at a prolonged, chaotic, and dirty struggle between different radical factions and different shades of extremism.
Covered as a key moment in the piece.
When Ganz’s book came out, I wrote a long piece about why I thought it was so important - and what we can learn from it about recent U.S. history and the pre-history of Trumpism:
Yes! Brilliant book. Also definitely read Nicole Hemmer’s “Partisans,” also dealing with what happened on the Right in the early 1990s. Ganz and Hemmer are both excellent.
Great thread
How the Hell Did We End Up Here?
From the failed ethno-nationalist revolt in the early 1990s to the triumph of MAGA extremism - A history of the Republican Party, Part II.
Some thoughts from my new piece:
🧵
Covered in the piece as a key moment.
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New piece covers:
- The ethno-nationalist revolt under Pat Buchanan and the GOP’s aggressive embrace of “culture war” politics in the 1990s
- the mainstreaming of militant nativism after 9/11
- the Right’s unhinged reaction to the first Black president and Trump’s rise
- the future of the GOP.