Musings on the growth of American radical right-wing political culture
Image Credit: ABC7 Chicago
When Trump won in 2016 many commentators, politicians and ordinary people thought that America was experiencing its peak populist moment, but in the past few years American political culture has experienced a second wave of right-wing radicalisation. Plenty has been written about Trump’s return to power: his decision to send ICE into cities across the US to crackdown on immigration and spread fear within communities; his “chaos diplomacy” which has included calls for the annexation of Greenland; the illegal abduction of Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro; most recently following Israel into a war with Iran; and not to mention America’s turn towards economic isolationism through hostile new tariff barriers. However, as destructive as Trump’s administration has been to our conception of liberal democracy and Western international order, I feel that there is something growing within American political culture which is much more insidious and threatening in the long term.
In 2022, Venezuelan journalist Moisés Naím developed his ‘3Ps’ model for understanding the playbook used by authoritarian governments to divide societies and consolidate power. These ‘3Ps’ are populism, polarisation and post-truth. While these trends have been seen across the globe in the past decade, and were evident in Trump’s messaging in the lead up to the 2016 election, there is a rising class of right-wing ideologues in the US who are riding Trump’s coattails to spread a message of hate and division in efforts of creating a mainstream American political culture based on Christian Nationalism.
These ideologues are present across the American political landscape, with some involved in Trump’s inner-circle of advisors, others are in journalism, and a growing number can be found online. Trump’s cadre of ideologues have begun using fascistic rhetoric to provoke and engage Americans, especially young men. Amid this radicalising political culture, MAGA has transformed from a populist movement full of rednecks and disaffected voters into a genuine right-wing nationalist group held together by a cult of personality centred on the president. My worry is that the work of these ideologues will see MAGA develop a genuine ideologue base of ‘America First’, anti-immigration, anti-women’s rights and anti-civil liberty policies. If MAGA is transformed from a sensationalist populist movement and personality cult into a radical political programme it could survive in a post-Trump world and bring America into a long, bleak and repressive age of isolationism and radical conservatism.
MAGA’s ideological shift has already been driven by right-wing figures. The late Charlie Kirk’s ‘Turning Point USA’ is an example of an organised ideological youth wing for the Trump administration and its base, and currently has over 1.6 million members. While trying to get young people into politics is almost certainly a good thing, when that politics is one which spews hate through sensationalist clips on TikTok and Instagram reels I’m less enthusiastic.
Furthermore, although I am hesitant to label this burgeoning class of far-right political operators as ‘fascists’, this new generation of ideologues exhibit Naím’s 3Ps and are certainly using fascistic language and political methodology. Fascism is a far-right ultranationalist ideology that sought national revival and a new era of greatness after the catastrophe of the First World War. However, just because use of the term should be limited to that specific historical context does not mean that modern political figures are incapable of emulating its tactics. Fascism was reliant on a discourse around ‘internal enemies’, and this new class of MAGA activists have begun to adopt this language to justify repression against its opponents.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Homeland Security Advisor and Joseph Goebbels lookalike, is the main proponent of this messaging. At Charlie Kirk’s funeral he went on a long tirade stating that “we will prevail over the forces of wickedness and evil” and that “[opponents of the Trump administration] are nothing…wickedness…and jealousy.” His speech was ridiculous and spouted the kind of language you would expect to see on a white supremacist twitter account run by a 14-year-old, but it’s also not dissimilar to something you could’ve heard in Nuremberg during the 1930s. Miller is one of Trump’s closest advisors and has considerable authority in both ideological and policy making circles. He also consistently justifies authoritarianism and a disregard for international law – seen recently with his statement that ICE agents have “federal immunity” (they don’t) and that “obviously, Greenland should be a part of the United States.” This is blatant post-truth. Miller lies to suit his political agenda, and in the process he whips up a polarising narrative which justifies the repression of his opponents. Miller is the primary example of the pseudo-fascist tendencies of the current Trump administration, but the main threat to American democracy is how this authoritarian new right is resonating with young people through alt-right sources.
Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec’s 2024 book Unhumans is also concerningly close to literature from fascist Europe. It essentially calls for the destruction of ‘communism’ (what they mean is any progressive cause) in America and consistently progresses right-wing talking points around strength and masculinity. It even labels Francisco Franco as a “Great Man of History” and tells a painfully oversimplified account of the Spanish Civil War, presenting the Republican alliance as agitators and Franco as a peacekeeper – again, post-truth on show. I’d argue that it wasn’t very ‘peacekeeper’ of Franco to be actively involved in leading a military coup against a democratically elected government and then create a one-party police state. Aside from their blatant disregard for nuance and misrepresentation of history, Unhumans demonstrates how the radical sections of the American right have no respect for democracy or freedom of expression. Referring to your enemies as ‘Unhumans’ is genuinely dangerous and is the most polarising way in which to view those who disagree with you. I would call it a dog whistle but it’s more of an air raid siren.
Dehumanisation of the enemy was also a commonly used tactic during the Spanish Civil War. One of Franco’s leading ideological figures, José María Pemán y Pemartín published a series of poems called “La Bestia y El Ángel” (The Beast and the Angel) in 1938, which presents the Republican, Liberal opposition forces as a graceless, ‘lascivious’, beast, fighting a brave, saintly soldier defending Spain and Catholicism. The parallels are stark. While comparing a book written for ‘edgy’ right-wing men like Unhumans to avant-garde poetry written by one of Franco’s most important ideological allies may seem bizarre, they alike demonstrate the hate and polarisation of both nation’s political cultures. Literature like this does not appear in countries with united and tolerant political cultures.
Unhumans is not even an irrelevant and or particularly aberrant or extremist piece of literature. Former chief analyst to Trump and leading right-wing ideologue, Steve Bannon, provided a foreword stating that “Unhumans is a clarion call to every American citizen;” and the book has also been endorsed by Vice President JD Vance. This endorsement also demonstrates the White House’s willingness to dehumanise its opponents, and the use of ‘communism’ as a buzz word is reminiscent of the McCarthy era – one of the most repressive in American history.
Another influential figure online is Nick Fuentes. He hosts a livestream called “America First”, where he promotes white nationalism, holocaust denial, and anti-LGBTQ+ discourse. He’s also an extreme misogynist and relished in the attention he received from the “your body, my choice” taunt he made upon Trump’s election victory. While this is often passed off as ‘rage bait’ or intentionally provocative, he espouses extreme views to his group of predominantly young, white, male supporters, or ‘Groypers’ as he calls them, and makes figures like Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro seem like centrists. Alongside the formation of official youth movements like Turning Point, the radicalisation of America’s young, impressionable men may prove to be the foundation the new American right needs to create a political dynasty built on authoritarianism, nationalism and attacking the foundations of American democracy.
This isn’t a comprehensive study of America’s radicalising political culture, but a new generation of extremist ideologues are using the playbook of populism, polarisation and post-truth to create an insidious right-wing culture which could threaten to take America into a dark and repressive place. It will take much more than a few white men spewing hate and fascistic talking points to morph MAGA into a truly Christian nationalist organisation. Still, these ideologues have sway; over the president, over young men and over the entire MAGA movement and Republican Party. The development of this radical right wing political culture will radicalise an already disaffected American population and shift the Overton Window in a way that will see fascistic statements become a political norm. If we allow them to manipulate the narrative and keep using Naím’s 3P tactics, the American, and Western, political culture of the 2030s could become polarised, violent and hostile like the 1930s.
Words by Luca Frigerio