Key Messages
How the Republicans Abandoned Compassionate Conservatism and Paved the Way for Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s unexpected ascension to the White House was the result of a much larger transformation within the Republican Party that occurred throughout the last decade.
This transformation drove a wedge between traditional conservative values and new populist ideas.
In American Carnage, you’ll get an overview of how Republican ideals shifted from neoconservatives and affluent suburbanites to laid-off steelworkers and angry white nationalists–resulting in a Trump presidency.
The book follows a path stretching from 2008 financial crisis to the right-wing voices at the fringes of the party, all building up to the racism and paranoia following Obama’s election.
It explores factors such as: why ‘compassionate conservatism’ was rejected; how tea partiers paved the way for Donald Trump; and what different corporate brands can tell us about voting intentions–all providing an insight on why we now have Trump as president.
The Rise of Right-Wing Nativism in the Republican Party: Using Fear as a Political Tool
As the 2008 Republican candidates competed in primaries across the United States, it was immediately obvious to many of them that something had changed.
While issues of endless wars and financial crisis were expected to dominate the debates, strangely enough the most controversial topic became immigration.
This was due to a sweeping reform passed by President George W.
Bush in 2007 which granted residency rights and pathways for legal citizenship for millions without official papers.
One of the contenders in the 2008 populace, John McCain, had been integral in its passing but now he was being met with visceral opposition from conservative Republican voters all around the country–even in regions where there was virtually no immigration presence.
It became clear to mainstream Republicans that an anti-immigration sentiment had taken root–fed by feelings of economic uncertainty brought about by deindustrialization and free-market policies supported by their own political party.
Looking back now, this attitude displayed during the 2008 Republican primaries heralded what would come over the following years: a stark rejection of compassionate conservatism and widespread nativist prejudices used as a platform for political gain.
The 2008 Financial Crisis Splits the Republican Party and Ignites a Populist Revolt Against Big Government
In 2008, the financial crisis started a heated ideological battle within the Republican Party.
President George W.
Bush responded quickly, but members like Mike Pence of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio believed that the markets should be allowed to fail without government intervention.
This caused them to worry whether there was anything left in their political program at all which could differentiate them from Democrats.
Bush wanted to control the situation and ultimately brought forward TARP, a Troubled Asset Relief Program which would inject $700 billion bailout money into Wall Street banks to stabilize the worst of the crisis – a decision that Republicans overwhelmingly opposed as it fell outside their principles of free market ideology.
As a result, many ordinary people lost their homes and livelihoods, leading to a public mood hostile to all parties in power with an attitude putting everyone on an equal footing before governmental power.
How Fear of Obama Led to a Resurgence of the Ugly Right
When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the outcome was met with shock and despair from the Republican party.
The mood in some of their campaign rallies turned increasingly racist, and President Bush himself felt the need to calms down his own supporters.
At certain rally’s people stood up to call Obama an “Arab”, while at another John McCain was heckled after saying that they should not be scared of Obama.
Obama’s healthcare reform also stirred a visceral reaction from the right; what were reasonable policy ideas were seen as rampant socialism.
They spread rumours of death panels and widespread subsidies for illegal immigrants.
These reactions were based more on fantasy than reality; Obama was actually a moderate centrist, yet he was viewed by many on the right as something much darker.
Overall, it’s clear that in response to Barack Obama’s presidency, the political right was consumed with racism and ideological zealotry – attitudes which still linger today in many quarters on the Right.
The Rise of the Tea Party Movement: The Embodiment of the Culture War and Popular Insurgence Funded by Libertarian Backers
The Tea Party movement, which began in February 2009 as a response to President Obama’s economic policies, was an indication of how the Republican Party would be transformed in the future.
The formation of the movement revealed that it was more than just a reaction to Obama’s policies; it was also an effort to challenge social liberalism and internationalism with reactionary sentiment.
Tea Party rallies were often characterized by ugly racism and this fear-driven polarization within American society marked a clear divide between those who supported Democrats and those involved in the Tea Party movement.
Additionally, the Tea Party movement had financial backing from wealthy libertarians such as David and Charles Koch, whose advocacy group Americans for Prosperity became a powerful driving force behind its campaigning.
These backers wanted to leverage the energy of the Tea Party for their own political interests such as low taxes and deregulations without getting dragged into its divisive cultural issues.
Ultimately, the tensions between culture war issues resonating among grassroots supporters and fiscal policies favored by wealthy backers foreshadowed how polarized America would become leading up to Donald Trump’s election in 2016.
It is clear that without these tensions within the Republican party, Trump (or another candidate like him) may not have been able to secure his nomination or reach such widespread success during his campaign run.
Donald Trump: From Plaything of the Republican Party to Pied Piper of Prejudice
Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2015 marked a major turning point for the Republican Party.
When he first entered the race, many people thought that his candidacy was a stunt to promote his public image and hotel chain, but they soon realized they were wrong.
Trump saw an opportunity to transform the Republican Party by focusing on right-wing populism.
He believed that previous Republican campaigns had failed because they were too moderate and played by the rules instead of attacking opponents with full force.
He wanted to bring back what he called “red meat” politics: whipping up the right-wing base with populist rhetoric and demonizing immigrants, criminals and foreigners as threats to American values.
He criticized the GOP’s standard policies of globalization, deregulation and military intervention abroad, advocating for a nationalistic platform instead.
His slogan “Make America Great Again” resonated deeply with resentful Republican voters who felt left behind by modern society; it suggested a lost America of steady jobs, white picket fences and 1950s social attitudes which pandered to racism and xenophobia.
Trump’s Populism and Praise for Putin Shocked the Republican Establishment, but Voters Still Responded
During the primary debates of the 2016 election, Republican Party orthodoxy was completely shattered by Donald Trump.
His overtly nationalistic populism, no-holds-barred campaigning and disregard for facts stood in stark contrast to his opponents – Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Jeb Bush – all of whom adhered to the libertarian, free-trade agenda and conducted themselves with civility expected of establishment Republicans.
This key difference between Trump’s rhetoric and the established Republican status quo was perhaps best evidenced when he was asked to explain America’s nuclear triad during the Las Vegas debate on December 15th 2015.
Instead of providing a succinct answer which would have been expected from any presidential candidate, Trump stumbled incoherently over the complex issue and ended with an off-the-cuff remark about “the power, devastation.”
Additionally, throughout the campaign he continually praised Vladimir Putin and his strong leadership style; even justifying away reports that journalists had been murdered under Kremlin rule by claiming “America does plenty of killing too.
Such talk suggested a departure from foreign policy consensus that outraged candidates, yet it still seemed to work with a significant portion of American right who felt admiration towards Putin’s machismo and affront to liberal values.
Donald Trump’s Election Exposes America’s Growing Divides Between Whites, Minorities and Urban vs Rural Settings
The results of the 2016 U.S.
presidential election revealed a stark new divide in America.
The television networks called Florida for Trump early on, which came as a surprise to most mainstream Republicans like Paul Ryan who had been predicting a disastrous wipeout for their party due to Trump’s candidacy.
The election results highlighted two key divides -a racial divide and a cultural one- both along geographical lines.
White rural areas voted overwhelmingly for Republican candidate Donald Trump, while urban centers with higher rates of diversity leaned Democratic towards Hillary Clinton.
This was especially clear when looking at David Wasserman’s ingenious corporate brand comparison; Cracker Barrel restaurants, predominant in Republican-voting counties, were likely found in rural and provincial areas, while Whole Foods grocery stores were concentrated in more upscale urban settings with large numbers of college graduates distinctly voting Democrat.
These deep social divisions revealed by the 2016 presidential election showed an even greater polarization than seen in previous years; 76 percent of America’s “Cracker Barrel Counties” voted for Trump compared to only 22% of the “Whole Foods Counties”- showing that America was becoming increasingly divided across all corners of society.
Charlottesville: The Epicentre of the Culture War as President Trump Refuses to Condemn Right-Wing Extremism
The culture clash that had been consuming America for months came to a head in Charlottesville, Virginia, during the summer of 2017.
This conflict began when the city council proposed removing a statue of Confederate general Robert E.
Lee from Lee Park and renaming it “Emancipation Park”.
The issue quickly escalated into a battle of symbolic importance, with members of the KKK and right-wing militia joining on opposite sides of the argument.
This culminated in an awful tragedy when James Alex Fields, a neo-Nazi, drove his car at high speed into a crowd of counterprotestors, injuring 28 people and causing the death of Heather Heyer – a 32 year old woman who was standing in solidarity with them.
President Trump’s response to this attack only further entrenched the idea among many citizens that he was willing to let extremist views thrive if it served his own political agendas.
It’s clear now that America is still very much in crisis mode as we move forward – and it will take nothing less than an all out revolution to restore balance and affirm our collective values.
Wrap Up
The final message of American Carnage is one of discord and division in the Republican Party.
Trump’s populist and nationalist views have come to dominate, overturning the party’s traditional beliefs in free trade and globalization.
This ideological right-shift has caused a split in the party which is becoming more pronounced as Trump’s presidency continues on, signaling continued changes for the GOP going forward.
It does not seem likely that this conflict will end anytime soon.
