Why the growing talk of a âregimeâ in America? Laura K. Field on an emergent idea swaying the politics of the Republican Party. Languages of Fear Why the growing talk of a âregimeâ in America? Laura K. Field on an emergent idea swaying the politics of the Republican Party. Norbert Kowalczyk (Originally published 2022 | 11.1) After Hurricane Ian devastated the U.S. state of Florida in late September, its Republican governor Ron DeSantis used some unusual language to criticize American press coverage of the storm. The ânational regime media,â he said, had wanted to see Ian hit the city of Tampa, because that would have been âworse for Floridaââand helped the media âpursue their political agenda.â DeSantisâ comments were certainly odd in that thereâs no record of journalists ever hoping for any harm to Tampaâbut they were even more striking in their association of the media with a âregimeâ thatâs hostile to his party and subverting his country. For some time now, far-right members of the U.S. House of Representativesâsuch as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Paul Gosarâhave been railing against the âBiden regime.â Others on the American right have meanwhile argued that a more deep-seated and oppressive âregimeâ extends far beyond governmentâto the press, universities, nongovernmental organizations, and âwokeâ corporations. Ohioâs Senator J.D. Vance even claimed that the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was âcensored by the regime.â And according to the former Trump national-security official Michael Anton, âthe people who really run the United States of Americaâ all belong to it. What are they talking about? Laura K. Field is a scholar-in-residence at American University and a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center in Washington. To Field, the rising popularity of the term is a sign of how fluidly extremist ideas are now migrating from the fringes of American politics into the mainstreamâfrom niche intellectuals to ideological entrepreneurs to politicians, media commentators, and other influencers. Field notes that many of those whoâve helped popularize the idea of âthe regimeâ had tried from 2016 to articulate an intellectual framework that supported the politics of Donald Trumpâand are trying now to develop the framework for a right-wing populism that can outlast him. Graham Vyse: Whatâs âthe regimeâ? Laura K. Field: The idea of a regime is relatively familiar. Political scientists have commonly used the term to refer to a system of government. But until recently, itâs not something youâd hear much in mainstream U.S. political conversation. The new idea of âthe regimeâ in America comes from a network of intellectuals, commentators, and politicians broadly aligned with the new-populist politics of Donald Trumpâoften called âthe new rightââwhoâve given the term a specific, negative, even cynical, new meaning in the U.S. context. Fundamentally, it expresses a view of the Biden administration as an effectively authoritarian governmentâcolluding with progressives who control the media, run the universities, and, increasingly, dominate, corporations. Thereâs a clearly sinister connotation to the rhetoric, tying in with the idea that the 2020 election was stolen and Bidenâs presidency is fraudulentâwhile also conveying a broader sense that the left is exerting despotic power over Americans, and above all Republicans, in all kinds of ways. The regime is very all-encompassing and so very threatening. Vyse: How did the idea take shape? Advertisement Field: When President Trump took power, he didnât show a very clear sense of what he stood for politically beyond the rhetoric of his presidential campaign. In that context, there were a number of right-wing intellectuals who identified with the politics of Trumpâs campaign and offered ideas about what it might ultimately stand forâand arguments for these ideas. It might sound strange to a lot of liberals or other Trump opponents that there would be a real intellectual component to Trumpism, but there is. Thatâs what these intellectuals have tried to fosterâand some of them have been effective, drawing on considerable knowledge about American history and political theory. Theyâve been able to find ways to make sense of, and sometimes justifiably defend, what Trump-era Republicans have tried to doâeven if the intellectual weight of it all didnât always come through in what Trump would say. One of the sources of this thinking, and of the idea of âthe regimeâ in particular, is the Claremont Institute, a research and advocacy organization in California that understands itself as working to restore Americaâs founding principlesâand that had close ties to the Trump administration. [Michael Anton, a senior fellow at Claremont, is a former Trump national security official. John Eastman, the founding director of Claremont Instituteâs Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence and another senior fellow, was the lawyer who helped Trump rationalize his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.] Thereâs a strong tendency at the Claremont Institute, and intellectually affiliated institutions, to view the United States as having been fundamentally transformed by progressivismâand to see themselves as counter-revolutionaries working to bring things back to a more authentic American condition. Thereâs also a group of religious traditionalistsâsometimes referring to themselves as âpost-liberalsââwho also use this language of the regime. Patrick Deneen, a Notre Dame professor and the author of Why Liberalism Failed, has a forthcoming book called Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future. So itâs not necessarily just rhetoric; some of those using the language have big ideas about changing politics. Some post-liberal Catholics, for example, are outspoken in their support of Hungaryâs very illiberal Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Some groups, such as the National Conservatism organization, promote a populist economic nationalism. Olesya Yemets More from Laura K. Field at The Signal: âThereâs some truth to the conviction that liberals or progressives have more cultural clout than conservatives in Americaâthat Hollywood has a liberal or progressive bias, and many mainstream news sources and universities do too. But this conspiratorial notion of a regime that includes the government, corporations, and law enforcement all colluding to oppress Republicans says something very differentâand ultimately absurd. There may be a hardening of language on both sides of the American political divide, but itâs important to distinguish which parts of that reflect reality and which donât.â âA hard version of the of the idea of the regime suggests that a president not in league with it will be thwarted in officeâand that votes in favor of his reelection wonât matter, because the whole system has been taken over by illegitimate forces outside votersâ control. Thereâs an implicit call to action in the argumentâto radical, even possibly violent actionâto stop whatâs going on. If you genuinely believe that people donât have the control they should have over their government in a democracy, thereâs an imperative in that belief to upend the system.â âThe rhetoric of the regime works by being vague. It suggests a phenomenon thatâs sinister, authoritarian, and aggressive, but it also gives those who use it a degree of plausible deniability about its more radical implications. They can say theyâre only using it in an innocuous way. To an ordinary person, though, it has a very ominous feeling to it.â [Continue reading ...]( [The Signal]( explores urgent questions in current events around the worldâto support it and for full access: [Subscribe now]( The Signal | 1717 N St. NW, Washington, DC 20011 [Unsubscribe {EMAIL}](
[Constant Contact Data Notice](
Sent by newsletters@thesgnl.email