scholarly journals Freedom over Fear: Fundamentalist Populism and the Challenge of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-128
Author(s):  
William H. Westermeyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Institutions ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
International Crises ◽  
Tea Party Movement ◽  
Truth Claims ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
Cultural World ◽  
Health Experts

Abstract Although public responses to national and international crises are never without contestations and conflicting truth claims, the COVID-19 pandemic draws attention to the stark political and cultural divisions presented by conservative populism in the age of the Tea Party Movement and Donald Trump. Beginning with research among Tea Party activists in 2010 and continuing through the Trump Administration and “reopen” protests, I have documented a shifting cultural world of right-wing populism. The vivid and symbolically elaborate performance of patriotism and indignation by the Tea Party Movement declined in 2012, being replaced by a more belligerent and less colorful form of populism with Donald Trump. As Trump-inspired protests opposing COVID-19 mitigation policies emerged in 2020, however, Tea Party themes and symbols reemerged as frames for resistance to government restrictions. Yet, despite the shifting styles, there was a constant theme of what I term “fundamentalist populism.” This style illustrates political identities characterized by vilification of opponents, distrust of existing political and social institutions, ideological rigidity, and a rededication to individualism and personal freedom. Ethnographic and documentary research shows how these themes animate a small yet vocal resistance to the science-based and cooperative guidelines prescribed by public health experts

Research in a Minefield: Relating with Tea Party Activists

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Douzou
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
French Woman ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
The Way

Based on a doctoral research project on Tea Party groups in Pennsylvania, this article deals both with the various pitfalls I had to learn to avoid and the significant impact that being a young, white French woman had on the way activists interacted with me. In addition, I reflect upon the general ramifications of studying a right-wing social movement while not aligning with it politically. The automatic distance—and presumed ensuing objectivity that this viewpoint initially seems to afford—is much more fragile and complicated than apparent at first glance.

Anger and Resentment Anew

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Dombrink
Keyword(s):  
Present Review ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Culture War ◽  
Issue Framing ◽  
Tea Party Movement ◽  
Normal People ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
Analyze Data

This chapter focuses on the engines and contours of the “Obama backlash” and the expressions of the tea party movement, with its cries that “America is being taken from us” and attempts to reimpose “normal people values.” It documents a new culture war resistance (“birthers,” “deathers” “Tenthers” “truthers” and tea party activists) and identify polarization and hyper-partisanship as the themes of discourse, and even governing. It concludes that this backlash is not rooted in the morality issues of the prior culture war. These two chapters present, review, and analyze data regarding attitudes and issue framing during the years 2008–2014, which are the focus of the book.

scholarly journals Overcoming resistance to COVID-19 vaccine adoption: How affective dispositions shape views of science and medicine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Newhagen ◽  
Erik P. Bucy
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Public Health Community ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Processing Information ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
Health Experts

Health experts worry that a COVID-19 vaccine boycott could inhibit reaching “herd immunity,” and their concerns have only grown as the pandemic has spread. Concern has largely focused on anti-vaccine protestors, who captured headlines as they stood side by side with Tea Party activists and armed militia groups demonstrating against the quarantine in April and May of this year. But anti-vax extremists make up only about a third of respondents in surveys who said they would not vac-cinate. Health officials must also take into account a swelling group who may understand the im-portance of a vaccine but are hesitant and confused because they feel the vaccine’s development is being rushed and may not be safe or effective. The challenge for the public health community is complex; it has to fashion messages to a set of disparate groups, each employing a unique set of biases when processing information about the efficacy of getting a vaccination

Libertarianism

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Tea Party Movement ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Contemporary Politics ◽  
Racial Injustice ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Ideal

Historically, Americans have seen libertarians as far outside the mainstream, but with the rise of the Tea Party movement, libertarian principles have risen to the forefront of Republican politics. But libertarianism is more than the philosophy of individual freedom and unfettered markets that Republicans have embraced. Indeed, as Jason Brennan points out, libertarianism is a quite different--and far richer--system of thought than most of us suspect. In this timely new entry in Oxford's acclaimed series What Everyone Needs to Know, Brennan offers a nuanced portrait of libertarianism, proceeding through a series of questions to illuminate the essential elements of libertarianism and the problems the philosophy addresses, including such topics as the Value of Liberty, Human Nature and Ethics, Economic Liberty, Civil Rights, Social Justice and the Poor, Government and Democracy, and Contemporary Politics. Brennan asks the most fundamental and challenging questions: What do Libertarians think liberty is? Do libertarians think everyone should be selfish? Are libertarians just out to protect the interests of big business? What do libertarians think we should do about racial injustice? What would libertarians do about pollution? Are Tea Party activists true libertarians? As he sheds light on libertarian beliefs, Brennan overturns numerous misconceptions. Libertarianism is not about simple-minded paranoia about government, he writes. Rather, it celebrates the ideal of peaceful cooperation among free and equal people. Libertarians believe that the rich always capture political power; they want to minimize the power available to them in order to protect the weak. Brennan argues that libertarians are, in fact, animated by benevolence and a deep concern for the poor. Clear, concise, and incisively written, this volume explains a vitally important philosophy in American history--and a potent force in contemporary politics.

scholarly journals Economic Populism and Producerism: European Right-Wing Populist Parties in a Transatlantic Perspective

Populism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilles Ivaldi ◽  
Oscar Mazzoleni
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Economic Dimension ◽  
Right Wing Populism

Abstract This article aims to develop a conceptual framework to address the economic dimension of right-wing populism. Moving beyond classic left-right economics and the divide between economic and cultural approaches, it argues that the political economy of right-wing populists is intertwined with cultural values in the construction of the ‘true’ people as an economic community whose well-being is in decline and under threat, and therefore needs to be restored. Looking at populist traditions across Europe and the United States, the paper emphasizes the significance of ‘producerist’ frames in economic populism. This is illustrated through an empirical analysis of differences and similarities in the economic policies and discourses of three established right-wing populist parties based in Europe (FN, SVP and UKIP), and the Tea Party and Donald Trump in the United States. We find that economic populist frames are common to all of the parties under scrutiny, albeit subject, however, to different interpretations of the producerist antagonism and groups. Our findings confirm that the intersection between economic populism and producerism provides a new—and fruitful—perspective on right-wing populism, while simultaneously demonstrating the relevance of a transatlantic approach to the study of the populist phenomenon.

Using Internet Search Data to Produce State-level Measures: The Case of Tea Party Mobilization

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 898-925 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph DiGrazia
Keyword(s):  
Social Science Research ◽  
State Level ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Internet Search ◽  
Tea Party Movement ◽  
Search Data ◽  
Movement Mobilization ◽  
Google Search

This study proposes using Internet search data from search engines like Google to produce state-level metrics that are useful in social science research. Generally, state-level research relies on demographic statistics, official statistics produced by government agencies, or aggregated survey data. However, each of these data sources has serious limitations in terms of both the availability of the data and its ability to capture important concepts. This study demonstrates how state-level Google search measures can be produced and then demonstrates the effectiveness of such measures in an empirical case: predicting state-level Tea Party movement mobilization. Drawing on existing studies of the Tea Party movement and theories of right-wing and conservative mobilization, state-level Google search measures for anti-immigrant sentiment and economic distress are developed and compared to traditional metrics that are typically used to measure these concepts, such as the unemployment rate and the international immigration rate in their ability to successfully predict Tea Party event counts. The results show that the Google search measures are effective in predicting Tea Party mobilization in a way that is consistent with existing theory, while the traditional measures are not.

Taking Tea Parties Seriously: Corporate Globalization, Populism, and Resentment

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chip Berlet
Keyword(s):  
Predominantly White ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Tea Party Movement ◽  
Us History ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Corporate Globalization ◽  
Actual Mass

AbstractThe emergence of the Tea Party Movement after the election of President Barack Obama is the result of increasing anxieties, fears, and anger in a predominantly White middle class and working class constituency. Starting as a project of elite conservative strategists, the Tea Party movement quickly developed an actual mass base, and turned into the type of right-wing populist movement seen previously throughout US history. This article uses a social movement theory approach to explain the Tea Parties and considers how race, gender, and class dynamics are shifted toward the scapegoating of liberals, people of color, immigrants, and other targets.

Development Channelization, Partisanship, and Populism: Possibilities for Rural Renewal in the Death Throes of Coal

2021 ◽  
pp. 073112142110246
Author(s):  
Adam Mayer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Energy System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Coal Industry ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Rural Economies ◽  
Right Wing Populism

In the last few decades, the United States has experienced several related and significant societal trends—the transition of the energy system away from coal, the intensification of partisan polarization, and the rise of a populist right-wing political ideology, perhaps best exemplified by the election of Donald Trump. We build Gramling and Freudenberg’s little-explored concept of “development channelization” to argue that nostalgic right-wing populism, grievances directed toward the federal government, and partisanship converge to potentially thwart efforts to transition and diversify rural economies. Populist nostalgia and blame are associated with support for expanding the collapsing coal industry but do not predict support for other types of development. There are patterns of partisan polarization in support for extractive industries and wind power, but many development options appear to be relatively nonpartisan. We discuss these findings in terms of populism, nostalgia, partisan polarization, and the potential for rural renewal in the United States.

scholarly journals Make Canada Great Again: The Influence of Donald Trump on the Canadian Right Wing Identity

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Parul Singh Kanwar
Keyword(s):  
American Politics ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This essay examines how the election of Donald Trump and the Ring Wing sentiments in American politics affect the Right-Wing extremist identity in Canada. This is significant because, through an analysis of the impact of American politics and identity on Canadians and their experiences as Anti-American, with focus on superiority and multiculturalism. 

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