1. My constant refrain: Trump is not an aberration, he's a product of deep rooted economic & cultural change. Trumpism is here to stay
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Replying to @HeerJeet
2. Trump himself is a con artist (as witness Trump Foundation story) but Trumpism is a real social movement, not to be dismissed as a fad.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. The deep history of Trumpism would likely go back to emergence of right-wing populism after WWI, but the more immediate moment is 1980s.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
4. It's mistake to buy into subsequent conservative nostalgia that paints 1980s as period where Reaganism was triumphant & united the right
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Replying to @HeerJeet
5. Despite Reagan's impressive electoral victory in 1984 -- in some ways because of it -- American right started fracturing in 1980s.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6. 1980s fracturing of right result of waning of Cold War (removing unifying glue of anti-Communism) but also economic impact of Reaganism
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Replying to @HeerJeet
7. Reaganism greatly intensified economic inequality, along both class & regional lines. De-inindustrialization created a new plebeian class
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. On the right, the divide was between increasingly neo-conservative establishment & emerging paleo-conservative revolt.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
9. The divide between the neos & the paleos was along internationalist/nationalist lines on trade, immigration & America's global posture.
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9. Neo-cons: free trade, more immigration, USA global hegemony justified by democracy promotion.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
10. Paleo-cons: protectionism, immigration restriction, nationalist foreign policy that rejected rhetoric of global democracy.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
11. But beyond the nationalist/internationalist divide was class & ethnic division. Paleos saw themselves as avatars of white plebeian rage.
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