A significant portion of Americans feel under siege from an “assault” on their “real” (read: white Christian patriarchal) America. They have a visceral desire for someone to not just understand their grievances, but rage with them and for them against their enemies.
Enter Trump.
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Disgusting MAGA fan service.
This works on the Right not because people necessarily think DEI programs directly caused this - but because it articulates the more existential “truth” of MAGA: “Undeserving” people are being elevated, they are to blame for everything that’s wrong in America.
https://www.threads.net/@aaron.rupar/post/DFdOztjgRw-
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What are they giving themselves permission to do?
That’s the key question to ask when dealing with the radical forces that are in charge on the Right.
For guys like Vought, the answer is: Whatever it takes, regardless of how extreme. There is no line he won’t cross, no restraining principle.
https://mastodon.social/@tzimmer_history/113912073085781337
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The Right today is dominated by people like Vought who are convinced there is nothing left to conserve – that our moment requires not “conservatism,” but a radical “counter-revolution.”
They have never been so close to power as they are now. And they are determined to use it.
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/meet-the-ideologue-of-the-post-constitutional
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Vought’s view of his place in conservative history is revealing. He sees himself in the tradition of Whittaker Chambers and Pat Buchanan: A religious conservative staunchly opposed to all “leftism” - and an “America First” ethno-nationalist populist calling for radical “culture war.”
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The “globalist,” leftwing “elite” has quickly emerged as the new consensus enemy against the Trumpist Right will rage incessantly. Donald Trump and Clarence Thomas? Not “ruling elite.” Anyone who adheres to “woke,” leftist ideology? Definitely.
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Vought is convinced to be fighting a noble war to defend and preserve “real America” - which is a society defined by white Christian patriarchal dominance, one in which people like Vought demand the right to have their own image reflected back at them in the public sphere.
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What he is railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He is obsessed with the idea that all major institutions are controlled by a leftist “ruling elite” - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: getting to define “real America.”
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While Vought traces the “leftwing revolution” back a hundred years, to the progressive era, there is no question that the election of Barack Obama was a radicalizing moment for him and many key thinkers on the radical Right - as were the multiracial protests in the summer of 2020.
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Power now lies with a “permanent ruling class” of leftist elites who control all major institutions of American life and especially the “woke and weaponized” agencies of the state. In order to defeat them, conservatives must become “radical constitutionalists” - and take radical action.
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Key to understanding Vought’s worldview is the idea that the constitutional order - and with it the “natural” order itself - has been destroyed: The revolution has already happened, “the Left” won. Therefore, conservatives categorically err when they try to preserve what is no more.
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Russell Vought will be a key figure in the regime, as competent as he is radical. He’s one of the architects of Project 2025, an avowed Christian nationalist, and an ideologue of the “post-constitutional” Right.
He is at war with pluralistic democracy.
A key question: Why is this guy so angry?
🧵
https://mastodon.social/@tzimmer_history/113908494346903557
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The key task, as Vought sees it, is to take over government and turn it into a tool that serves only two purposes: To enact revenge against the “woke” Left – and impose White Christian patriarchal domination on the country.
And he knows how to wield OMB as his instrument.
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/meet-the-ideologue-of-the-post-constitutional
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Vought’s case is emblematic of the Right’s trajectory more broadly: From – at least rhetorically – claiming “small government” principles and “constitutional conservatism” to an ever more explicit, aggressive desire to mobilize the coercive powers of the state against the “enemy within.”
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Russel Vought’s ideology of “radical constitutionalism” captures the defining sensibility on the Trumpist Right: The “Left” has command of America, all that is noble has been destroyed, nothing short of a radical “counter-revolution” can now save the nation.
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Vought may look like a boring bureaucrat and can, at times, sound like a technocrat. But he is a committed ideologue, convinced to be fighting a noble war to defend his “real America” of white Christian patriarchal rule, where people like him get to dominate the public square and define who belongs.
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Vought will be singularly focused on bending the entire government machine to Trump’s will. He steadfastly believes that any check on the president’s power – on the power of Donald Trump, specifically, who Vought literally describes as a “gift of God” – is illegitimate.
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Lots of talk about the OMB because of the utterly illegal, unconstitutional funding freeze it issued.
A reminder that Russell Vought, the guy Trump wants to lead the agency, is not interested in “normal” democratic politics: He seeks to “traumatize” civil servants, use the military to suppress protests, and sees Trump as an agent of God’s will.
There is no line he doesn’t feel justified to cross.
🧵
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/meet-the-ideologue-of-the-post-constitutional
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Weekend listening
Things are moving fast. We suggest a framework for how to understand and make sense of the full-on Trumpist onslaught on the system.
Into the Trump regime:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/37-into-the-trump-regime/id1652741954?i=1000685286023
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