Thomas Zimmer: Rightwingers Close Ranks Behind Trump…and “the white grievance politics that seeks to forever preserve America as a place of traditional hierarchies of race, gender, religion, and wealth”

Another day, another superb thread by Georgetown University historian Thomas Zimmer, this time on why “Republicans are mostly closing ranks behind Trump.” As Zimmer correctly and astutely explains:

• “Rightwingers have decided that they *are* the country, everyone else is an enemy.”
• “A lot of people on the Right consider themselves the sole proponents of ‘real’ (read: conservative white Christian patriarchal) America, and they are convinced to be waging a noble war against insidious forces that are threatening the country.”
• “Conversely, they have been painting the Democratic Party as not just a political opponent, but an “Un-American” enemy – a fundamentally illegitimate political faction captured by the radical forces of leftism, liberalism, wokeism, and multiculturalism.”
• “The Right doesn’t see the struggle between Republicans and Democrats as a competition between political opponents – but as an existential conflict over whether or not the only version of the country they are willing to accept as ‘America’ will survive and endure.”
• “By portraying themselves as the sole defenders of “real” America and the enemy as an acute threat to the survival of the nation, they are constantly giving themselves permission to unite behind Trump and to tolerate / promote the extremists in their midst.”
• “We are in deeply dangerous territory because so many on the Right are no longer separating between party and country, have convinced themselves they are fighting a noble war against unpatriotic, godless forces – and therefore see no lines they are not justified to cross.”
• “Finally, a lot of people on the Right truly believe – maybe not in Trump per se, but in the political project Trumpism stands for: the white grievance politics that seeks to forever preserve America as a place of traditional hierarchies of race, gender, religion, and wealth.”
• “To the Right, the choice isn’t partisanship or loyalty to the country. To them, the partisan divide maps perfectly onto the struggle between patriots and ‘Un-American’ radicals for the survival of the nation. In that sense, choosing the party *is* choosing the country.”

Superb analysis. Also, note that one of the Republicans closing ranks behind Trump is Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is absolutely not – repeat, NOT! – a “moderate” in any way/shape/form (and any “journalist” who claims he IS a “moderate” should never be taken seriously again).