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WINTER 2018 The Public Eye In this issue: One Year In: A Q&A with Tarso Luís Ramos Emmanuel Macron and Authoritarian Liberalism The Far Right and Neopaganism A Manual to Restore a Christian Nation That Never Was editor’s letter THE PUBLIC EYE It’s been a long year since Trump was elected, and the assaults on civil and human rights QUARTERLY are almost too many to name. Some of what’s happened has been “predictable in broad out- PUBLISHER lines, if not always the details,” notes PRA Executive Director Tarso Luís Ramos in a discus- Tarso Luís Ramos sion with Public Eye, At the start of Trump’s term, PRA warned that “One Year In” (pg. 3). EDITOR White supremacist and other bigoted groups would be emboldened, the Christian Right Kathryn Joyce rewarded, and Trump’s economic populist campaign promises abandoned to deliver culture COVER ART war tokens in their stead. But there’s “a gift in this moment,” finds Luís Ramos, as masses Karl Orozco of people “are newly aware of themselves as historical actors and are forming (or reforming) LAYOUT their sense of purpose in this extended moment of crisis.” There’s also a challenge: that Gabriel Joffe anything-but-Trumpism doesn’t convince progressives to settle for an old status quo that PRINTING enables more right-wing victories down the road. Red Sun Press EDITORIAL BOARD Frederick Clarkson • Alex DiBranco That threat is the subject of Ajay Singh Chaudhary’s essay, “In the Court of the Centrist Gabriel Joffe • Kapya Kaoma King” (pg. 6), about the rise of France’s supposedly liberal savior, President Emmanuel Greeley O’Connor • L. Cole Parke Macron. Squared off against Far Right candidate Marine Le Pen, and in a European elec- Tarso Luís Ramos • Zeina Zaatari tion season marked by a frightening array of xenophobic, nationalist and even neo-fascist candidates, Macron’s victory was greeted with a nearly universal sigh of relief. And yet, in The Public Eye is published by governance, Macron’s regime has come to resemble an “authoritarian liberalism”: rejecting Political Research Associates civil rights and equal protection, committed to neoliberal economic reform, and skeptical Tarso Luís Ramos about democracy itself. “While Donald Trump has been stymied in fulfilling many of his EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR promises to suspend or abridge U.S. civil liberties,” writes Chaudhary, “Macron, the sup- Sarah Burzillo posed avatar of ideological opposition to Trumpism, is pulling it off with speed and effi- FINANCE MANAGER ciency in France.” Frederick Clarkson SENIOR ReseARCH ANALYST Cloee Cooper In Shannon Weber’s report, , the cross-At- “White Supremacy’s Old Gods” (pg. 11) ReseARCH ANALYST lantic influence flows both ways, as some U.S. and European Far Right factions commonly Gabriel Joffe find in neopagan beliefs a framework for anti-immigrant sentiment and violent White na- PROGRAM COORDINATOR tionalism. While the reach of neopaganism in the U.S. is quite limited, it has an outsized Kapya Kaoma influence in White supremacist circles. In part, that’s because it offers White supremacists SENIOR ReseARCH ANALYST a belief system grounded in hypermasculinity, a sentimental connection to a mythic Euro- Greeley O’Connor COmmUNICATIONS DIRECTOR pean past, and a justification for considering North America a White homeland. White su- L. Cole Parke premacist neopaganism also strongly corresponds with bias-related violence, from attacks ReseARCH ANALYST on Muslim schoolgirls in Oregon to vigilante Odinist squads in Finland to “black sun” flags Shayna Parker at Alt Right rallies. OpeRATIONS COORDINATOR Zeina Zaatari ReseARCH DIRECTOR The more traditional version of the Religious Right—the Christian Right—has continued to work steadily over the last year to translate Republican dominance of all branches of gov- FELLOWS ernment into victories for their agenda, chipping away at the secular state in dozens of ways Tope Fadiran • Spencer Sunshine • Mariya Strauss at once. The effects of their work are clear; how they got to this position of influence, not INTERNS so much. But in carefully reviewing an overlooked Family Research Council manual, Fred- Konstantin Gorbunov • Elizabeth Rideout erick Clarkson finds a grassroots playbook that’s serving as a blueprint for today’s Christian Julia Taliesin Right. In “A Manual to Restore a Christian Nation That Never Was” (pg. 17), Clarkson BOARD OF DIRECTORS explores the underreported world of local churches’ Culture Impact Teams—the cellular Dania Rajendra, Chair Paulina Helm-Hernandez • Lynette Jackson building blocks of a national Christian Right action network—and the dubious historical Hamid Khan • Jenny Levison • Scot Nakagawa claims they use to justify a Christianity-first vision of religious freedom. Mohan Sikka • Zeke Spier Carla Wallace • Susan Wefald In between issues, PRA will continue its coverage and analysis of the Right, with new blog posts, online-only features, and reports every week, so make sure to follow us at po- FOUNdeR Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. liticalresearch.org. Kathryn Joyce 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 Somerville, MA 02144-1837 Tel: 617.666.5300 [email protected] © Political Research Associates, 2018 All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 ISSUE 93 www.politicalresearch.org q & a BY KATHRYN JOYCE One Year In A Q&A with Tarso Luís Ramos n the anniversary a privatizing, crony capitalist of Donald Trump’s way) before the “sticks” of Mus- inauguration, PRA lim and trans military service Executive Director bans and so on. OTarso Luís Ramos talks about Given the hollowness of his some of what’s changed in the economic populism, it seemed past year, and what progres- inevitable that the regime sives should be alert to going would have to deliver tangi- forward. ble non-economic benefits to Trump’s electoral base. And I Tarso Luís Ramos EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR PE: What should we make of think we’ve seen that: No stu- Sarah Burzillo this anniversary? dent loan relief, but the revo- FINANCE MANAGER As relentless a year as it’s cation of guidelines for redress Frederick Clarkson been, the Trump camp accom- around sexual assault on cam- SENIOR ReseARCH ANALYST plished less of its agenda than pus, as well as challenges to Cloee Cooper they might have. They’ve not higher ed access for Black and ReseARCH ANALYST Gabriel Joffe been able to fully convert on Brown students. No policies PROGRAM COORDINATOR GOP control of both chambers to revive manufacturing, but Kapya Kaoma of Congress and it took them a crackdown on “Black iden- SENIOR ReseARCH ANALYST a full year to win a major—if tity extremism.” No reining in Greeley O’Connor devastating—legislative victo- of Wall Street excesses—peo- COmmUNICATIONS DIRECTOR ry in the form of the tax heist. ple forget that was part of his L. Cole Parke ReseARCH ANALYST The widespread and fierce re- stump speech, before the Gold- Shayna Parker sistance to the Trump agenda Women’s March on Washington, January 21st, 2017. Photo: Molly Adams / Flickr. man Sachs appointees—but OpeRATIONS COORDINATOR from the Women’s March on- Muslim bans and a steady drip Zeina Zaatari ward compelled congressional Demo- PRA warned that White nationalists of antisemitism. ReseARCH DIRECTOR crats to take a harder line of resistance would make a show of force; that the Yet after the election came a chorus of FELLOWS than they could have, and deep divisions Christian Right would be rewarded with liberal critics calling on progressives to Tope Fadiran • Spencer Sunshine • Mariya Strauss on the Right scuttled repeal and replace- things like judicial appointments and reject identity politics—by which they INTERNS ment of the Affordable Care Act and oth- pushback against LGBTQ communities. meant appeals to gender or racial jus- Konstantin Gorbunov • Elizabeth Rideout er administration initiatives. Trump has It was clear that Trump was going to en- tice—in favor of the supposed universal- Julia Taliesin had to rely disproportionately on execu- gage in eliminationist policies, directed ism of economic populism. We at PRA BOARD OF DIRECTORS tive power, and by all accounts his is not at Muslims, refugees, and immigrants, heard this as a call to a different sort of Dania Rajendra, Chair a tight ship. This is all to say that things and expanded targeting of Black com- identity politics: White identity politics. Paulina Helm-Hernandez • Lynette Jackson could be—and may yet become—much munities. The Trump campaign combined White Hamid Khan • Jenny Levison • Scot Nakagawa Mohan Sikka • Zeke Spier worse. We also warned that Trump would not racial grievance with toxic masculinity Carla Wallace • Susan Wefald Of course, tremendous damage can make good on his promises of economic and economic populism. It linked, espe- and has been done through executive ac- populism and argued that it would be cially, race and the economy, blaming FOUNdeR tion and the full implications of changes the job of progressives to reveal Trump’s people of color and immigrants for the Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. at the various federal departments have betrayals as quickly as possible. That declining economic fortunes of White not been fully felt. Yet looking back on nobody, including Trump voters, would people. Trump campaigned on the lie 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 what PRA anticipated from a Trump pres- deserve what was coming. Even we, that bigotry can bring prosperity. The Somerville, MA 02144-1837 idency, a lot of things that have come to who may have a reputation for gloomy challenge for progressives is not to shut Tel: 617.666.5300 [email protected] pass were predictable in their broad out- forecasts, thought Trump would lead up about race, gender, and sexuality, © Political Research Associates, 2018 lines, if not always in the details. with the “carrot” of infrastructure (if in but to do a better job of addressing them All rights reserved.
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