SPRING 2017 The Public Eye ENDGAME How “Bipartisan Criminal Justice Reform” Institutionalizes a Right- Wing, Neoliberal Agenda Also in this issue: Trumpism and Whiteness • Between Trump and Putin • Review: The Populist Explosion editor’s letter As we move into the second 100 days of the Trump era, it’s hard to keep track of every- BY NAOMI BRAINE thing that has changed since November 8. The Far Right threats we have long covered in these pages increasingly shape both the conservative movement and our national gov- THE PUBLIC EYE ernment. Violent rhetoric, physical attacks, and policies laden with White supremacy, QUARTERLY xenophobia, misogyny, and anti-LGBTQ invective are on the rise. From immigration to PUBLISHER health care to climate change, promising efforts for progressive reform are being rolled Tarso Luís Ramos back, even as mass resistance to the new administration helped scuttle Trump’s Muslim EDITOR ban and has fortified the congressional opposition. The administration, mired in mul- Kathryn Joyce tiple ongoing corruption scandals, has had difficulty aligning the disparate factions of the Republican Party behind its policy initiatives and continues to govern by executive COVER ART Erik Ruin order and fear-mongering. The Public Eye will continue to bring you fresh analysis, re- porting, and research on the most critical issues of our times. LAYOUT Gabriel Joffe Particularly at a time when the U.S. is as starkly divided as it is now, joint efforts that PRINTING bring together progressive criminal justice reformers with the likes of Newt Gingrich Red Sun Press and Grover Norquist might seem like exactly the balm a fractured nation needs. But in EDITORIAL BOARD our cover story, “Endgame” (pg. 4), a deep-dive exploration of the state of bipartisan Frederick Clarkson • Alex DiBranco criminal justice reform efforts, Kay Whitlock reminds us that conservative support for Tarso Luís Ramos • Tope Fadiran progressive causes can come with a steep cost. Making the case against mass incar- Kapya Kaoma • L. Cole Parke ceration and the criminalization of communities of color on budgetary, rather than social justice grounds, may bring more parties to the table, but does little to address the systemic problems underlying the country’s incarceration crisis: “Reforms that leave so much injustice and violence intact and unchallenged will ultimately continue The Public Eye is published by to lead U.S. society to that prison and all of its shadow manifestations.” Whitlock calls Political Research Associates for an alternative, “an unapologetically progressive, anti-neoliberal agenda in the era of Trump.” Tarso Luís Ramos EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR In our second feature, Christopher Stroop also looks at strange bedfellows—in this case, Sarah Burzillo the factions of the U.S. Right drawn to Putinist Russia at a time when that country is FINANCE MANAGER seeking to exert substantial influence across Europe and in the U.S. “Between Trump Gabriel Joffe and Putin” (pg. 11) looks at both the democratic crises arising in countries where Rus- PROGRAM COORDINATOR sian actors have sought to influence elections as well as the less-examined ideological Kapya Kaoma ties binding together this new “Right-Wing International.” The result, Stroop writes, RESEARCH ANALYST is an ideology that “rejects modern liberalism as a ‘rootless,’ culture-destroying glo- Greeley O’Connor balism, and offers in its place a ‘multipolar’ world order with strengthened national COmmUNICATIONS DIRECTOR sovereignty, weakened ‘supranational institutions,’ and a rejection of universal human L. Cole Parke rights.” RESEARCH ANALYST Shayna Parker How these and other recent developments have come to be is the focus of Matthew Ly- OpeRATIONS COORDINATOR ons’ review of John Judis’s recent book, The Populist Explosion (pg. 18). With populist Jennifer Worden upsurges evident both in the U.S. as well as across Europe, Lyons notes that while pop- DEVELOpmeNT DIRECTOR ulist movements may arise “because people don’t feel represented by the conventional FELLOWS political options,” the left- and right-wing versions of populism are grounded in very Tope Fadiran • Frederick Clarkson different worldviews and expressions, as right-wing populism goes beyond champion- Spencer Sunshine • Mariya Strauss ing the people against the elite to also target demonized “out groups”—something all INTERNS too apparent in the age of Trump. Jess Conger-Henry • Conor Downey In that vein, “Trumpism and the Unstable Ground of Whiteness” (pg. 3), explores BOARD OF DIRECTORS the forces that propelled Trump to office. Author Naomi Braine considers a “split- Dania Rajendra, Chair screen” view of White America that, on one side, recalls a mythical past of economic Katherine Acey • Paulina Helm-Hernandez glory, and on the other, the current reality of economic displacement and loss that’s Lynette Jackson • Janet Jakobsen easily blamed on scapegoated “others.” Trump’s successful appeals to xenophobia and Hamid Khan • Maria Elena Letona racism follow a well-worn historical path, from Reconstruction to Prohibition, wherein Jenny Levison • Scot Nakagawa the Far Right grows in response to demographic and cultural change. But the history Mohan Sikka • Zeke Spier of these reactive moments also includes warnings for progressives: “to be wary of al- Carla Wallace • Susan Wefald ternative social contracts that have genuinely progressive elements while maintaining authoritarian structures and White supremacy.” FOUNdeR Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. Make sure to log onto politicalresearch.org to follow blog posts, reports, and other crit- ical analysis from PRA in between issues. There you can also find PRA’s #First100Days Crash Course: a collection of classic PRA analysis on the Right as well as a 14-week syllabus of readings on the subjects most vital to understand in today’s environment— 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 from the Alt Right to the distinctions between fascism and authoritarianism to the face Somerville, MA 02144-1837 Tel: 617.666.5300 of growing misogynist and White supremacist movements. [email protected] © Political Research Associates, 2017 Kathryn Joyce All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 ISSUE 90 www.politicalresearch.org commentary BY NAOMI BRAINE Trumpism and the Unstable Ground of Whiteness rumpism is built on a split- screen image of life for the White middle and working classes: a contemporary view Tof economic suffering and “loss” to en- croaching “others,” while in the back- ground hovers a shimmering past of cul- tural and economic glory. In reality, of course, the lost economic prosperity has largely flowed upwards to the wealthiest segment of the U.S. population, and the Tarso Luís Ramos situation of White Trump voters contin- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Sarah Burzillo ues to be significantly better than that of FINANCE MANAGER African Americans and Latinxs of simi- Gabriel Joffe lar educational levels. PROGRAM COORDINATOR A dangerous aspect of this dual im- Kapya Kaoma age is that Trumpism describes a real RESEARCH ANALYST element of White American experience Greeley O’Connor while linking it to racist and xenopho- COmmUNICATIONS DIRECTOR bic “alternative facts.” The parts of the L. Cole Parke RESEARCH ANALYST country that can variously be described Shayna Parker as Trump country, “Red States,” or the OpeRATIONS COORDINATOR older phrase “the heartland,” may be A member of Identity Evropa (a White supremacist college organization) sports a “Make America Great Again” Jennifer Worden concentrated in the Rust Belt, the South, DEVELOpmeNT DIRECTOR hat at an event last year. (Photo courtesy of thetab.com.) and the Plains, but can also be found FELLOWS scattered through “Blue” states like New Times of demographic and cultural the last major wave of immigration and Tope Fadiran • Frederick Clarkson York and California. I find “heartland” threat to a core White American iden- economic transformation, were a time Spencer Sunshine • Mariya Strauss useful because it captures the self-un- tity and experience have historically of significant right-wing mobilization INTERNS derstanding of the small cities, towns, empowered the Far Right. Post-Civil that spread throughout the U.S. and was Jess Conger-Henry • Conor Downey rural, sub- and ex-urban areas that have War reconstruction was obviously one largely normalized in White, non-urban BOARD OF DIRECTORS long been the core of a White, largely such time, and led to the birth of the Ku areas.2 Significantly, the major threat to Dania Rajendra, Chair Katherine Acey • Paulina Helm-Hernandez Protestant, multi-generation U.S. ex- Klux Klan in the South. The Civil Rights White identity in the ‘20s and ‘30s came Lynette Jackson • Janet Jakobsen perience and identity that was cen- movement was another such time, and from Southern and Eastern European Hamid Khan • Maria Elena Letona tral to the Trump constituency. These also saw a resurgence of the KKK in the immigrants, who were considered nei- Jenny Levison • Scot Nakagawa heartland communities are currently South. In addition, the surge in neon- ther White nor Black according to the Mohan Sikka • Zeke Spier experiencing a decline in economic op- azi and other Far Right organizing in racial classifications of the time. Over Carla Wallace • Susan Wefald portunities, a marked increase in opiate the 1980s could be seen as another such time, these European immigrant groups addiction, and reduced life expectancy,1 period, following the movements of came to be understood as White,3 il- FOUNdeR Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. as well as a rise in racist xenophobia the 1960s and ‘70s that challenged tra- lustrating both the possibility of shifts most visible as Trumpism. The conver- ditional White male power structures. in racial categories and the power they gence of economic and demographic These three examples, however, were hold at any given moment in time. change is not unique to our current era, periods in which the Far Right was mobi- Demographers have been anticipat- 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 and has previously led to a surge in the lized in particular areas, not times when ing for many years the moment the Somerville, MA 02144-1837 Tel: 617.666.5300 power and respectability of the Far Right its ideology was normalized or widely U.S.