Among the many surprises of the 2016 presidential election was the large number of former Obama supporters who voted for Trump. This undermines one thesis (namely that the rise of Trumpism is nothing more than the triumph of racial resentment), but it also raises other questions, not the least of which concerns ideological consistency. It would seem that a large slice of the American electorate is brutally pragmatic in looking for an outside candidate, someone…
In a recent New York Times opinion piece, political editor Jochen Bittner speaks provocatively of the West's 'Weimar Moment'. With regard to the United States in particular, a cross-state comparison has a good deal of power but ultimately relies on a historical misunderstanding. For while it is true that the politics of the American populist Right seems to have moved beyond the liberal framework into crypto-fascism, the comparison of contexts (1930s Germany and contemporary United…
