Throughout the 20th century to the present, the American right has embraced authoritarian and other anti-democratic values both here and abroad. Domestically, this has taken the form of suppressing the labor movement, the civil rights movement(s), and other attempts to create a real social democracy in the United States. The American right has also long-admired and supported foreign authoritarians and autocrats, including fascists such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
In the Age of Trump, today’s Republican Party and the larger right-wing and “conservative” movement are in thrall to a corrupt ex-president who attempted a coup on Jan. 6, 2021, and is now promising to be a dictator on “day one” if he defeats President Biden and takes over the White House in 2025. Donald Trump is a political entrepreneur and megalomaniac who is responding to his followers’ wants and wishes: Public opinion polls have repeatedly shown that a plurality if not an outright majority of Republicans and Trump MAGA people are hostile to multiracial pluralistic democracy and want a strongman (or outright fascist) leader to ensure and protect White (“Christian”) domination and power over American society.
