In light of yet another upcoming Presidential election, It remains almost common-knowledge now that “right wing extremism”, in the form of nationalist, sometimes separatist, and almost always militantly anti-government, groups such as Q-Anon, The Oath Keepers, The Proud Boys, and a host of others, are continuing to gain popularity and exert increasing influence on contemporary social and political discourse. Right-wing attacks and plots accounted for the majority of all terrorist incidents in the country between 1994 and 2020, according to a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The Anti-Defamation League reported in 2018 that right-wing terrorists were responsible for more than three times as many deaths as Islamists during the previous decade. A national survey of state law enforcement agencies in 2018 found that there was “significant concern about the activities of far-right extremist groups,” according to DHS. More states reported the presence of far-right militia groups (92%), neo-Nazis (89%), and racist skinheads (89%) within their constituencies and jurisdictions than Jihadi extremists (65%). Surveys indicate that as many as half of the voting public sympathize with the views and goals of these groups which –while somewhat diverse in focus (emphasizing, alternately, anti-immigration sentiments, ethnic or cultural purity, nationalist populism, Christian values, or free-market principles)– almost all revolve around the idea that “mainstream” social institutions, and the government in particular, are morally corrupt, totalitarian regimes of oppression… and indeed (if we take right-wing rhetoric seriously), of evil….and that these institutions must be radically reformed or eradicated.
The motivation behind this movement has been the subject of wide speculation. Many commentators suggest that its largely working class, white, less-educated constituency—frustrated by rapidly changing and generally disadvantageous socio-economic trends—is seeking redress through political ideologies of autocratic nationalism. Their support for authoritarian elements of the Trump phenomenon is perhaps good evidence of this. Another explanation is simple racism and/or ethnocentrism. The popularity in right-wing extremist circles of ideas like “great replacement theory”, (which contends that white, working class Americans are being intentionally replaced by non-white, poor, foreign immigrants to advance an elite progressive political agenda) popularized by media figures such as Tucker Carlson, is often cited as an indication of such ethnocentrism. Yet another explanation —related to the others— may be white working class, angst, wrought by the ominous specter of globalization-multiculturalism and its perceived threat to a traditional American way of life that is rapidly fading away.
These concerns certainly point to very real social-political issues, and may indeed be worthy of policy maker’s attention. However, they are nonetheless usually regarded with derision by the left (and even by many on the mainstream right), who view right-wing extremism as inexcusably irrational and dangerous. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, describing how “The Past 10 Years of American Life Have Left Us Uniquely Stupid”, writes:
“devoted conservatives” score highest on beliefs related to authoritarianism. They share a narrative in which America is eternally under threat from enemies outside and subversives within; they see life as a battle between patriots and traitors. According to the political scientist Karen Stenner…. they are psychologically different from the larger group of “traditional conservatives” (19 percent of the population), who emphasize order, decorum, and slow rather than radical change. Only within the devoted conservatives’ narratives do Donald Trump’s speeches make sense, from his campaign’s ominous opening diatribe about Mexican “rapists” to his warning on January 6, 2021: “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” The traditional punishment for treason is death, hence the battle cry on January 6: “Hang Mike Pence.” Right-wing death threats, many delivered by anonymous accounts, are proving effective in cowing traditional conservatives, for example in driving out local election officials who failed to “stop the steal.” The wave of threats delivered to dissenting Republican members of Congress has similarly pushed many of the remaining moderates to quit or go silent, giving us a party ever more divorced from the conservative tradition, constitutional responsibility, and reality. We now have a Republican Party that describes a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol as “legitimate political discourse,” supported—or at least not contradicted—by an array of right-wing think tanks and media organizations.”
Although Haidt’s impatience with the state of contemporary political discourse is understandable, and is shared by much of the intellectual left, there may be more to this phenomenon than simplistic dismissals do justice to. In fact, the ethos of right-wing extremism may be better-understood as one manifestation of a larger historical-cultural phenomenon: an understanding that can deepen our understanding of, and appreciation for, what inspires this worldview. What motivates right-wing religious, social, and political activism is not simply a wave of resentment, but also a compelling and longstanding ideology –deeply rooted in American culture and history– of radical reform and spiritual regeneration. The Oath-Keepers state that their mission is to maintain a “the last line of defense against tyranny,”, while the Proud Boys are attempting to defend “Western chauvinism” against “political correctness” and “white guilt.” Both organizations, like all the others, seek to purge or purify America of these corrupting influences, reform American culture, and restore what they envision as its original ,Constitutional, and traditional cultural-spiritual legacy.
There has been a vast literature and extensive research on the psychology of regeneration, rebirth, and radical reform in U.S. history and culture, a mind-set that has its popular and intellectual roots in western civilization’s perennial religious and philosophical theme of spiritual rebirth. In his Rebirth of a Nation, Jackson Lears explores the influence of this mind-set in American history:
“a widespread yearning for regeneration—for rebirth that was variously spiritual, moral, and physical—penetrated public life, inspiring movements that formed the foundation for American society in the 20th century”
Indeed, western civilization traces its ideological origins to figures like Socrates and Christ, whose central message was about spiritual rebirth and (in Socrates’ case, via Plato) the radical reconstruction of both soul and society. This charismatic and fundamentally spiritual theme informed many –perhaps all— of the subsequent intellectual and cultural movements shaping western civilization. The ideal of regeneration, of making and remaking oneself anew, and reforming society via utopian goals –voiced initially in Jesus’ exhortation for spiritual rebirth and Plato’s plan for personal and social reconstruction in the virtuous Republic— inspired a legacy of perpetual transformation: endless re-imaginings of human possibility and salvation through rebirth. The Protestant Reformation, which inspired the individualism, freedom of conscience, and anti-authoritarianism that reshaped western Christianity and society, was a movement to remake both the soul and the church in a new image, and it was a foundational element of the western ethos – inciting indirectly the English, American, and French revolutions of the 17th , 18th and 19th centuries, as well as a peasant’s revolt whose repression in Reformation iconoclast Martin Luther’s time (and at his urging) reemerged later in the Marxist-socialist revolutions of the 20th century. Despite the often secular disposition of modern science’s contemporary spokespeople, the scientific revolution was also conceived in as much a Christian spirit as a secular one – its early proponents like Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton envisioning science as a vehicle to regenerate humanity in God’s image through the transformation of its relationship with a divinely ordained nature.
Founded and built by pioneers who left the ‘old world’ in order to remake themselves in the ‘new world’, American national culture was characterized from its beginning by an ethos of regeneration. Slotkin’s landmark Regeneration Through Violence examines how the symbol of ‘the frontier’ in American culture has always served as a beacon to the promise of perpetual transformation in an untamed wilderness—which provided the geographical, moral, political, and spiritual space for reconceiving the explorer’s soul. Thomas Jefferson, America’s intellectual ‘founding father’ and author of its Declaration of Independence, celebrated both religious and secular regeneration, stating (in terms that would, no doubt, resonate with the contemporary right) that “I have sworn upon the alter of almighty God eternal hostility against any form of tyranny over the mind of man.” Envisioning the purpose of American civilization as one of endless unbridled rebirth and reformation, as Bronowski’s The Western Intellectual Tradition notes: “His was a perpetual revolt, an eternal declaration of independence.” Similarly, the religious Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries which, Ahlstrom’s classic Religious History of the American People illustrates, determined the character of religion in America and echoed this theme, as did the many landmark spiritual-social reform movements in the early to late 19th century — from Transcendentalism, to abolitionism, to new religious communities like the Mormons, the Shakers, and Christian Science, among many others. Historians like William Leach (Land of Desire) and Cruden (Ministers of Reform) have provided fascinating portrayals of more secular utopian social movements and economic ventures (from projects like the pastoral Brook Farm and Lowell factory mills in the 19th century to the industrialist ‘paradise’ “Fordlandia” in the early twentieth century–and more infamously, Jim Jones’ People’s Temple in the late 20th century) which sought to remake and renew the tenor of moral character and its social setting. Progressive era reformers from inner city “settlement houses” to labor-rights movements, were also inspired by the revolutionary goal of personal and social regeneration. And the ideals animating peace, civil rights, and social justice movements from the Civil War and Reconstruction to current peace movements and civil rights struggles have had this same quest for spiritual-social renewal in mind.
Seen in the context of this historical-cultural tradition then, it may be instructive to view contemporary right-wing extremism, rather than a kind of mass hysteria or historical aberration, as yet another revolutionary movement in the ongoing quest for regeneration, a quest that remains integral to the American mind. Radical social transformations and spiritual rebirths are seldom orderly or ethically unproblematic. They generate stark contrasts and irreconcilable differences. The Protestant Reformation itself generated grassroots Anabaptism and Martin Luther’s “Priesthood of all believers”, whose concern with social reform and moral renewal spawned a peasant revolt in Germany, the democratic revolutions of the Enlightenment, and socialist economic justice movements across Europe in the late modern era. However, it also generated Calvinist religious totalitarianism, a century of religious wars, the Puritan foundations of free-market capitalism, and ‘Puritanical’ moral values, whose subsequent influence has been a mixed blessing. The Reformation’s contemporary legacy has been no less divergent. The expansion of civil rights, socio-economic mobility, and respect for diverse lifestyles, has been counter-balanced by identity politics, social Darwinism, and extremist religious fundamentalism.
Given this history, it might be more reasonable to view current right-wing extremist groups as one of America’s latest experiments in regeneration (albeit a sometimes counter-productive one), rather than an aberrant threat to its basic ideals and way of life. Q-Anon’s messianic political mythologies and The Oath Keepers’ threats about looming revolution and civil war, recall the ongoing theme of radical self-critique, spiritual rebirth, reform, and renewal that has inspired a nation of explorers, frontiersmen, colonists, religious refugees, reformers, revolutionaries, immigrants, entrepreneurs, and visionaries that –for better or worse—have built contemporary America. Lears concludes that,
“Longings for regeneration would not disappear from America public life….The Progressive’s dream of a Kingdom of God on Earth, inspired a host of reform efforts, many of which led to improvements in American life. …The Kingdom of God on Earth was undoubtedly unattainable. American society was too pluralistic to submit to Protestant visions of revitalization, too entrepreneurial to subordinate private ambition to the public good. But without those visions of the commonweal, one wonders whether even a limited welfare state would have ever had a chance.”
The left, understandably anxious about looming threats to the established order, may be tempted to view extremism on the right as inimical to American ideals. However, the ideal of rebirth through revolution as our spiritual destiny is distinctly American at its core and –like it or not—inescapably endemic to our identity as a nation. In this fundamental sense then, the extreme-right IS America.
