87-473: Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other FreedomWorks was a conservative and libertarian advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. FreedomWorks trained volunteers and assisted in campaigns. It was widely associated with
174-464: A CR unless it defunds Obamacare." On August 14, 2013, Joshua Withrow of FreedomWorks mentioned the continuing resolution set to expire September 30 which "must be renewed in order for the doors to stay open in Washington. The CR is the best chance we will get to withdraw funds from ObamaCare . This can be done by attaching bills by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Congressman Tom Graves (R-GA) to
261-428: A Pew Research Center study. In contrast, approximately two-thirds of non-white evangelicals supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, with 90% of black Protestants also voting for her even though their theological views are similar to evangelicals. According to Yale researcher Philip Gorski, "the question is not so much why evangelicals voted for Trump then—many did not—but why so many white evangelicals did." Gorski's answer
348-469: A Super PAC called FreedomWorks for America. The stated purpose of this PAC was to "empower the leaderless, decentralized community of the tea party movement as it continues its hostile takeover of the GOP establishment". Its endorsed candidates included Don Stenberg , Ted Cruz , Jeff Flake , and Richard Mourdock . In February 2013, FreedomWorks signed onto a memo which said, "Conservatives should not approve
435-673: A federal republic under the rule of law . Conservative philosophy also derives in part from the classical liberal tradition of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, which advocated laissez-faire economics (i.e. economic freedom and deregulation ). Louis Hartz argues that socialism has failed to become established in the United States because of Americans' widespread acceptance of an enduring, underlying Lockean consensus. While historians such as Patrick Allitt (born 1956) and political theorists such as Russell Kirk (1918–1994) assert that conservative principles have played
522-463: A populist political method that suggests nationalistic answers to political, economic, and social problems. These inclinations lead to policies such as immigration restrictionism , trade protectionism , isolationism , migrant family separation and opposition to entitlement reform . Former National Security Advisor and close Trump advisor John Bolton disputes that Trumpism exists in any meaningful sense, adding that "[t]he man does not have
609-591: A primary election opponent or otherwise use his political power to undermine any fellow party members that he felt had betrayed him. The 2020 Republican Party platform simply endorsed "the President's America-first agenda", prompting comparisons to contemporary leader-focused party platforms in Russia and China. General Mark Milley , Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump , has described Trump as
696-744: A "masculinist fantasy of freedom", similar to Jacques Lacan 's mythic leader of the primal horde whose power to satisfy every pleasure or whim has not been castrated. By activating such fantasies, toxic masculine behaviors from opulent displays of greed (the dream palaces of Mar-a-Lago and Nkandla ), violent rhetoric, " grab them by the pussy " " locker room " "jokes" to misogynist insults, philandering, and even sexual predatory behavior including allegations of groping and raping become political assets not liabilities. Gender role scholar Colleen Clemens describes toxic masculinity as "a narrow and repressive description of manhood, designating manhood as defined by violence, sex, status and aggression ... where strength
783-552: A "wannabe dictator." Opposition to aspects of transgender rights is a theme of Trumpism. According to Philip Gorski , in Trumpian nostalgia, "decline is brought about by docility and femininity and the return to greatness requires little more than a reassertion of dominance and masculinity. In this way, 'virtue' is reduced to its root etymology of manly bravado." Michael Kimmel describes male Trump supporters who despaired "over whether or not anything could enable them to find
870-432: A Conservative Party. They soon merged it into the state Democratic Parties. All of the major American political parties support republicanism and the basic classical liberal ideals on which the country was founded in 1776, emphasizing liberty, the rule of law, the consent of the governed , and that all men were created equal. Political divisions inside the United States often seemed minor or trivial to Europeans, where
957-412: A U.S. national network of free-market oriented think tanks. In 2009, Mother Jones listed FreedomWorks as a significant climate change denier . In March 2023, FreedomWorks laid off 40% of its 50 staff, including its executive vice president, Noah Wall. In May 2024, the board of directors of FreedomWorks voted unanimously to dissolve the organization. The group, which at the time had 25 staff members,
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#17327866963491044-612: A balance between federal government and states' rights . Apart from some right-libertarians , American conservatives tend to favor strong action in areas they believe to be within government's legitimate jurisdiction, particularly national defense and law enforcement while opposing government intervention in social issues such as healthcare and the environment . Social conservatives —many of them religious—often oppose abortion and same-sex marriage . They often favor prayer in public schools and government funding for private religious schools . Like most political ideologies in
1131-657: A balanced budget. They argue that low taxes produce more jobs and wealth for everyone, and, as President Grover Cleveland said, "unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation". A recent movement against the inheritance tax labels such a tax as a " death tax ." Fiscal conservatives often argue that competition in the free market is more effective than the regulation of industry and is the most efficient way to promote economic growth . The Republican Party has taken widely varying views on protectionism and free trade throughout its history. Others, such as some libertarians and followers of Ludwig von Mises , believe all government intervention in
1218-468: A copycat phenomenon—the emboldening of bigots and despots by others' electoral successes. Rather, it is something that sits just beneath the surface of any human society—including in the advanced liberal democracies at the heart of the Western world—and can be activated by core elements of liberal democracy itself. Stenner and Haidt regard authoritarian waves as a feature of liberal democracies noting that
1305-533: A guy who says: 'I can build anything I want. I can do anything I want. I can have the women I want.' They're going, 'This guy is awesome!'" Neville Hoad, an expert on gender issues in South Africa, sees this as a common theme with another strongman leader, Jacob Zuma , comparing his " Zulu Big Man version of toxic masculinity versus a dog whistle white supremacist version; the putative real estate billionaire turned reality television star". Both men express
1392-499: A major role in U.S. politics and culture since 1776, they also argue that an organized conservative movement with beliefs that differ from those of other American political parties did not emerge in the U.S. at least until the 1950s. The recent movement conservatism has its base in the Republican Party , which has adopted conservative policies since the 1950s; Southern Democrats also became important early figures in
1479-614: A monarchy, an established church, or a hereditary aristocracy. American conservatism is best characterized as a reaction against utopian ideas of progress and European political philosophy from before the end of World War II . Russell Kirk saw the American Revolution itself as "a conservative reaction, in the English political tradition, against royal innovation". In the 2022 book The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism , Matthew Continetti noted that
1566-756: A more militaristic , interventionist foreign policy aimed at promoting democracy abroad, which stands in stark contrast to Paleoconservatisms more isolationist foreign policy. Neoconservatives often name communism and Islamism as the biggest threats to the free world. They often oppose the United Nations for interfering with American unilateralism. National conservatism focuses on upholding national and cultural identity . National conservatives strongly identify with American nationalism , patriotism , and American exceptionalism , while opposing internationalism , globalism , and multiculturalism . The movement seeks to promote national interests through
1653-516: A philosophy. And people can try and draw lines between the dots of his decisions. They will fail." Writing for the Routledge Handbook of Global Populism (2019), Olivier Jutel notes, "What Donald Trump reveals is that the various iterations of right-wing American populism have less to do with a programmatic social conservatism or libertarian economics than with enjoyment." Sociologist Michael Kimmel states that Trump's populism
1740-518: A place with some dignity in this new, multicultural, and more egalitarian world. ... These men were angry, but they all looked back nostalgically to a time when their sense of masculine entitlement went unchallenged. They wanted to reclaim their country, restore their rightful place in it, and retrieve their manhood in the process." Social psychologists Theresa Vescio and Nathaniel Schermerhorn note that "In his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump embodied HM [ hegemonic masculinity ] while waxing nostalgic for
1827-689: A professor of history at Mount Holyoke College , wrote: Here was no lover of government by plutocracy, no dreamer of an America filled with factions and hard-packed cities. Here was a man who loved America as it was and had been, one whose life was a doughty testament to the trials and glories of ordered liberty. Here ... was the model of the American conservative. Trumpism Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other Trumpism
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#17327866963491914-413: A protest. Go there ready for war. We get our President or we die." Of the rioters arrested for the attack on the U.S. Capitol, 88% were men, and 67% were 35 years or older. According to 2016 election exit polls, 26% of voters self identified as white evangelical Christians , of whom more than three-fourths in 2017 approved of Trump's performance, most of them approving "very strongly" as reported by
2001-755: A racially homogenous past that maintained an unequal gender order. Trump performed HM by repeatedly referencing his status as a successful businessman (" blue-collar businessman") and alluding to how tough he would be as president. ... Trump was openly hostile toward gender-atypical women, sexualized gender typical women, and attacked the masculinity of male peers and opponents." In their studies involving 2,007 people, they found that endorsement of hegemonic masculinity better predicted support for Trump than other factors, such as support for antiestablishment, antielitist, nativist, racist, sexist, homophobic or xenophobic perspectives. Kimmel's angry white males engage in toxic masculinity which, according to William Liu, editor of
2088-493: A rebellion of conservative elites against the base. Yale sociologist Philip S. Gorski warned against the threat of Trumpism, writing that "the election of Donald Trump constitutes perhaps the greatest threat to American democracy since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. There is a real and growing danger that representative government will be slowly but effectively supplanted by a populist form of authoritarian rule in
2175-614: A smaller government is known as starve the beast . Activist Grover Norquist is a well-known proponent of the strategy and has famously said, "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." The argument in favor of balanced budgets is often coupled with a belief that government welfare programs should be narrowly tailored and that tax rates should be low, which implies relatively small government institutions. Neoconservatism emphasizes foreign policy over domestic policy. Its supporters, mainly war hawks , advocate
2262-468: A statistically significant impact on the success of a candidate in the election. In 2011, FreedomWorks ran a number of campaigns targeted at corporate rent-seeking behavior. FreedomWorks ran a campaign with the goal of getting Duke Energy to fire their CEO Jim Rodgers, accusing Duke Energy of lobbying for a "progressive agenda" to ensure that the company would receive green energy subsidies . In addition to their anti-rent seeking campaigns, FreedomWorks
2349-446: A steady flow of "prescription and prejudice". Kirk's use of the word "prejudice" here is not intended to carry its contemporary pejorative connotation: a conservative himself, he believed that the inherited wisdom of the ages may be a better guide than apparently rational individual judgment. Through much of the 20th century, a primary force uniting the varied strands of conservatism, and uniting conservatives with liberals and socialists,
2436-406: A strong national defense , gun rights , capital punishment , and a defense of Western culture from perceived threats posed by communism , Islamism and moral relativism . American conservatives may question epidemiology , climate change , and evolution more frequently than moderates or liberals . In the United States, " conservative " is often used very differently from the way it
2523-543: A study of human experience. On this point we are, without reservations, on the conservative side. According to Peter Viereck , American conservatism is distinctive because it was not tied to a monarchy, landed aristocracy, established church, or military elite. Instead American conservatives were firmly rooted in American republicanism , which European conservatives opposed. They are committed, says Seymour Martin Lipset , to
2610-415: A tough guy means wearing the mask of masculinity: Being a tough guy means refusing to don a mask that might preserve one's life and the lives of others." Tough guy bravado appeared on the internet prior to attack on Congress on January 6, 2021, with one poster writing, "Be ready to fight. Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in ... . Get violent. Stop calling this a march, or rally, or
2697-488: Is "an emotion. And the emotion is righteous indignation that the government is screwing 'us'". Kimmel posits that Trump manifests "aggrieved entitlement," a "sense that those benefits to which you believed yourself entitled have been snatched away from you by unseen forces larger and more powerful. You feel yourself to be the heir to a great promise, the American Dream , which has turned into an impossible fantasy for
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2784-616: Is a political movement in the United States that comprises the political ideologies associated with Donald Trump and his political base . It incorporates ideologies such as right-wing populism , national conservatism and neo-nationalism , and features significant illiberal and authoritarian beliefs. There is significant academic debate over the prevalence of neo-fascist and fascist elements of Trumpism. Trumpists and Trumpians are terms that refer to individuals exhibiting its characteristics. Trumpism
2871-536: Is a form of democratized Whig constitutionalism plus the free market . The point of difference comes with the influence of social liberalism ". American conservatives tend to support Christian values , moral absolutism , and American exceptionalism , while opposing abortion , euthanasia , and some LGBT rights (depending on the politicians). They tend to favor economic liberalism , and are generally pro- business and pro- capitalism , while opposing communism and labor unions . They often advocate for
2958-419: Is a large and mainstream ideology in the Republican Party and nation. As of 2021, 36 percent of Americans consider themselves conservative, according to polling by Gallup, Inc. Conservatism in the United States is not a single school of thought. According to American philosopher Ian Adams, all major American parties are " liberal and always have been. Essentially they espouse classical liberalism , that
3045-519: Is associated with the belief that the President is above the rule of law . It has been referred to as an American political variant of the far-right and the national-populist and neo-nationalist sentiment seen in multiple nations starting in the late 2010s. Trump's political base has been compared to a cult of personality . Trump supporters became the largest faction of the United States Republican Party , with
3132-532: Is everything while emotions are a weakness; where sex and brutality are yardsticks by which men are measured, while supposedly 'feminine' traits—which can range from emotional vulnerability to simply not being hypersexual—are the means by which your status as "man" can be taken away." Writing in the Journal of Human Rights , Kimberly Theidon notes the COVID-19 pandemic 's irony of Trumpian toxic masculinity: "Being
3219-498: Is of "the national community rising phoenix-like after a period of encroaching decadence which all but destroyed it", which "sounds a lot like MAGA" ( Make America Great Again ) according to Goldberg. Similarly, like the Trump movement, fascism sees a "need for authority by natural chiefs (always male), culminating in a national chieftain who alone is capable of incarnating the group's historical destiny." They believe in "the superiority of
3306-427: Is open enough to permit people to ascribe their own meaning to it." Exit polling data suggests the campaign was successful at mobilizing the " white disenfranchised ", the lower- to working-class European-Americans who are experiencing growing social inequality and who often have stated opposition to the American political establishment . Some prominent conservatives formed a Never Trump movement, seen as
3393-537: Is used in Europe. Following the American Revolution , Americans rejected the then core ideals of European conservatism, which were based on landed nobility , hereditary monarchy , established churches , and powerful armies. Conservatives in the United States historically view individual liberty within the bounds of conservative values as the fundamental trait of democracy . They typically believe in
3480-473: The Scaife family , according to tax filings and other records. FreedomWorks also received funding through the sale of insurance policies through which policyholders automatically become members of FreedomWorks. In 2012, FreedomWorks had revenue of $ 15 million, with nearly 60% coming from four donors. In 2012, $ 12 million in donations from William S. Rose (via two of his companies) were scrutinized by some members of
3567-557: The Tea Party movement and encouraging it to lay a focus on climate change denial . In 2009, FreedomWorks responded to the growing number of Tea Party protests across the United States , and became one of several groups active in the "Tea Party" tax protests. Three national conservative groups, FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, and DontGo led the tea party movement in April 2009, according to The Atlantic magazine. FreedomWorks
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3654-501: The Tea Party movement . The Koch brothers were once a source of the organization's funding . FreedomWorks shut down in May 2024. FreedomWorks originated from a conservative political group founded by the brothers David H. Koch and Charles Koch , and called Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE). In 2004 CSE split into Americans for Prosperity , led by President Nancy Pfotenhauer , and a remainder group which merged with Empower America and
3741-408: The basket of deplorables ..." Disputing the view that the surge of support for Trumpism and Brexit represents a new phenomenon, political scientist Karen Stenner and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt present the argument that the far-right populist wave that seemed to 'come out of nowhere' did not in fact come out of nowhere. It is not a sudden madness, or virus, or tide, or even just
3828-452: The nuclear family . There are two overlapping subgroups of social conservatives: the traditional and the religious. Traditional conservatives strongly support traditional codes of conduct, especially those they feel are threatened by social change and modernization. Religious conservatives focus on conducting society based on the morals prescribed by fundamentalist religious authorities, rejecting secularism and moral relativism . In
3915-692: The 1980s preached traditional moral and religious social values. The history of American conservatism has been marked by tensions and competing ideologies. During the era of Ronald Reagan , a coalition of ideologies was formed that was known as "the Three Leg Stool " — the three legs being social conservatives (consisting of the Christian right and paleo-conservatives ), war hawks (consisting of interventionists and neoconservatives ), and fiscal conservatives (consisting of right-libertarians and free-market capitalists ), with overlap between
4002-556: The 2010 elections on campaign paraphernalia alone. The required reading list for new employees included Saul Alinsky , Frédéric Bastiat , and Ayn Rand . Rolling Stone and Talking Points Memo alleged that FreedomWorks helped run the Tea Party Patriots . Tea Party Patriots denied this claim. According to a 2010 article in The New York Times , FreedomWorks "has done more than any other organization to build
4089-600: The American conservative movement has been fractured for a century. Political conservatives have emphasized an identification with the Founding Fathers of the United States and the U.S. Constitution . Scholars of conservative political thought "generally label John Adams as the intellectual father of American conservatism". Russell Kirk points to Adams as the key Founding Father for conservatives, saying that "some writers regard him as America's most important conservative public man". In 1955, Clinton Rossiter ,
4176-532: The CR, which will totally defund ObamaCare." Withrow also wrote "Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Congressman Mark Meadows (R-NC) are leading the charge to get their colleagues to commit to this approach, by putting their signatures to a letter affirming that they will refuse to vote for a CR that contains ObamaCare funding." Withrow wrote, "Support for the Cruz/Graves bills is absolutely meaningless without also signing
4263-466: The FreedomWorks board of directors. The FreedomWorks name was derived from Armey saying: Freedom works. Freedom is good policy and good politics." On August 14, 2009, after Armey's leadership of FreedomWorks became a problem to his employer, the lobbying and legal firm of DLA Piper , Armey was forced to resign from his job at DLA Piper. In 2010, DLA Piper chairman Francis Burch responded that
4350-908: The Lee/Meadows letter." In September 2013, FreedomWorks opposed the legislation called Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against the Government of Syria to Respond to Use of Chemical Weapons . This was the first time FreedomWorks took an official stance on foreign policy. On February 12, 2014, FreedomWorks joined with Rand Paul as co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Obama administration concerning reports of NSA domestic wiretapping. The lawsuit named President Obama, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli represented Paul and FreedomWorks in
4437-710: The Philippines, Shinzo Abe of Japan, Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom, Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, Javier Milei of Argentina, and Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia. Trumpist rhetoric features anti-immigrant , xenophobic , nativist , and racist attacks against minority groups. Identified aspects include conspiracist , isolationist , Christian nationalist , evangelical Christian , protectionist , anti-feminist , and anti-LGBT beliefs. Trumpism emerged during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign . Trump's rhetoric has its roots in
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#17327866963494524-489: The Southern " Bible Belt " and in recent years played a major role in the political coalitions of George W. Bush and Donald Trump . Fiscal conservatism has ideological roots in capitalism , limited government , free enterprise , and laissez-faire economics. Fiscal conservatives typically support tax cuts , reduced government spending , free markets , deregulation , privatization , minimal government debt , and
4611-501: The Tea Party movement". In the 2010 congressional elections , FreedomWorks endorsed a number of candidates, including Marco Rubio , Pat Toomey , Mike Lee , and Rand Paul . In addition to the aforementioned United States Senate candidates, FreedomWorks endorsed 114 candidates for federal office, of whom seventy won election. An independent study performed by Brigham Young University showed that only FreedomWorks's endorsement had
4698-754: The Tea Party movement, according to The Washington Post . In 2009, FreedomWorks advocated for the defeat of Democratic-sponsored climate change legislation. In 2010, FreedomWorks helped organize Tea Party protests and passed fliers opposing national climate policy. FreedomWorks promoted the Contract from America , a Tea Party manifesto, which included planks in opposition to the Obama administration's initiatives on health care reform and cap and trade . FreedomWorks sponsored campaigns to block climate legislation as well as Obama's broader agenda. Among other activities, FreedomWorks ran boot camps for supporters of Republican candidates. FreedomWorks spent over $ 10 million on
4785-413: The United States is based on a belief in individualism , traditionalism , republicanism , and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states . Conservatism is one of two major political ideologies of the United States with the other being liberalism . Conservative and Christian media organizations and American conservative figures are influential, and American conservatism
4872-474: The United States , conservatism originates from republicanism , which rejects aristocratic and monarchical government and upholds the principles of the 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence ("that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness") and of the U.S. Constitution , which established
4959-491: The United States, this translates into hard-line stances on moral issues, such as opposition to abortion , LGBT rights , feminism , pornography , comprehensive sex education , and recreational drug use . Religious conservatives often assert that America is a Christian nation , calling for laws that enforce Christian morality . They often support school prayer , vouchers for parochial schools , and restricting or outlawing abortion . Social conservatives are strongest in
5046-745: The belief in America's "superiority against the cold reactionary monarchical and more rigidly status-bound system of European society". In terms of governmental economic policies, American conservatives have been heavily influenced by the classical liberal or libertarian tradition as expressed by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman , and a major source of influence has been the Chicago school of economics . They have been strongly opposed to Keynesian economics . Traditional ( Burkean ) conservatives tend to be anti-ideological, and some would even say anti-philosophical, promoting, as Russell Kirk explained,
5133-529: The case. Some of FreedomWorks' campaigns were called " astroturfing ", and some claimed that they projected a false impression of grassroots organizing. During the 2020 election campaign, FreedomWorks pushed false and misleading claims about mail-in-voting, targeting ad campaigns on swing states with high concentrations of minority voters. In its ads which suggested that vote-by-mail was not safe for voters, FreedomWorks posted an image of NBA basketball player LeBron James , misquoting him to make it seem as if he
5220-699: The divide between the left and the right led to violent polarization, starting with the French Revolution . In 2009, Emory University history professor Patrick Allitt wrote that attitude, not policy, are at the core of differences between liberals and conservatives: Certain continuities can be traced through American history. The conservative 'attitude' ... was one of trusting to the past, to long-established patterns of thought and conduct, and of assuming that novelties were more likely to be dangerous than advantageous. No American party has ever advocated traditional European ideals of "conservatism" such as
5307-416: The economy is wasteful, corrupt, and immoral. Fiscal conservatism advocates restraint of progressive taxation and expenditure. Fiscal conservatives since the 19th century have argued that debt is a device to corrupt politics; they argue that big spending ruins the morals of the people, and that a national debt creates a dangerous class of speculators. A political strategy employed by conservatives to achieve
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#17327866963495394-457: The enemy includes 'Mexican migrants', 'filthy' gays, and even Catholics 'led astray by Satan', and the real danger these enemies pose is degradation to a 'blessed—great— ... nation' whose God is the Lord." Theologian Michael Horton believes Christian Trumpism represents the confluence of three trends that have come together, namely Christian American exceptionalism , end-times conspiracies, and
5481-501: The era, we are, without reservations, on the libertarian side. The profound crisis of our era is, in essence, the conflict between the Social Engineers, who seek to adjust mankind to scientific utopias, and the disciples of Truth, who defend the organic moral order. We believe that truth is neither arrived at nor illuminated by monitoring election results, binding though these are for other purposes, but by other means, including
5568-542: The findings of their 2016 study of Trump and Brexit supporters was not unexpected, as they wrote: Across two decades of empirical research, we cannot think of a significant exception to the finding that normative threat tends either to leave non-authoritarians utterly unmoved by the things that catalyze authoritarians or to propel them toward being (what one might conceive as) their 'best selves.' In previous investigations, this has seen non-authoritarians move toward positions of greater tolerance and respect for diversity under
5655-448: The firm serves clients "who support enactment of effective health care reform this year and encourages responsible national debate." On November 30, 2012, Armey resigned as chairman of FreedomWorks. Armey stipulated that FreedomWorks was to immediately remove his name, image, or signature "from all its letters, print media, postings, web sites, videos, testimonials, endorsements, fundraising materials, and social media." Armey claimed that
5742-418: The journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity , applies especially to Trump. Kimmel was surprised at the sexual turn the 2016 election took and thinks that Trump is for many men a fantasy figure, an uber-male free to indulge every desire. "Many of these guys feel that the current order of things has emasculated them, by which I mean it has taken away their ability to support a family and have great life. Here's
5829-574: The leader (who claims "only I can fix it") unfettered by procedure. The political base is kept entertained with mass rallies, but inevitably the strongman develops a contempt for those he leads. Will argues both are based on machismo , and in the case of Trumpism, "appeals to those in thrall to country-music manliness: 'We're truck-driving, beer-drinking, big-chested Americans too freedom-loving to let any itsy-bitsy [ COVID-19 ] virus make us wear masks.'" Hillary Clinton famously said that "you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call
5916-448: The leader's instincts over abstract and universal reason". Conservative columnist George Will considers Trumpism similar to fascism, stating that Trumpism is "a mood masquerading as a doctrine". Will argues that national unity is based "on shared domestic dreads"—for fascists the "Jews", for Trump the media ("enemies of the people"), " elites " and " globalists ". Solutions come not from tedious "incrementalism and conciliation", but from
6003-590: The media. Watchdog groups asked for investigations of the donations, alleging that the companies were created merely to hide the identity of contributors. Conservatism in the United States Defunct Newspapers Journals TV channels Websites Other Economics Gun rights Identity politics Nativist Religion Watchdog groups Youth/student groups Miscellaneous Other [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Conservatism in
6090-481: The movement's history. In 1937, Southern Democrats formed the congressional conservative coalition , which played an influential role in Congress from the late 1930s to the mid-1960s. In recent decades, Southern conservatives voted heavily Republican. Conservatism in the United States is not a single school of thought. Barry Goldwater in the 1960s spoke for a " free enterprise " conservatism. Jerry Falwell in
6177-528: The preservation of traditional cultural values , restrictions on illegal immigration , and strict law and order policies. In the United States, there has never been a national political party called the Conservative Party. Since 1962, there has been a small Conservative Party of New York State . During Reconstruction in several states in the South in the late 1860s, the former Whigs formed
6264-469: The remainder often characterized as "the elite" or "the establishment" in contrast. In response to the rise of Trump, there has arisen a Never Trump movement. The label Trumpism has been applied to national-conservative and national-populist movements in other democracies. Politicians labeled as Trumpist by news agencies include Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, Viktor Orbán of Hungary, Rodrigo Duterte and Bongbong Marcos of
6351-538: The requirement to install carbon capture and sequestration technology. In a blog post, then FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe said that the bill would go a "long way in curbing the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) radical war on affordable and reliable energy from fossil fuels". Kibbe argued that the EPA's proposed rule was "an obvious backdoor attempt to effectively outlaw coal" because
6438-614: The sides . In the 21st century United States, types of conservatism include: In February 1955, in the first issue of National Review , William F. Buckley Jr. explained the standards of his magazine and articulate the beliefs of American conservatives: Among our convictions: It is the job of centralized government (in peacetime) to protect its citizens' lives, liberty and property. All other activities of government tend to diminish freedom and hamper progress. The growth of government (the dominant social feature of this century) must be fought relentlessly. In this great social conflict of
6525-521: The split between FreedomWorks and Dick Armey, FreedomWorks again faced public controversy over its creation of a video featuring a giant panda-costumed intern pretending to perform cunnilingus upon another person wearing a Hillary Clinton mask. Its video was reported to be intended for showing at a conservative conference featuring Glenn Beck . FreedomWorks was an associate member of the Koch-funded State Policy Network ,
6612-686: The split was caused by President and CEO Matt Kibbe 's use of FreedomWorks' resources to write a book, Hostile Takeover , which he personally profited from and which he asked Armey and the board to later acknowledge was written without significant resources from FreedomWorks; Kibbe alleged that the split was a result of competing visions for the direction of the organization. The Associated Press reported that in September 2012, Armey agreed to resign by November 2012 in exchange for $ 8 million in consulting fees paid in annual $ 400,000 installments, funded by board member Richard J. Stephenson . Shortly following
6699-672: The standards were set "well below the emissions levels achieved by even the most advanced coal facilities". FreedomWorks supported the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2015 , REDEEM Act , and Email Privacy Act . FreedomWorks opposed net neutrality regulation. According to John Broder of The New York Times , FreedomWorks received funding from the oil industry. According to the liberal advocacy group Common Cause , FreedomWorks received funding from Verizon and SBC (now AT&T ). Other FreedomWorks donors included Richard J. Stephenson , Philip Morris and foundations controlled by
6786-524: The very conditions that seem to propel authoritarians toward increasing intolerance. Author and authoritarianism critic Masha Gessen contrasted the "democratic" strategy of the Republican establishment making policy arguments appealing to the public, with the "autocratic" strategy of appealing to an "audience of one" in Donald Trump. Gessen noted the fear of Republicans that Trump would endorse
6873-578: The very people who were supposed to inherit it." Communications scholar Zizi Papacharissi explains the utility of being ideologically vague, and using terms and slogans that can mean anything the supporter wants them to mean. "When these publics thrive in affective engagement it's because they've found an affective hook that's built around an open signifier that they get to use and reuse and re-employ ... MAGA ; that's an open signifier ... it allows them all to assign different meanings to it. So MAGA works for connecting publics that are different, because it
6960-632: The years to come. Media intimidation, mass propaganda, voter suppression, court packing, and even armed paramilitaries—many of the necessary and sufficient conditions for an authoritarian devolution are gradually falling into place." Some academics regard such authoritarian backlash as a feature of liberal democracies. Others have argued that Trump is a totalitarian capitalist exploiting the "fascist impulses of his ordinary supporters that hide in plain sight." Michelle Goldberg , an opinion columnist for The New York Times , compares Trumpism to classical fascist themes. The "mobilizing vision" of fascism
7047-664: Was a lead organizer of the September 12, 2009, Taxpayer March on Washington , also known as the 9/12 Tea Party. In February 2010, FreedomWorks, the FreedomWorks Foundation, and the FreedomWorks Political Action Committee were among the twelve most influential groups in the Tea Party movement, according to the National Journal . In September 2010, FreedomWorks was one of the top five most influential organizations in
7134-751: Was against vote-by-mail. FreedomWorks supported the Electricity Security and Affordability Act (H.R. 3826; 113th Congress) , which was into the House on January 9, 2014. The bill would repeal a pending rule published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on January 8, 2014. The proposed rule would establish uniform national limits on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new electricity-generating facilities that use coal or natural gas . The rule also sets new standards of performance for those power plants, including
7221-479: Was also active in a number of issue campaigns at the state and national levels. One of these campaigns was the school choice SB1 campaign in Pennsylvania. Additionally, FreedomWorks ran an active grassroots campaign in support of Ohio Governor John Kasich 's union reforms. FreedomWorks delivered thousands of yard signs, door-hangers, handouts, and registered conservative voters. In 2011, FreedomWorks launched
7308-462: Was immediately shut down. The group cited "the ideological upheaval of the Trump era" as its reason for closure. FreedomWorks president Adam Brandon said a "huge gap" opened up between the libertarian principles of the group's leadership and "the MAGA-style populism of its members." Together with Americans for Prosperity , FreedomWorks played an important role in generating a significant part of
7395-633: Was opposition to communism, which was seen not only as an enemy of the traditional order but also the enemy of Western freedom and democracy. Between 1945 and 1947, it was the Labour government in the United Kingdom, which embraced socialism, that pushed the Truman administration to take a strong stand against Soviet Communism . Social conservatism in the United States is the defense of traditional family values rooted in Judeo-Christian ethics and
7482-480: Was renamed FreedomWorks, led by President and CEO Matt Kibbe . Dick Armey , Jack Kemp , and C. Boyden Gray served as co-chairmen of the new organization with Bill Bennett focusing on school choice as a Senior Fellow. Empower America had been founded in 1993 by Bennett, former Secretary of HUD Kemp, former Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick , and former Representative Vin Weber . In December 2006, Steve Forbes joined
7569-402: Was simply "because they are also white Christian nationalists and Trumpism is inter alia a reactionary version of white Christian nationalism." Israeli philosopher Adi Ophir sees the politics of purity in the white Christian nationalist rhetoric of evangelical supporters, such as the comparison of Nehemiah 's wall around Jerusalem to Trump's wall keeping out the enemy, writing, "the notion of
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