Rural rage: the roots of right-wing populism in the United States^*

* Editorial Note: This paper is part of the ‘JPS Forum on Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World’, framed and introduced by Ian Scoones and colleagues in their joint paper, ‘Emancipatory Rural Politics: Confronting Authoritarian Populism’, published in JPS in January 2018. The contributions to this forum will be published separately and in clusters in 2018 and 2019. This forum is one of the initial outcomes of the activities of the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI, www.iss.nl/erpi).

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2019.1572603.

ABSTRACT

In the United States, right-wing populism is a major factor in national politics, as evidenced by the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in 2015. Right-wing populism is defined by an appeal to ‘people’ (usually white, heterosexual Christians) to rebel – against both liberal ‘elites’ from above and ‘subversives’ and ‘parasites’ from below – by engaging in a hardline brand of conservative politics. There are a variety of right-wing populist political currents in the U.S. One of the most visible is the contemporary ‘Patriot’ movement, which is the successor to the Armed Citizens Militia movement which swept the across the nation in the 1990s. Today, the core Patriot movement groups are united by an interpretation of the Constitution that derides federal power (especially regarding environmental regulations, public lands, and progressive taxation) and advocates for a radical brand of right-wing decentralization. This opposition to federal government policies is framed in a way that inflames preexisting White, Christian nationalism (including anti-immigrant xenophobia and Islamophobia), as well as Christian Right support for patriarchy and opposition to LGBTQ rights.

KEYWORDS:

• Militias
• patriot movement
• populism
• islamophobia
• white nationalism
• xenophobia

ORCID

Chip Berlet http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4997-9614

Spencer Sunshine http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4498-6185

Notes

* Editorial Note: This paper is part of the ‘JPS Forum on Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World’, framed and introduced by Ian Scoones and colleagues in their joint paper, ‘Emancipatory Rural Politics: Confronting Authoritarian Populism’, published in JPS in January 2018. The contributions to this forum will be published separately and in clusters in 2018 and 2019. This forum is one of the initial outcomes of the activities of the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI, www.iss.nl/erpi).

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2019.1572603.

1 See also: Arnold and Gottlieb (1993).

2 For an earlier analysis see Hofstadter (1965).

3 The term Posse Comitatus comes from Latin, and refers to ‘the bodily force of the county,’ as in a body of men assigned power over a county. The term ‘county’ is derived from the territory under the control of a Medieval Count; and the leader of the force of men would be a Sheriff. The term ‘Sheriff's Posse Comitatus’ was used by the founders of the movement. The common translation of Posse Comitatus as ‘Power of the County’ lacks this explanatory information (Southern Poverty Law Center n.d.; Berlet 2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Political Research Associates.

Notes on contributors

Chip Berlet

Notes on contributors

Chip Berlet is an investigative journalist and photographer recruited by progressive sociologists to help research right-wing movements. Active in the antiwar and civil rights movements, in 1977 he and his partner Karen Moyer moved to Chicago and spent 10 years involved in labor and anti-racism projects, including challenging violence by neo-Nazis and Klansmen. Berlet is co-author with Matthew N. Lyons of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort (Guilford, 2000). He was senior analyst at Political Research Associates for 30 years, and has written for peer review social science journals, popular magazines, and newspapers. His website is at https://www.researchforprogress.us/topic/.

Spencer Sunshine

Spencer Sunshine has a PhD in sociology and studies organized racist, fascist, and antisemitic movements and organizations. He is the author of the guide 40 Ways to Fight Nazis: Forty Community-Based Actions You Can Take to Resist White Nationalist Organizing published by Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). Sunshine and Jessica Campbell (with Daniel HoSang; Steven Beda; and Chip Berlet) wrote Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon's Patriot Movement published by the Rural Organizing Project and Political Research Associates, online. Sunshine is also the executive director of Action Against Fascism and Xenophobia (AAFX). His website is at https://spencersunshine.com/.