Historian @Georgetown - Democracy and Its Discontents - Podcast: @USDemocracyPod - Newsletter: Democracy Americana https://t.co/icbS5V67kY
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I dove into how leading conservative commentators in National Review are imagining a second Trump presidency. What they offer isn’t analysis. It is sophistry in defense of the premise that the actual threat isn’t Trump, it’s hysterical Libs and the radical Left. 2/
I dissect two recent pieces written by National Review editor-in-chief Rich Lowry and senior writer Michael Brendan Dougherty - who represent that “respectable” spectrum of the American Right the mainstream political discourse consistently asks us to take seriously. 2/
In early 2016, National Review – to much fanfare and mainstream praise – published a special issue titled “Against Trump.” No more. An increasingly untethered anti-anti-Trumpism is the game these “serious” conservatives are playing. 2/
This ideology of “real Americanism” is crucial: It provides the foundation for the Right’s anti-democratic radicalization, forms the basis of its normalization in mainstream political discourse, and helps explain why the response to the authoritarian threat has been lacking.
Part 1 focuses on the worldview of the people behind “Project 2025.” 
The Right was not ready in 2017. They didn’t have any plans or strategies, Trump world didn’t have a clue how government worked, the extremists didn’t have the personnel to bend the state to their will and harness its powers. This will not hinder them the next time. 2/
I compare “Project 2025” to what other rightwing factions, including Trump himself, are planning, situate these plans in the context of the Right’s history since the 1930s, and explore the current conditions that make it much more likely for these radical plans to succeed. 2/
Trying to turn his age into an asset, the president declared: “I was born amid World War Two, when America stood for the freedom of the world.” By referencing the fight against Hitler, Mussolini, and Imperial Japan, Biden invoked an anti-fascist consensus that has crumbled. 2/
In a country in which ideas of a glorious democratic tradition feature so prominently in the collective national imagination, the fact that one of the major parties is fully committed to erecting authoritarian minority rule under a vindictive autocrat requires investigation. 2/
The Supreme Court has made sure that Trump is basically guaranteed to escape serious legal consequences before the election; few people are even aware of what the Right is planning to do if they return to power, or of Trump’s most aggressive authoritarian threats. 2/
I have written two long pieces about “Project 2025” so far.
Over three years after January 6, Trump is almost guaranteed to escape any serious legal and political consequences before the next presidential election in which he will be, once again, the leader of the Republican Party. Not necessarily surprising, but it remains shocking. 2/
The idea that this SC ruling proves beyond doubt that those who derided the attempt to disqualify Trump were right - not just right in predicting the decision, but right on substance and in declaring there’s nothing to be done but “let the ballot box decide” - is ridiculous. 2/
Meanwhile, the people who have proudly taken on the mantle of “Guardians Against Liberal Alarmism and Hysteria” have offered a lot of sneering condescension - while being wrong about Trumpism and what’s happening on the American Right almost every step of the way. 2/
This is Part II of my deep dive into “Project 2025”: A detailed dissection of the policy agenda they have produced and the plans to install an army of loyalists. They understand they weren’t ready during Trump’s first presidency. In 2025, they will be. 2/
Expanding presidential power, establishing total control over the government, weaponizing some parts of the executive while dismantling others – that is the first big focus of “Project 2025,” as it crystallizes in the policy agenda for every department, every agency. 2/
What would a second Trump presidency look like? What happens if the Reactionary Right returns to power? 
To justify sticking with Trump, conservatives find ever more extreme justifications for why he is, at worst, the lesser evil compared to the “leftist” enemy. That is partly why rightwingers are constantly playing up the threat of “woke” radicalism and the “illiberal Left.” 2/
I took a deep dive into the “Promise to America” Heritage president Kevin Roberts has offered in his foreword to the "Project 2025" report: It perfectly captures the siege mentality, self-victimization, and grievance-driven lust for revenge that are fueling the Right's plans. 2/