Table Of Contenti
“Ehrenberg has produced a beautifully written interdisciplinary study of Trump’s
racism that is based on profound political insight and scholarly acumen. It should
become a standard work.”
Stephen Eric Bronner, Board of Governors Distinguished
Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Rutgers University
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WHITE NATIONALISM AND
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
In this book, John Ehrenberg argues that Donald Trump, as both candidate and president,
represents a qualitatively new stage in the evolution of the Republican Party’s willingness
to exploit American racial tensions.
Works on Trump’s use of race have tended to be fragmentary or subsidiary to a larger
purpose. Ehrenberg concentrates his investigation on Trump’s weaponized use of race,
contextualized through historical and theoretical details, demonstrating that while Trump
draws on previous Republican strategies, he stands apart through his explicit intention to
convert the Republican Party into a political instrument of a threatened racial order. The
book traces the Grand Old Party’s (GOP) approach to racial matters from Goldwater’s
“constitutional” objection to federal activity in the South to George W. Bush’s overtures to
Black citizens. Ehrenberg examines the role of racial animus in prying loose a significant
portion of the Democratic Party’s electoral coalition and making possible Trump’s overt
flirtation with white nationalism. He concludes that the Republican Party will find it
difficult to jettison its 50-y ear history of embracing and amplifying white racial animus
and resentment.
White Nationalism and the Republican Party will be of interest to academics and students
of American politics, voting behavior, American party politics, race and American politics,
twentieth- century American history, political leadership, politics of inequality, race and
public policy.
John Ehrenberg is Senior Professor of Political Science Emeritus and former Chair of the
Political Science Department at Long Island University. Professor Ehrenberg has devoted a
lifetime to research and writing on political ideologies and the history of political thought.
His works have been translated into languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish,
and Egyptian, while he has also been the recipient of many awards, including the Alfred
McCoy Award for Lifetime Achievement from the American Political Science Association’s
Caucus for a New Political Science. Some of his previous works include Civil Society: The
Critical History of an Idea, Israel and Palestine: Alternate Perspectives on Statehood (co- edited with
Yoav Peled), The Iraq Papers (edited with J. Patrice McSherry, José Ramón Sánchez, and
Caroleen Marji Sayej), and Servants of Wealth: The Right’s Assault on Equality.
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WHITE NATIONALISM
AND THE
REPUBLICAN PARTY
Toward Minority Rule in America
iv
John Ehrenberg
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Cover image: enjoynz
First published 2022
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 John Ehrenberg
The right of John Ehrenberg to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978- 1- 032- 02342- 7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 032- 02341- 0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 18296- 2 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/ 9781003182962
Typeset in Bembo
by Newgen Publishing UK
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
Introduction: Trumped 1
1 Barry and George Go Fishing 12
2 Dick’s Trick 26
3 Whistling for Plutocracy 43
4 The Wrecker and the Warrior Throw a Party 64
5 The Tribune Rides Forth 90
6 Toward White Minority Rule 106
Bibliography 127
Index 136
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PREFACE
As soon as Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2016 presidential vote,
an army of pundits, columnists, social scientists, and ordinary citizens set about
trying to understand what had happened. The election’s surprising result required
an explanation.
I’m a political scientist by training, and, like many others, I followed the profes-
sional literature as colleagues tried to tease out the elements of Trump’s triumph.
Two sets of explanations quickly emerged.
One of them focused on the profound changes that have been transforming
the American economy. Decades of deindustrialization and the disappearance of
millions of manufacturing jobs have hollowed out vast swaths of the country’s
industrial heartland, areas that were home to some of the world’s most powerful
companies and whose communities were shining examples of American eco-
nomic prowess. Decades of economic decline have produced unemployment,
disinvestment, poverty, and an assortment of social ills that have devastated once-
thriving regions and made their voters open to Trump’s promise to revive industry,
get tough with China, and “Make America Great Again.” There was considerable
evidence to support the view that stagnant economic prospects for millions of
working- and lower- middle- class families lay at the bottom of Trump’s victory.
A second set looked at the way Trump had mobilized the old demons of
American racism and xenophobia during his campaign. A sharp uptick in measures
of racial prejudice, hostility to immigrants, and anti-M uslim rhetoric correlated
with areas of strength for the Trump campaign. His core message of American
restoration had a bright white color. Here too, millions of Republican and inde-
pendent voters responded to Trump’s overt appeals to racial animus and his calls
for restoration.
