Under the Cover of Chaos: Trump and the Battle for the American Right

193 Pages·2018·1.5 MB·English

by  Lawrence Grossberg

Under the Cover of Chaos

Under the Cover
of Chaos
Trump and the Battle
for the American Right
Lawrence Grossberg
First published 2018 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Lawrence Grossberg 2018
The right of Lawrence Grossberg to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3792 0 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3791 3 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7868 0269 9 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0271 2 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0270 5 EPUB eBook
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the
country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
For Stuart Hall and Doreen Massey

Contents
Preface viii
part i from trump to the conjuncture
1 The Terror and the Beast 3
2 Telling Stories and Stories Told 16
3 Other Stories are Possible, and Possibly Even Better 31
part ii in search of the conjuncture
4 The New Right 53
5 The Reactionary Right 68
6 Affective Landscapes 91
part iii a conjunctural politics
7 Back to the Present: A Reactionary Counter-modernity 113
8 Conclusions? 143
Appendix: Cultural Studies and Conjunctural Analysis 155
Bibliography 159
Thanks 165
Preface
These are dark times and getting darker every day. It never lets
up. Significant time has passed since Trump’s presidential victory
and many people are still in disbelief, asking how did this happen?
What does it mean? His presidency has not calmed things down;
rather, it has augmented people’s uncertainty and anxiety. And
this is true not only in the United States. I know that many
people around the world are concerned, in deeply visceral ways,
about Trump; in each place, the political content and emotional
valences of that concern are shaped by their own social context,
the distributions of hope and possibility, and the forms of closure
and constraint. Still, I want to talk about the U.S., which has
once again become, quite literally perhaps, the belly of the beast.
There is a real crisis. After all, the political culture and practice
of governance is already a disaster, apparently rising to new levels
of incompetence, deception, dishonesty, cruelty and greed, a
deeply inhumane practice of governance. The combination of a
bombastic, egotistical president, Republican control of Congress,
and a conservative majority Supreme Court promises devastating
consequences for democracy, global stability and peace, envi-
ronmental recovery, sane economic policies, political freedoms,
healthcare, cultural diversity, social justice and the social safety
nets that are increasingly necessary.
In the U.S., many who oppose Trump and the Republican
agenda are panicked; some of them run around like Chicken Little,
screaming it’s the end of the world.1 Others try to find a way to
1. It is, of course, not just Trump. It is Trump and climate change, nuclear
weapons, population growth, social hatred, etc.—and these problems
presumably exist without Trump. But it is also Brexit, the decline of
viii
Preface
shut out the increasingly absurd realities, but you can’t escape it,
no matter how hard you try. Politics has once again become the
lingua franca of everyday life, and has come to define the mood of
the country. Psychologists and pundits offer advice about how to
cope with it, and the complex emotions it is soliciting. There is a
sense of suspense—as everyone (whatever political position they
may occupy) waits for the next shoe to drop. But the suspense
is always accompanied by other emotions: fear and anxiety,
certainly, but also anger and shock, and often, no small amount
of laughter, all wrapped up in a bundle of panic. Even so, there
are inevitably different responses, with different valences, to the
present situation. But none of these, even from those who choose
active resistance, seem able to create an aura or even much of a
glimmer of hope.
For some, there is a kind of political despair. We are on the
road to fascism or at least totalitarianism, and we are offered all
sorts of “warnings from history.” We “argue” about whether it is
1984, or Brave New World, or A Handmaid’s Tale. (I prefer Robocop
or perhaps the city of Qarth in Game of Thrones.) Or perhaps we
have finally reached the final stage of the capitalist victory over
democracy and social welfare—the apotheosis of greed.
For others, the situation is even worse, undercutting the very
possibility of political reflection and reaction. We are amazed by
how “low” Trump’s campaign was willing to go to win.2 Trump’s
election (and even his nomination) may even be evidence that
the nation is no longer capable of self-government. And the
continuing allegiance of his supporters simply exacerbates and
legitimates one’s sense of hopelessness. There are many allusions
democracy, the increasingly dangerous tone of foreign relations, and even
the U.N. talks about the “worst humanitarian crisis” since its founding.
2. In the 1993 movie, The Pelican Brief, Supreme Court Justice
Rosenberg says, “It never ceases to amaze me what a man will do to get
into the Oval Office.”
ix