| | | | Sean Wilentz: Conspiracy Theories and American Politics, Then and Now Dear Friends,
What role have conspiracy theories played in American political history? What is the connection between conspiracism and demagogy? How do the conspiracies circulating in our time compare to the conspiracies of the past?
Using the classic work by Richard Hofstadter The Paranoid Style in American Politics (1964) as a springboard, Princeton historian Sean Wilentz joins us to consider these questions. Wilentz, editor of Library of America's new volume of Hofstadter's work, argues that conspiracies, paranoia, and demagogy have deep roots in American political history—and have, at various times, succeeded in affecting American politics considerably. Wilentz brings his perspective to bear on conspiracies circulating today and considers how our situation compares and contrasts with other tumultuous moments in American history. Kristol and Wilentz also discuss whether and how a less demagogic form of politics might emerge in the years ahead.
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Best,
Andy | | | Below are excerpts from the Conversation: | | On parallels between conspiracy theories of today and conspiracies of the past WILENTZ: Reflecting on what [Richard] Hofstadter called "the paranoid style in American politics," there are some obvious similarities with what's going on now with what happened all the way back to the end of the eighteenth century. There was conspiratorial thinking, there was an idea that there is some great force out there that is dictating events that has to be identified and isolated and destroyed. And there's an idea that, you yourselves are the loyal or the remnant of civilization that is battling in this kind of Gog and Magog Armageddon kind of situation.
But it's almost the end of times, that you're literally at the ramparts and that unless you succeed in this, we're all damned. There are some people who kind of welcome the end of times, of course. So all of these themes you can find recurring today. I think of the QAnon phenomenon: maybe the most extreme of what we're talking about. It seems to have quite a purchase inside the Trump Republican Party or as I sometimes call it "the TOP," which is Trump's own party. Many of the same themes are there, the conspiracy obviously, the pedophilia, the idea of drinking baby's blood, that goes back to old anti-Semitic tropes that go back well into European history, but they get picked up here and transformed here. | | | On sensationalistic and conspiratorial thought in American politics WILENTZ: There's an underside [to American politics that is] sensational, bizarre, ugly, nasty. Go back to 1800. The election of 1800 which was a hotly-contested election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. This was not a political science seminar between the two of them, and the Federalists in particular, playing off of the French Revolution and the reign of terror and so forth, accused Jefferson and the Jeffersonians of being Jacobins, of intending to set up guillotines at every little town crossroads and take care of all the local notables.
And it also connected with the anti-Jacobin European ideas, but got translated into America with the suspicions of the Bavarian Illuminati, which is a genuine group, but nevertheless, they were portrayed as the kind of George Soros of the day. They somehow were at the center of everything. So this goes all the way back in American history. And you ask Bill, whether it is large or not? It comes and goes, but there have been moments when it's had a great deal of influence. I think of the Nativists of the 1850s for example, who had a great political influence, which fortunately proved to be passing. But nevertheless it was there, people had to take account of it. And you can see that strain all through American history. Joe McCarthy himself, for a couple of seasons there, really did throw American politics into a real tailspin. So it's not marginal, it is at the center of American politics. | | | On how the weakening of parties has unleashed demagogy in American politics WILENTZ: [Parties contributed] to the health of the system that we lost touch with in the 1960s-70s. The party bosses were not good for everything, and there should have been reforms. But [party bosses were] upholding an institution, which I think had a salutary effect in American life, not simply in keeping coherence, keeping demagogues from getting the kind of influence they have now, but also in conducting conflict. You could get things done through a party. It's kind of "controlled conflict"—conflict that's not going to go spin out of control. [We certainly] fight about things: we're going to have fundamental differences about how the country ought to be run. But parties were a way to conduct that fight in a way that was going to keep things together, and enable that fight to happen [in a somewhat regulated way]. | | | On the difficulty of countering demagogy in today's political and media environment WILENTZ: Back in the good old days—the 1930s—Franklin Roosevelt could take to the radio, and outdo Charles Coughlin, a radio demagogue. It's much harder today. I suppose the Lincoln Project came as close as anybody to doing that because Republicans do this much better than Democrats. So they came up with very witty ads that were very effective. But even there, it was not going to be able to undo what was coming out of the Trump world.
So it's a lack of pushback, I think as well. In the old days, you could push back against the demagogue. You could push back against Joe McCarthy. What do we have today? CNN, MSNBC? These are not particularly effective counterweights. Mainly because they don't stand for "authority" they stand for "arguing against." It's just a different version of Trump. Obviously they're not as mendacious, they're not as bad. But nevertheless, it comes across that way. There is no neutral authority, there is no arbiter, everybody's out for himself. It's an everybody out for himself world. And we judge ideas on that basis. That's what it has all become and it's frightening. | | | About Conversations with Bill Kristol. Conversations with Bill Kristol is an award-winning online interview program hosted by Bill Kristol and produced by The Foundation for Constitutional Government. A forum for substantive, thought-provoking dialogue on pressing issues in the news and American politics, Conversations features informal discussions between Kristol and guests on a diverse array of issues of public concern from the American presidency and America's role in the world to the ideas that have shaped Western civilization. Recent guests include Senator Ben Sasse, former world chess champion and human rights activist Garry Kasparov, Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Obama senior adviser David Axelrod, business founder Peter Thiel, best-selling author Ayaan Hirsi Ali, former commander in Iraq and Afghanistan General David Petraeus, former U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff General Jack Keane, and Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield. New conversations are released bi-weekly. Users can access Conversations at www.conversationswithbillkristol.org to watch all conversations free-of-charge, read guest biographies, download podcasts and transcripts, and view additional footage. About the Foundation for Constitutional Government. The Foundation for Constitutional Government is a 501(c)(3) educational organization devoted to supporting the serious study of politics and political philosophy, with particular attention to the Constitutional character of American government. The Foundation's online programming includes Conversations with Bill Kristol, Great Thinkers, a comprehensive site devoted to political philosophers such as John Locke and Alexis de Tocqueville, as well as websites devoted to important Contemporary Thinkers such as Harvey Mansfield, Irving Kristol, and James Q. Wilson. Media contact: Andy Zwick 917-423-1422 AZwick@constitutionalgovt.org | | | | | | |
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