In 2016, the striking electoral success of the UK Vote Leave campaign and Donald Trump’s presidential bid defied conventional expectations and transformed the political landscape. Considered together, these two largely unpredicted events constitute a defining moment in the process of the incorporation of far-right populist discourse in mainstream politics. This timely book argues that there has been a change in the fundamental dynamic of the mainstreaming of far-right populist discourse. In recent elections, anti-establishment actors have rewritten the playbook, defeated the establishment and redefined political norms. They have effectively outplayed, overtaken and trumped mainstream parties and policies. As fringe discourse becomes mainstream, how we conceive of the political landscape and indeed the very distinction between a political centre and periphery has been challenged. This book provides new theoretical tools and empirical analyses to understand the ongoing mainstreaming of far-right populism. Offering case studies and comparative research, it analyses recent political events in the US, UK, France and Belgium. This book is essential reading for scholars and students of populism and far-right politics who seek to make sense of recent world-altering events.

The victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 election left specialists of American politics perplexed and concerned about the future of US democracy. Because no populist leader had occupied the White House in 150 years, there were many questions about what to expect. Marshaling the long-standing expertise of leading specialists of populism elsewhere in the world, this book provides the first systematic, comparative analysis of the prospects for US democracy under Trump, considering the two regions - Europe and Latin America - that have had the most ample recent experiences with populist chief executives. Chapters analyze the conditions under which populism slides into illiberal or authoritarian rule and in so doing derive well-grounded insights and scenarios for the US case, as well as a more general cross-national framework. The book makes an original argument about the likely resilience of US democracy and its institutions.

Destroying a man who loves his country and the Americans is a mortal sin. Nearly seventy-five million people voted for this man Donald Trump, the highest number of votes for a sitting president ever. To this day, the mainstream media and countless political leaders show what their daily actions are to bring about President Trump's fall. He was impeached twice by a majority in Congress but not in the Senate. How is Trump now? Will he return as president in 2024, or will he become the great leader of the Republican Party? Trumpism is alive and kicking. And the mainstream media? Will they change their attitude? Will there be a change? I doubt they will ever change; they will remain using their weapons as framing and false reporting, but changing their attitude in the near future is inescapable.

The Ku Klux Klan has peaked three times in American history: after the Civil War, around the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and in the 1920s, when the Klan spread farthest and fastest. Recruiting millions of members even in non-Southern states, the Klan’s nationalist insurgency burst into mainstream politics. Almost one hundred years later, the pent-up anger of white Americans left behind by a changing economy has once again directed itself at immigrants and cultural outsiders and roiled a presidential election. In The Politics of Losing, Rory McVeigh and Kevin Estep trace the parallels between the 1920s Klan and today’s right-wing backlash, identifying the conditions that allow white nationalism to emerge from the shadows. White middle-class Protestant Americans in the 1920s found themselves stranded by an economy that was increasingly industrialized and fueled by immigrant labor. Mirroring the Klan’s earlier tactics, Donald Trump delivered a message that mingled economic populism with deep cultural resentments. McVeigh and Estep present a sociological analysis of the Klan’s outbreaks that goes beyond Trump the individual to show how his rise to power was made possible by a convergence of circumstances. White Americans’ experience of declining privilege and perceptions of lost power can trigger a political backlash that overtly asserts white-nationalist goals. The Politics of Losing offers a rigorous and lucid explanation for a recurrent phenomenon in American history, with important lessons about the origins of our alarming political climate.

Since 2014, over 80 people have been killed in the United States of America by Right-wing terrorists. In 2016 Donald Trump was elected President of the United States and received substantial support from White nationalists. This book explains the increase in violent White nationalism and Trump’s ascendancy in the context of the backlash against the presidency of Barack Obama. It demonstrates how there is a dynamic relationship between the Republican Party, various Right-wing populist movements, and the Right. Far Right social movements, political campaigns and the online presence of the so-called ‘alt-Right’ are all discussed. The book argues that unfair hierarchies of race, gender, and class are not aberrational tremors in America, but the fracturing bedrock of a nation in which being White, male, Christian, or straight no longer ensures a stable floor for power, status, or privilege. This is vital reading for students, researchers, and activists interested in American politics and the dangers of Right-wing movements and political parties.

The ascendency of Donald J. Trump to the office of president was not a fluke. Changes in the media environment and changes in the political landscape converged and provided fertile ground for a demagogic populist to exploit existing structures for his personal and political gains. A right-wing ecosystem had developed that included cable television, talk radio, social media, and imageboards. The political rise of Trump occurred alongside a mainstreaming of far-right politics and a skepticism towards long-established institutions. Trump was able to exploit the shifts in politics and the media environment for his political gain. He deployed a post-truth strategy that challenged established media and political institutions and their claims to be arbiters of truth and protectors of democracy. This book explores the shifts in the media environment that made the political career of Donald Trump possible. The author shows the ways that Trump was able to inhabit the new media and political landscape and take advantage of journalistic norms and practices that were susceptible to exploitation by a demagogue with no allegiance to the truth and no reverence towards the foundations of liberal democracy. Understanding the ways in which Trump was able to emerge as a powerful political force is essential to those invested in challenging the momentum of the alt-right and forwarding the project of democracy.

The acrimonious and hard-fought Election 2016 campaign revealed that Donald Trump was not only running against Hillary and the formidable Clinton machine, but also, against a new or political/media structure. Mainstream Media-Democratic Party-Complex is a term that accurately describes this unique social organism birthed by the melding or synthesis of the four pillars of modern-day liberalism: The Democratic Party, the mainstream media, Hollywood and the fringe academic left. In The Story of How Trump's Politics Changed the Mainstream Media-Democratic Party-Complex and Why He Drives Them Mad, Kinsellagh examines how the overt bias, unabashed media collusion with the Clinton campaign and unprecedented vitriol leveled against Trump demonstrated, this new organization has effectively supplanted the Democratic Party in terms of conducting campaigns and handling all communications to insure Democratic candidates prevail. The book analyzes how Trump's unorthodox tactics flummoxed Hillary's cheerleaders in the media and why his resolve in fighting back, ultimately allowed him to prevail against an opponent who had the deck stacked in her favor.Kinsellagh, explains how Trump's frontal assault against political correctness exposed the naked partisanship of the press corps and why it was responsible for changing forever the political media's already-eroding stature, credibility and standing with the American public. Mainstream Media-Democratic Party-Complex chronicles for the reader how Trump's tumultuous interaction with the Washington media evolved over time: from curiosity, then derision and finally, its terminal phase on election night expressed through rancor and rage. Kinsellagh describes the reasons why the Get-Trump jihad backfired and how this discomfiting reality would end up driving them, Stark Raving Mad...