Thomas ZimmerAs America nears a tipping point, Russell Vought desires a radical rightwing “counter-revolution.”
For Die Zeit, I wrote a profile of one of Trumpism’s key figures – and one of Trump’s most dangerous henchmen.
Some thoughts from the piece (since it is in German):
The Trumpists want escalation – and would love to use the murder of Charlie Kirk as pretext for a comprehensive crackdown on any “leftist” opposition, on that “vast domestic terror movement” Stephen Miller has raged about.
Do they really believe any of this nonsense?
Enter Russell Vought – a man who is driven by the idea that a radically anti-American “Left” has taken over the country and is destroying the nation. He is determined to use his detailed understanding of how the government works in a crusade to turn the state into an instrument of Trumpist domination.
Vought is singularly focused on bending the entire government machine to Trump’s will. He believes that any check on the power of Donald Trump, who Vought literally describes as a “gift of God,” is illegitimate. There is no line he doesn’t feel justified to cross.
Key to understanding Vought’s worldview is the idea that the constitutional order - and with it the “natural” order itself - has been destroyed: The revolution has already happened, “the Left” won. Therefore, conservatives categorically err when they try to preserve what is no more.
Vought certainly sees himself in the modern conservative tradition - and loves to invoke the canonical forefathers like Whittaker Chambers - but he also disdains the conservative establishment for their inability to understand and act upon the radical demands of the moment.
Power, Vought claims, now lies with a “permanent ruling class” of leftist elites who control all major institutions of American life and especially the “woke and weaponized” agencies of the state. In order to defeat them, conservatives must become “radical constitutionalists” - and take radical action.
While Vought traces the “leftwing revolution” back a hundred years, to the progressive era, there is no question that the election of Barack Obama was a radicalizing moment for him and many key thinkers on the radical Right - as were the multiracial protests in the summer of 2020.
What he is railing against is a profound shift in culture, status… He is obsessed with the idea that a leftist “ruling elite” controls everything - but “elite” isn’t defined socio-economically or by political power, it means something like: getting to define “real America.”
Vought is not interested in “normal” democratic politics: He seeks to “traumatize” civil servants, use the military to suppress protests, and sees Trump as an agent of God’s will. He is a committed ideologue, convinced to be fighting a noble war to defend his “real America” of white Christian patriarchal rule.
Russel Vought’s ideology of “radical constitutionalism” captures the defining sensibility on the Trumpist Right: The “Left” has command of America, all that is noble has been destroyed, nothing short of a radical “counter-revolution” can now save the nation.
Vought’s case is emblematic of the Right’s trajectory more broadly: From – at least rhetorically – claiming “small government” principles and “constitutional conservatism” to an ever more explicit, aggressive desire to mobilize the coercive powers of the state against the “enemy within.”
The key task, as Vought sees it, is to take over government and turn it into a tool that serves only two purposes: To enact revenge against the “woke” Left – and impose White Christian patriarchal domination on the country.
And he knows how to wield the power of the state as his instrument.
And he knows how to wield the power of the state as his instrument.
Today’s Right is dominated by people like Vought who are convinced there is nothing left to conserve – that our moment requires not “conservatism,” but a radical “counter-revolution.”
They have never been so powerful. And they are determined to abuse their power ruthlessly.
They have never been so powerful. And they are determined to abuse their power ruthlessly.
SellaTheChemist@tzimmer_history Grim assessment. A mullah by another name.
JTinMI@tzimmer_history If he just switched the rhetorical sides by 180º, he'd be telling the truth. The right has command of America, it is in the process of destroying all that is noble, and nothing short of a counter-revolution can save it.
MidgePhoto@tzimmer_history
Odd place, America.
Odd place, America.
Matt Jordan@tzimmer_history Can we call them "key figures" instead of "key thinkers"? I'm not sure what these people do can be accurately called "thinking."
@tzimmer_history
We usually take that sort of pronouncement as very strongly suggestive of serious mental illness.
We usually take that sort of pronouncement as very strongly suggestive of serious mental illness.
f*cking b*tch club@tzimmer_history do they believe it?
Yes, I think they do. Unfortunately it’s more like mass psychosis than fear of anything “in real life”
They’re terrified of living in “crime-ridden cities run by Democratic mayors” when some of the reddest rural towns have far higher crime rates.
etc, etc, etc.
Isaac Ji Kuo@grammasaurus @tzimmer_history Living in the deep South, there's one thing you need to understand about white racist christianists ...
Their core identity belief is that they are the most persecuted people ever. It will never matter how much this is the opposite of the truth. This is a core identity belief. And it justifies every level of applying revenge oppression on everyone else, including mass lynchings and simply shooting random black people at any time for any or no reason.
@isaackuo @tzimmer_history Ugly, isn’t it? I know that many of them don’t see Black people as fully human either.
Unfortunately, my family had a part to play in all that, as one of my great-grandfathers was a sheriff in a small town down south. I’m sure he made life miserable for a lot of Black folks. I wish I could go back in time and change that.
FediThing 
@isaackuo @grammasaurus @tzimmer_history
Is there any kind of explanation for this paranoia?
Is this a relic of the civil war? A subconscious desire to refight it?
@FediThing @grammasaurus @tzimmer_history Oh no no no this goes WAY BACK further than the Civil War. It's how they justified genociding the native Americans and enslaving the blacks.
@isaackuo @grammasaurus @tzimmer_history
That is pretty disturbing. 😞 It sounds like they're not in touch with reality.
@FediThing @grammasaurus @tzimmer_history ... Let me tell you something about religious fanatics in general ... sigh ...
You S Blues@tzimmer_history I’m still of the opinion that if you support Donald Trump, you support a traitor to this country. If that terrifies lil’ Stevie Goebbels, that’s just an indication of the craven weasel that he is. Seriously, screw that guy.