People ask, “How can Trump, an incumbent, run for reelection on the message that he'll get rid of the chaos that he caused?”

Because I read @heathercoxrichardson’s book and wrote about it this morning, I’ll offer an explanation using her concept of Movement Conservatism.

1/ https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/1298980063614918658

2/ Richardson’s explanation of Movement Conservatism helps us make sense of all three of these things

Movement Conservatives are not traditional conservatives, and are not traditional Republicans. The movement arose in the 1950s with the aim of smashing the New Deal.

3/ Notice that they’re out to destroy.

Notice also that destroying the New Deal requires dismantling much of the federal government, including social security, workers’ protection, laws against racial discrimination, insider trading, market manipulation, etc.

4/ Ideas from How the South Won the Civil War, this talk: and this one with @joannefreeman

It’s no coincidence that Movement Conservatism arose just as the modern civil rights and women’s rights movements got going.

5/ “Since Reagan, Republicans have conceived of an ‘other’ that is destroying American society and ultimately must be kept from power at all costs.”

This echoes the South in the 1850s, and the 1890s when ‘others’ were purged from the electorate through lynching and Jim Crow.

Mistake in Tweet 1. Should have been @HC_Richardson's book.

6/ These ‘others’ unworthy the ‘takers.’ Allowing them power (so the belief goes) will create chaos and the end of democracy and personal liberty.

For more explanation on that, see this morning’s thread: https://twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield/status/1299042356679720960

7/ Good Americans (according to Movement Conservatives) must destroy the ‘others’ who are trying to destroy America.

The ‘others’ include minority communities, liberals, immigrants, and Democrats.

Richardson gives the formula (which is similar to @TimothyDSnyder's sadopopulism)

8/ The formula:

Destabilize society
construct through language a picture of an “other”
stoke fear and anger
Then, when the oligarch’s policies hurt their own voters,
isolate the voters by controlling the media and suppressing those voting to empower the enemies.

9/ This is the part where they destabilize the society https://twitter.com/ZekeJMiller/status/1298980063614918658

10/ In the Movement Conservative view of things, the recent protests and upheavals are not Trump’s fault. It’s the ‘others’ the enemies showing who they really are.

Richardson also says that if the ‘others’ insist on political power, the final resort is to kill them.

Thus