There is no Alt-Right only Alt-Reality

Much has been made of the displacement of establishment American conservatism by the alt-right. A mish-mash of the politics of grievance, nativism, economic nationalism and a growing list of conspiracy theories, it is difficult to find a place for the alternative right movement on the traditional political spectrum. In good part, that is because it is neither right wing nor a political movement as such.

Instead, this large group of motivated voters has rallied around Donald Trump because he serves as a placeholder for their own alternative reality. While the Trump campaign has put forward a range of domestic and foreign policy proposals, they have received very little attention or scrutiny because his supporters are far more focused on their own imagined version of what the slogan “Make America Great Again” actually means.

{mosads}Clinton hit upon this by retorting in the first debate, “Well, Donald, I know you live in your own reality, but that is not the facts.” And then, with a sigh in the second debate, telling the audience “Well, everything you’ve heard just now from Donald is not true. I’m sorry I have to keep saying this, but he lives in an alternative reality.”

Scholars and journalists have located some of the origins of alt-right thinking in post-War McCarthyism, the economic theories of Friedrich Hayek, the ideas of H.L. Mencken, and the more recent failures of the neoconservatives. But, this history does not explain the broad appeal of Alex Jones, Andrew Breitbart and his successor and Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon.

While they and their surrogates espouse a variety of often-contradictory populist, libertarian and paleoconservative ideas, the only consistent theme in their commentary is the idea that establishment institutions are rigged; everything from the media, the economy, education, and, of course, American politics and elections. 

This helps explain the surprising but real link between the Bernie Sanders insurgency, backed by the progressive Occupy Wall Street crowd, and the xenophobic “basket of deplorables” supporting Trump. Both groups feel ripped off and left out by the system.

Trump has succeeded so far by feeding off this great-untapped power. He has posed as the person who could finally pull back the curtain on the deep-state, say the unsayable, expose the rot; and not just in some beer hall or fringe website but on the Presidential campaign stage in front of the world.

Of course, this alternative reality movement does not do very well when they have to make factual criticisms against their rivals. The Trump campaign has botched the very real Clinton email scandal, focusing instead on sideshow scheming within the FBI and waiting on some Russian hacker to provide a bombshell that may never come. Appropriately, the story about Clinton’s ill health only had traction until it turn out to be partly true. Her admission to having pneumonia took the wind right out of the conspiracy.

This is what really bothers the Republicans. It’s not the conspiracies, hypocrisy or even lack of conservative policy that has caused a split in the GOP but a profoundly unfocused and unprofessional Trump campaign that lurches from outrage to outrage, and crisis to crisis, with no sense of purpose or direction.

Still, in the alternative reality of the Trump universe, there are still millions and millions who think he can win.  

Tabachnick is a professor of Political Science at Nipissing University, who has  published books and articles in the areas of global politics and political philosophy.

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