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The Trump Party: Republican in Name Only

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorJohn E. Owens
Published date01 June 2021
Date01 June 2021
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/20419058211022938
32 POLITICAL INSIGHT • JUNE 2021
On 6 January 2021, an angry crowd
stormed the United States Capitol.
The insurrection was prompted by
Donald Trump’s refusal to accept
his November election loss. The President
claimed victory had been stolen through fraud,
sought to persuade state election ocials to
falsify results, contemplated martial law, and
partly nanced and organised the mob that
descended on Washington. Behind all this,
Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ has torn a ssure through the
Republican Party.
While the immediate cause of the ssure
was Trump’s post-election behaviour, it’s the
The Trump Party:
Republican in
Name Only
Donald Trump lost last year’s presidential election, but the former
President retains his grip on his party and it retains his populist,
nativist image, argues John E. Owens.
result of a decades-long process by which the
Grand Old Party (GOP) unshackled itself from
its core conservative principles, as it harnessed
itself to opposition and identity politics,
exploited white low-income voters’ fears of
cultural change and economic displacement,
and embraced anti-democratic action.
Building on groundwork laid by House Speaker
Newt Gingrich’s ruthless partisanship and a
scorched earth style of politics in the 1990s,
as well as the steady migration of non-college
white male voters to the Republican Party,
© ZUMA Press / Alamy Stock Photo
Political Insight June 2021 BU.indd 32Political Insight June 2021 BU.indd 32 12/05/2021 15:3412/05/2021 15:34

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