How did the United States descend into crisis, with institutions frayed, political violence mounting, and democracy itself in peril? This timely book identifies how the Tea Party and its extremist narratives laid the groundwork for the rise of Donald Trump, his MAGA movement, and the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.
Brigitte L. Nacos, Yaeli Bloch-Elkon, and Robert Y. Shapiro trace the escalation of a strain of extremist rhetoric in right-wing political discourse after the inauguration of Barack Obama. Drawing on extensive and in-depth analysis of political communication in both traditional media and online spaces, they demonstrate how the dominant rhetorical styles of the Trump era were pioneered by the Tea Party. A backlash to the election of the first Black president, this reactionary social movement deployed violent language and spread anti-Obama paranoia, with the assistance of media insiders, GOP leaders, and conservative advocacy groups. Donald Trump rose to political prominence by hitching himself to the “birther” racist conspiracy theory, espoused by many Tea Partiers, and drew from their aggressive and hyperpartisan repertoire. Ultimately, this book shows, the increasingly violent rhetoric of right-wing extremists spilled over into real-world political violence. Revealing the path the Tea Party blazed to Trump and the insurrectionists, Hate Speech and Political Violence provides timely new insights into the threats facing American democracy.
Brigitte Lebens Nacos (born 1936) is an Adjunct Professor in political science at Columbia University.[1] She has written on the news media, the politics of Germany, and terrorism.
She is a joint author of a paper, "Prevention of Terrorism in Post-9/11 America" which was delivered at the Summer 2006 meeting of the American Political Science Association; the paper addresses the correlation between increases in terrorism alert levels and the popularity of U.S. President George W. Bush. Referring to her study of terrorism alerts, media coverage, and Bush's popularity, journalist Matthew Stannard wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that "The media will repeat the president's remarks. Public fear of terrorism will increase. And the president's poll numbers will rise."
Hate Speech and Political Violence, Bridgette L. Nacos, Yaeli Bloch-Ekos , Robert Y. Shapiro [Columbia University Press, 2024].
An academic—though accessible—analysis of inflammatory political rhetoric and hate speech in the age of the Tea Party and Trump, its origins in Goldwater’s New Right movement of the 1960s, and its culmination in the January 6th siege of the U.S. capitol.
This book is very academic. It's topic led me to pick it up, but it was a slow, dense read. I think this book would be much more suitable to an academic rather than a casual reader.