Lisa McGirr’s book Suburban Warriors: The origins of the New American Right, published in 2001, examines the history of the conservative grassroots movement in Orange County, California during the 1960s and 1970s. With a “bottom up” lens, McGirr focused on ordinary people behind the grass-roots conservatism rather than the intellectual and political leaders. Historian Richard Hofstadter believed right-wing activists acted purely on their “psychological distress” rather than being motivated by a set of beliefs or “rational politics” (7). In response, McGirr argues that the ordinary people who created conservative grassroots were usually already involved with modernity. Many of them were mobile migrants who welcomed entrepreneurialism and already
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McGirr describes how this movement adapted, it began as a more extreme one that focused on anti communism (demonstrated by the John Birch Society), but after Barry Goldwater's defeat in 1964 shed the extremist label and embraced more single-issue social conservatism that culminated in the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan. She describes how these suburban pioneers created new political and social philosophies anchored in a fusion of Christian fundamentalism, xenophobic nationalism, and western …show more content…
In the 1960s and 1970s, many of the men and women were educated and fought to have their concerns and beliefs heard. Studies showed that many of Trump’s supporters are “uneducated, older white people” and may have felt “forgotten” during Barack Obama’s two-term presidency. During the elections, Trump had very little to say about specific issues but rather stood his ground to “Make America Great Again.” Although Trump’s slogan hyped his audience, many Americans from both sides of the political spectrum, questioned when did America stop being great? Trump’s campaign survived on ideas he knew catered to the “forgotten” Americans, reflecting how racist the United States still is. Besides promising to build a wall, Trump spent the elections criticizing the media and his opponents. In contrast to the people of the grassroots conservative movement, many of Trumps supporters were not concerned with specific political issues, but suffer from status neglection. Unlike the individual's part of the grassroots movement, many of Trump’s supporters seemed to be sheep following the
McGirr describes how this movement adapted, it began as a more extreme one that focused on anti communism (demonstrated by the John Birch Society), but after Barry Goldwater's defeat in 1964 shed the extremist label and embraced more single-issue social conservatism that culminated in the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan. She describes how these suburban pioneers created new political and social philosophies anchored in a fusion of Christian fundamentalism, xenophobic nationalism, and western …show more content…
In the 1960s and 1970s, many of the men and women were educated and fought to have their concerns and beliefs heard. Studies showed that many of Trump’s supporters are “uneducated, older white people” and may have felt “forgotten” during Barack Obama’s two-term presidency. During the elections, Trump had very little to say about specific issues but rather stood his ground to “Make America Great Again.” Although Trump’s slogan hyped his audience, many Americans from both sides of the political spectrum, questioned when did America stop being great? Trump’s campaign survived on ideas he knew catered to the “forgotten” Americans, reflecting how racist the United States still is. Besides promising to build a wall, Trump spent the elections criticizing the media and his opponents. In contrast to the people of the grassroots conservative movement, many of Trumps supporters were not concerned with specific political issues, but suffer from status neglection. Unlike the individual's part of the grassroots movement, many of Trump’s supporters seemed to be sheep following the