The US Turn to the Right

Session Submission Type: Invited Session (90 minute)

Description

The far right is on the march around the globe. This is surprising. Initially it had seemed that the collapse of the world financial system in 2007 to 2008 would create an opening for the left. Occupy, the Indignados movement, and Syriza suggested the emergence of a new social democratic project capable of breaking with the pre-existing neoliberal framework. This has not occurred. Instead of reanimating social democracy, radical right alternatives have outflanked the left. The rightist forces have been more focused and determined in their attack on the preceding global consensus, and they have also enjoyed much greater electoral success than the left. Indeed, with Trump’s re-election, a watershed as dramatic as that which divided the world before and after 1914 or 1945, the far fright has seized the commanding heights of the most powerful state in world history unleashing a project of wholesale political, economic, and social transformation as profound as that of the New Deal era. The consequences of this tectonic political transition, “The Turn to the Right,” for society, the climate, geopolitics, culture, and democracy are likely to be dramatic. Sociologists are well positioned to understand why this occurred, and to limit its likely effects. This panel, then, explores the emergence of the right in a broad comparative perspective with experts on the United States.

Sub Unit

• Special Session

Presider

• Dylan John Riley, University of California-Berkeley

Individual Presentations

• The Socialism of the Right - Mathieu H. Desan, University of Colorado-Boulder

• Democracy as a White Privilege: An Early Twenty-first Century Comeback - Ho-Fung Hung, Johns Hopkins University

• We’ve Been Here Before: A Comparative Study of Racial Social Movements of the ‘60s and ‘70s - Marisela Martinez-Cola, Morehouse College

• The Call is Coming From Inside the House”: The Role of Public Schools in Fostering the Turn to the Right - Ranita Ray, University of New Mexico-Albuquerque

Session Organizer

• Rebecca Jean Emigh, University of California-Los Angeles