Has the New Right Already Peaked?

The Bulwark reports:

THE HYPERONLINE, CULTURE-WAR-FIXATED, democracy-skeptical movement known as the New Right is on the proverbial march. Their recent gains include Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, which he has spent much of the last two years retooling to better suit their needs, and getting one of their own, JD Vance, on the Republican presidential ticket. The sorts of people who post memes of Donald Trump in Warhammer 40k armor are salivating at the thought that the next vice president, who might be a future president, could be groyper-adjacent.

But they may soon become victims of their own success: Both the recent changes at X (Musk’s new name for Twitter) and the choice of Vance as a running mate illustrate problems for Trump’s coalition that could hobble his campaign for the presidency.

The problems start with the New Right’s basic understanding of reality. The movement’s worldview rests on an insane theory of power: Members of the New Right unironically believe that American institutions are dominated by radical leftists who use their power and positions of influence to force their beliefs on an unwilling populace while suppressing dissent.

A weirdo from the internet named Curtis Yarvin calls this imaginary arrangement “the Cathedral.” Yarvin is a self-described “neo-reactionary” and “monarchist,” and he makes no secret of his hostility to democracy. I wouldn’t bother naming him—why elevate cranks?—but JD Vance refers to him as an influence, so the elevating has already been done. Vance and Yarvin have been friends for years, and both are also close to Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, Vance’s former employer, who has bankrolled the senator’s political career.

The problem with this theory of power is not just that it would classify as powerless the U.S. Supreme Court, state governments, market-dominating media outlets, churches, much of the business community, and many other right-leaning American institutions. That is already insane. But it also encourages its adherents to believe their ideas have widespread appeal, and the only reason their ideas aren’t dominant is that right-wing viewpoints are being erased from the public discourse by the people who control it. That conspiratorial belief is within bounds for them; what’s apparently out of bounds is the idea that most Americans really are neutral-to-positive regarding the values of democracy and diversity….

Because of their grievances and theory of power, the New Right believes its ideas appeal to a “silent majority” suppressed by powerful left-wing figures. This creates cognitive dissonance that blocks off self-awareness. The more they ensconce themselves in information bubbles to avoid reckoning with the actual opinions and desires of the public, the less they see how far they are from mainstream American opinion.