The UA Department of Political Science hosted three authors to examine the historical and modern factors shaping America’s conservative movement at the “MAGA in Context: The Past and Present of the American Right” panel discussion on Tuesday.
Moderated by George Hawley, an associate professor of political science, the panel included authors Stephanie Slade, Marcus Witcher and Laura Field.
Slade, senior editor of Reason Magazine and author of “Fusionism: Liberty, Virtue, and the Future of the American Right,” highlighted a turning point in the conservative movement when questions arose after World War II about what it meant to be a conservative.
She said the answer many conservatives came up with was the desire to preserve the “principles and institutions of the founding,” which she saidclaimed were, in many ways, liberal ideologies.
“In the modern era, what we’ve had in this country is that the conservatives are the ones who are actually in favor of what any other part of the world would be called economic liberalism,” Slade said.
Slade also saidclaimed that fusionism, the combination of liberty and virtue, both traditionally conservative and libertarian values, is “necessary to human flourishing and a good society.”
Witcher, author of “Getting Right with Reagan: The Struggle for True Conservatism, 1980-2016,” and a teaching assistant professor of economic history at West Virginia University, said that he believes that Ronald Reagan is the “political embodiment of fusionism,” and Witcher highlighted the differences between Donald Trump and Reagan as presidents.
“One man is humble…I would argue, Reagan was pretty humble,” Witcher said. “And one man is the most braggadocious person that has probably ever held the White House.”
However, he also highlighted economic similarities between the two presidents.
“Both Trump and Reagan argued that taxes need to be reduced to improve the American economy,” Witcher said. “In contrast to Reagan, who granted amnesty to about 3 million undocumented immigrants…Trump has used legal and illegal means to try to decrease illegal and legal immigration to the United States.”
In November 1986, Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, granting amnesty and legal status to roughly 3 million undocumented immigrants.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Boston ruled that the Trump administration violated the law by ending the immigration status of roughly 900,000 immigrants who were granted status during President Biden’s term through a parole program called CBP One.
Witcher said he believes that the main difference between Reagan and Trump comes with their behavior and treatment of political opponents.
“I apologize that your generation has not seen a functioning government or political apparatus,” he said.
Field, author of “Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right,” and senior advisor for the illiberalism studies program at George Washington University, explains the “coalescence of what [she calls] the MAGA new right during the first Trump administration.”
She said she believes that the “intellectuals of the conservative movement” have implemented policies such as Project 2025, the Trump administration’s blueprint for his term as president, and policies in red states nationwide.
Field said she believes that with the shift in demographics and representation of minorities in the 21st century, there seems to be “a lot of resentment among white middle-class people for their loss of status with changing demographics.”
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