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I don't want to RT the #Ellipse video because it is incredibly disturbing propaganda but I am struck by how analyses of it are skirting around the effects of America's forever imperial wars in current politics, from Trump's electoral base to the militarization of the police. 1/
Trump's words from his aptly and prophetically titled American Carnage speech play over images of Schiff and Schumer, who voted for the Iraq War, and Nadler and Pelosi, who voted against: "For too long, a small group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of govt" 2/
The first image that frames the politics of grievance for which Trump presents himself as the redemptive messiah is that of a soldier's coffin. Trump's words flow over the image "...while the people have borne the cost." 3/
There is ample evidence to show that the war, which Trump explicitly referenced as a point of departure between Clinton and himself, played a key electoral role in his ascent- a fact that he seemed keenly attuned to. 4/
Even if non-USian casualties play no role in US electoral politics, Douglas Kriner's research has shown not only the distributional inequality of US war casualties but its electoral role in the 2006 Senate elections and in the 2016 Presidential elections 5/
Indeed, Trump's politics of masculinity and his authoritarian penchant for the pageantry of war might have ironically undercut his most potent electoral appeal. His disparagement of actual soldiers also eroded his support amongst active duty soldiers. 6/ https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/08/31/as-trumps-popularity-slips-in-latest-military-times-poll-more-troops-say-theyll-vote-for-biden/
The disproportionate presence of military veterans in the Capitol was both striking- and unsurprising. In 2009, the FBI study about right-wing radicalization of veterans was buried by Republicans who were electoral beneficiaries of the process. 7/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2021/01/25/twelve-years-before-capitol-riot-warning-right-wing-extremism-buried/6658284002/
The attraction of veterans as targets for recruitment and of an aesthetics driven by the US military for right-wing extremists is driven by the national valorization of the military as the most trusted institution in the US. 8/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/07/08/military-is-public-institution-americans-trust-most/39663793/
Yet, the blowback from the US' toxic addiction to imperial warfare was obvious for everyone to see, not merely in the Capitol riots but in the astonishingly militarized response to peaceful protests by the police throughout 2020. 9/ https://www.aclu.org/report/war-comes-home-excessive-militarization-american-police
While there are many merits to the chilling analysis of this video circulating currently, including the need to highlight the anti-semitic mythology at the heart of Q-Anon, I am struck by how, even now, the conversation will not confront the place of war in US domestic politics.
