What’s Behind the Right-Wing Backlash

White conservatives behind the right-wing backlash are motivated by the need to feel empowered, to feel in control, to embrace the fear of something far less terrifying than reality.

The right-wing backlash seems ever-present in American politics, and is currently a dominate force in our political, cultural, and media discourse. While analysis of public opinion surveys and sociological research provides valuable insights into the right-wing backlash, that does not necessarily provide insight into motivations of the minority of people who are the currently the loudest voices in the room.

After more than a decade of reporting on the conservative movement and right-wing politics, and a lifetime of living in conservative communities, my analysis of the right-wing backlash is as much a product of research and reporting as my own lived experience of listening and interacting with the people behind the angry voices at school board meetings or protests in townhall meetings.

The White conservatives that comprise the rank-and-file of the right-wing activist base of the Republican Party are instinctively oppose anything that will diminish their perceived cultural, economic, or political power. This reactionary politics is particularly pronounced among fundamentalist conservative Evangelical Christians¹, performative Libertarian right-wing conservatives², and identity movement right-wing conservatives³.

White conservatives oppose anything that reforms or dismantles the current power structure—from abolishing the Electoral College to eliminating the filibuster, from restoring voting rights to individuals previously convicted of felonies to reforming the policies local law enforcement. 

Republican right-wing politicians have often sought to wield the power of the state as a tool to control people’s lives in various ways, from controlling the reproductive healthcare decisions of pregnant people to controlling when and how people are able to exercise their right to vote. The voices of White conservatives participating in the right-wing backlash would suggest that they view using the state has a tool to control people's lives as illegitimated, however, when the state is used to controlled the lives of people perceived by White conservatives as the “other,” state control of people’s lives is not just viewed as legitimate but as necessary.

Republican politicians have often expressed the view that they are in favor of so-called “local control,” the belief that locally elected leaders and government institutions should have extensive independence and autonomy. This belief holds that city councils, county agencies, or school boards are closer to the communities which they serve, and therefore should be permitted to operate with relative autonomy and with limited interference from state or federal governments. 

However, support for “local control” among White conservatives often disappears when communities use that control to implement policies that conflict with conservative orthodoxy. There are numerous examples of these types of interventions, particularly in the state of Texas—where Republicans control the state legislature and hold every elected statewide office, while Democrats control many of elected offices in the state’s most populous counties and cities.

Texas Republicans have sought to block local governments from prohibiting fracking, limit the ability of local governments to increase property taxes, ban local school districts from providing inclusive accommodations from transgender students, prohibit local law enforcement from refusing cooperate with federal immigration agents, and most recently prohibiting local governments from reducing funding for local law enforcement, blocking county elections officials from expanding access to voting, and banning local school districts from teaching critical race theory.  

The primary animating emotion of White conservatives is fear, and Republican right-wing politicians understand how to exploit these fears for political gain. While many Republican right-wing politicians have been effective at exploiting the fears of White conservatives, former President Donald Trump has been uniquely effective at exploiting the fears of White conservatives.

John Fea, a professor of American history at Messiah College, has explained that fear is his central thesis for why White conservative Evangelicals voted for and continued to support the former president. In an essay for The Atlantic, Fea wrote that fear explains why White conservative Evangelicals have remained so steadfastly loyal to Trump:

“Any effort to make sense of the 81 percent of evangelicals who voted for Donald Trump cannot ignore evangelicals’ fear of the Barack Obama administration. Obama was an exotic figure to many white conservative evangelicals. He grew up in Hawaii and spent time as a child in a predominantly Muslim country. He was the son of a white woman and an African man. He had a strange name; that his middle name was ‘Hussein’ did not help.”

Watching Fox News while walking on the treadmill at the gym, listening to right-wing radio while waiting in line to pick up their children from school, scrolling through their Facebook feed while walking the family dog—White conservatives are bombarded with messages that convince them that they are surrounded by threats. Dangerous immigrants are crossing the border to take their husbands job, Black Lives Matter and Antifa could start a riot in their suburban neighborhood, sexual predators and human traffickers are lurking at the local grocery store, and woke Marxist college professors and going to indoctrinate their children. 

The parents that are screaming about critical race theory at school board meetings are terrified of having to answer the difficult questions that their children may ask if they are taught the full breadth of America’s history. These parents are not afraid of how systemic and institutionalized racism impacts the Black members of their community, but afraid of being accused of being racists. These parents believe that racism is only manifested in individual acts of prejudice against a person of another race, and do not view racism as system of oppression based on power and privilege.

The world is terrifying. Wildfires burn through towns and entire communities are reduced to nothing but ash, mass shootings cause death and emotional wounds and often without a clear understanding of perpetrator’s motives, rivers flood and drown entire towns and wash away family farms, decisions made by corporate executives to downsize or offshore result in closed factories and lost jobs, tornadoes appear without warning and leave some homes destroyed and others untouched, and a global pandemic reaches out and touches the lives of everyone despite the elaborate glass houses we’ve built to convince ourselves that we are safe from the chaotic world outside. 

As much as any other reason, the right-wing backlash is driven by fear—fear of a world that seems beyond our control and that can make anyone feel powerless. The right-wing backlash is driven by the need to feel empowered, to feel in control, to embrace the fear of something far less terrifying than reality.

1. Fundamentalist conservative Evangelical Christians are politically conservative Protestant Christians who believe that in literally interpretation and infallibility of the Holy Bible, and that a “Biblical worldview” should inform all aspects of public life.

2. Performative Libertarian right-wing conservatives are distinctive from ideological Libertarians in that while they use the rhetoric of Libertarian politics, they oppose many of the policies advocated by ideological Libertarians.

3. Identity movement right-wing conservatives are motivated by cultural grievances, and are not necessarily aligned with any particularly political ideology nor loyal to any specific political party.