Fear and Loathing in the Authoritarian Nightmare w/ John W. Dean

On this edition of Parallax Views, authoritarianism has been a hot topic since the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States in 2016. But there's actually a rich history of social science studies interrogating the dilemma of the authoritarian personality. In fact, according to our guest on this edition of the program, there's over half a century worth of research on the authoritarian personality type. John W. Dean, a former White House Counsel under President Richard Nixon who testified to Congress in the Watergate hearings, joins us to discuss his new book, co-authored with Bob Altemeyer, entitled Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers.

In this fascinating conversation, John and begin by referencing the work of Hunter S. Thompson and his idea of "Fear and Loathing" in politics being apropos of the current zeitgeist. John then details the different types of authoritarian personality types: social dominators, authoritarian followers, and "double highs". We discuss each of these type and how, despite key differences between them, they have coalesced in the era of the Trump Presidency. In this regard, we take some time to delve into the connection between Right-Wing Authoritarianism and the evangelical Christian Right. John makes the case that these types of authoritarian personality types are either impossible to persuade or, at the very least, very hard to persuade. In other words, converting authoritarian personalities may prove a Sisyphean task.

We also discuss conservatism, the GOP, and right-wing authoritarianism. John relates how Authoritarian Nightmare is a sequel of sort to his previous book Conservatives Without Conscience. The prequel to Authoritarian Nightmare, John says, was actually a planned collaboration betwen John Dean and 1964 GOP Presidential nominee Sen. Barry Goldwater. I ask John a bit about his time as a "Goldwater conservative" and John gives some anecdotes about Barry Goldwater in this regard. According to John, Goldwater was disillusioned with the direction the Republican Party was going in by the time of the Reagan Presidency in the 1980s. John argues that Goldwater was unfairly smeared as a racist, nativist conservative, but in reality was more or less  a libertarian. Jumping off from this point, John says that he can't really fault the GOP entirely for it's authoritarian voter base and that the base informs the make-up of the Party rather than the other way around.

Before wrapping up John and I discuss whether Trump and his followers can really be considered conservative and if the GOP today is representative of a movement related to the historical tradition of political conservatism. We also chat about the similarities and differences between Richard Nixon and Donald Trump in this regard. All that and much more on this edition of Parallax Views.

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The War State:
The Cold War Origins of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Power Elite, 1945-1963
by
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