To be an 'influencer' on the American right in 2026 is to be a screamer'someone who believes his or her livelihood depends on blaring at maximum volume a five-alarm fire at every available opportunity. Indignation is the default emotion motivating these pronouncements. It's an anger provoked by panic and perceived injustice. Everything great about the country is in jeopardy. Freedom itself hangs by a thread. Our very integrity as a nation is at stake. Because they'our political opponents, our enemies'seek our collective destruction. Michael Anton used assumptions like these to make his case for supporting Donald Trump's presidential bid in the fall of 2016. He and his Claremont Institute colleagues made similar arguments in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of the 2020 presidential contest in order to justify Trump's effort to remain in office despite losing that election. By the start of the second Trump administration, the rhetoric of existential threat had spread across the...
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