I am working on a concept I call "reciprocal hegemony". The Nixon "southern strategy" is a very useful example of how it works. In political theory there are players named "leaders" and others called variously "the masses" or "the people" or "the followers". This naming rubric leads to a conceptual rubric that actually hides some of what is going on. Hegemony is a concept of leadership, essentially a group or person gets control of state apparatus by establishing a dominating narrative that co-opts members of that society into supporting the regime. Reciprocal hegemony is attempting to describe what happens when a leadership figure identifies a dominant narrative pre-existing among a group, then begins to amplify and reflect that narrative. Specifically, Nixon and his political strategists of the time realized that the strong religious, racist, secessionist, anti-liberal biases already existing among Southern democrats (and widely in the southern region) could be mobilized in support of Nixon's candidacy. Ergo, Nixon and his campaign began to emulate and voice the values they had identified among this demographic. As in other forms of hegemonic action, this reflection of those values from sources in nominal leadership positions legitimized and therefor strengthened those values among the demographic which originally held those values! Now, in 2022, emulation and communication of ultra-religious, racist, secessionist, anti-liberal views by Republicans and right-wing media sources has extended those values far beyond the former Southern states. A key understanding is that these values pre-exist among this demographic! Trump and Tucker Carlson are only play-acting to have these values. It is only because the actual folks holding that value-set are a strict numerical minority in the United States that Democrats and other progressive forces are competitive in politics and sometimes even win. We live in a very conservative country in terms of all the institutions that are in place to protect minority values (no matter how bad they are) from local school boards through to the institution of two senators per state, the Electoral College, lack of term limits, permission to use money in politics and lifetime appointment of judges. A point of optimism - in spite of our institutions being stacked against progressive and liberal values - the more enlightened demographic in our country continues to make headway against the forces of religious autocrats, racists, secessionists and anti-liberal/anti-democratic movements. The arc of history bends slowly, but it bends towards justice.
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