Trump's election victory is the latest example of the paranoid style in US politics

What can the US’ recent electoral history tell us about Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election? Michael Storper writes that every US election since 1968 has turned on a combination of the incumbent’s popularity and the Republican and Democratic parties’ narrative of, and campaigning on, a values-culture-identity proposition. Looking back to the writing of Richard Hofstadter, he shows how the Republican Party has been able to win elections by using the paranoid style to weaponize fears about the “other”, including racial resentment and anti-intellectualism, together with anti-incumbency. The challenge now for Democrats will be to improve civic education, embed a narrative of social and economic liberalism, and to rebuild social capital across America’s communities.