The 2016 election is seeing the return of the ‘paranoid style’ in American politics

The 2016 primary season has seen Donald Trump gain traction with Republican voters through nativist rhetoric. While many see Trump’s extremist campaigning as a new low in American political discourse, Ron Pruessen, using the work of Richard Hofstadter, reminds us that such apocalyptic visions from politicians are really nothing new. He argues that crises over the decades such as World War II and 9/11 and the War in Iraq feed into the ‘theatre’ of paranoia, producing anxiety among voters which opportunist politicians are then able to feed on.