Illiberale Wende in den USA: „Wir befinden uns mittendrin“

·24 min·1 clip

Donald Trump's erratic style masks the radical strategists building an illiberal turn in America.

1. 'Was wichtig ist,' the daily news podcast of Die Presse, focuses this episode on the think tanks and theorists providing the ideological foundation for Donald Trump's politics. 2. Host Christine Mayerhofer is joined by Susanna Bastaroli, a journalist in Die Presse's foreign desk, who has been tracking the MAGA intellectual ecosystem since Trump's 2016 election victory. 3. The central argument is that Trump's erratic, convention-defying style conceals a structured set of ideas developed over a decade by political scientists, lawyers, and think tanks — ideas he is now implementing. 4. Bastaroli describes Trump as 'probably a symptom of a Zeitenwende,' arguing that focusing on him personally is a 'big mistake' that misses the structural ideological shift underway. 5. Her main reference is 'Furious Minds' by philosopher and political scientist Laura K. Field, which she recommends to anyone interested in the topic and which categorises the intellectuals driving the illiberal turn. 6. The shared denominator across these currents is what Bastaroli calls a 'new right': rejection of liberalism in all its forms — social, economic, and political — and a nostalgia she links to British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman's concept of 'Retrotopia,' an idealised return to a past that never existed. 7. A core anxiety driving this movement is the fear of disappearance — specifically the fear that white, Christian, male-dominated society will cease to exist through cultural mixing, migration, and liberal progress. 8. The Clermont Institute in California is described as the 'Trumpism academy': its graduates now hold top positions in the Trump administration, and the idea behind DOGE originated in its networks. 9. Clermont intellectuals describe themselves not as conservatives but as 'restaurators' who want to restore the founding fathers' 'perfect order,' which they believe liberalism has eroded. 10. The post-liberal current, associated with political scientist Patrick J. Deneen and his bestselling book, argues that liberalism has reached its limits and that a return to the common good is needed, with a notable presence of fundamentalist Catholics in this movement. 11. J.D. Vance is identified as a key political carrier of post-liberal Catholic ideas; a clip from before his vice-presidency is played in which he argues that corporate HR departments and liberal bureaucrats are working together against the common good. 12. The NatCon (National Conservatism) network is described as a powerful conference circuit connecting American ultra-conservatives and evangelical groups with European right-wing populists, including Viktor Orbán's Hungary. 13. Kevin Roberts of the Heritage Foundation, credited as the author of Project 2025, is presented as a relatively mainstream interlocutor within this ecosystem, despite his hardline family and anti-immigration policy positions. 14. The episode also introduces harder-edged figures: the anonymous 'Raw Egg Nationalist,' an Oxford-trained historian promoting raw egg consumption as nationalist resistance, who was interviewed by Tucker Carlson; and Curtis Yarvin, the Silicon Valley philosopher who advocates replacing democracy with a hybrid CEO-monarch model. 15. Bastaroli notes that these fringe figures are increasingly integrated into the broader movement rather than remaining marginal. 16. On economic policy, Bastaroli describes a convergence around protectionism, de-globalisation, and state intervention in markets — a departure from the Reagan-era fusion of social conservatism and market liberalism. 17. Migration is consistently framed across all these currents as a security risk and a threat to Western civilisation through 'cultural mixing.' 18. The episode's tone is analytical and slightly alarmed, relying heavily on Bastaroli's expertise and direct audio clips from Vance, Roberts, and the Raw Egg Nationalist. 19. This episode is suited to German-speaking listeners interested in US political theory, the intellectual history of the right, or the connections between American and European illiberal movements. 20. Listeners seeking breaking-news coverage or those unfamiliar with ideological debates around liberalism and conservatism will find the density of intellectual references a barrier.

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