Buchanan was a quiet but central figure in the making of the modern right: indeed, in MacLean’s account, Buchanan appears - like a libertarian Zelig - at each critical juncture in this history.Įducated at the University of Chicago, he takes up his first academic post at the University of Virginia as a fierce defender of segregation and “states’ rights.” Discouraged by both the progress of civil rights and Barry Goldwater’s defeat in 1964, and wearing out his welcome at Virginia, he decamps to UCLA, only to be horrified by the diversity of the setting and the radicalism of the students. At its core is a startling archival discovery: the unsorted and unprocessed papers of the University of Virginia economist James McGill Buchanan. And with each electoral cycle or legislative session of that rule, the prospects for challenging it fade.ĭemocracy in Chains is a remarkable book. Whatever the fate of Donald Trump and his cronies, the rule of the radical right - in Congress, in statehouses, in the courts - will remain largely unchecked. At stake, as historian Nancy MacLean underscores in her new book, Democracy in Chains, is not just political power, not just the final dismantling of the New Deal order, but the very future of our democracy. The malevolent incompetence of the Trump White House packs a certain entertainment value, but it is also a distraction a bumbling misdirection in a long confidence game.
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