Inside MAGA's fight for "Western civilization"

The MAGA movement is no longer just fighting for President Trump. His most fervent loyalists are now engaged in what they see as a battle for "Western civilization" — a rallying cry for the modern right.Why it matters: The conservative ecosystem that has developed around Trump — and is touted daily in MAGA media — is key to understanding what's behind many of his policies.It also helps explain the right's zeal on certain issues.Zoom in: For MAGA loyalists taking this long view, "Preserving Western Civilization" is the new "Make America Great Again." They proclaim America as a Judeo-Christian country that's the successor to the great European civilizations of Greece, Rome and the United Kingdom. They see a modern "Western civilization" as one that prizes freedom, the rule of law as they interpret it, meritocracy and the nuclear family.It's a movement wrapped in nostalgia. That's why Trump's Make America Great Again slogan resonated: To many in the modern right, society was at its zenith in the 1950s — and the liberalism of the 1960s and '70s drove the decline of their ideal society.The movement sees today's DEI initiatives, expanded LGBTQ rights, fluid gender roles and illegal immigration as signs of a society run amok.Preserving Western values was a theme of Vice President Vance's major speech in Munich in February, when he decried censorship and mass immigration.Terry Schilling, founder of American Principles Project, a group that casts itself as "America's top defender of the family, told us: "Western civilization is the concept that there is a natural order of things, and that we have rights that come from God ... and there are rules."Zoom out: Critics say the Western civilization movement looks regressive and racist.Trump policy attacks on asylum-seeking immigrants, and on programs benefiting historically marginalized communities, help reinforce that image.The period of U.S. history the movement heralds included subjugation of women, segregation, and discrimination against nonwhites, those in the LGBTQ community and many others.Between the lines: The Western civilization movement sees the 1950s as a time in which society's rules of the road were fixed in values that were held by the country's founders. Its followers reject the notion that those values — and American traditions — should evolve."Every fight is existential," said Rachel Bovard of the Conservative Partnership Institute, citing debates over LGBTQ rights and DEI. "Society crumbles under things like this. That's the lens through which we view all these things."The guideposts of the Western civilization movement run through MAGA media in ways large and small. Podcasters Steve Bannon and Jack Posobiec recite dates on their shows with "the year of our Lord" and "Anno Domini."Social media posts lament the growing South Asian population in the United Kingdom.The growing pro-natalism movement encourages conservatives to have large families. Articles in far-right media tout marriage and children, and even advice for women on ways to be more "marriageable."In recent years, conservative activists have blasted college English departments for adding courses that focus on racially diverse writers, instead of staying focused on Shakespeare and Chaucer. Reality check: The far-righters in the Western civilization movement cast their cause as noble, but their language can be divisive and offensive.In MAGA media, Islam is referred to derisively in some contexts as "Mohammedanism." Some in the movement call for the deportation of immigrants who are in the U.S. legally if they don't assimilate to "American culture." Slurs such as "tranny" are flaunted.Critics say Trump set the stage for this by giving credence to strands of discrimination."We should be open as Democrats about being proud of, and driven by, traditions like faith and democracy — and that Trump is savaging them," said Democratic strategist Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson in the Biden administration."Tweeting pictures of yourself as the pope while promoting thugs with deep ties to Nazi sympathizers ... is anathema to the Judeo-Christian principles I was raised to respect," Bates added.Those in the movement deny that it's discriminatory — but acknowledge that it's exclusionary."Civilization is exclusive," conservative podcaster Michael Knowles told Axios. "That's true of every place, and that's true of every idea. If you're Christian, then you're excluding the beliefs of Muslims. If you're Muslim, you're excluding the beliefs of Christians. Something has to define us.""This doesn't mean that a Muslim can't get along well in the West," he added. "But it does mean that if people from other backgrounds wish to come to the West, they have to get with the program."The bottom line: Supporters say the movement offers a preview of post-Trump conservatism in America."The culture wars, the economic wars, all these debates, national security debates, the constitutional debates. This is all central to Western civilization," Schilling said.

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