CFP - "This is not Normal:" Trumpism, Ineffectiveness as Governance and the Unending Campaign

CALL FOR PROPOSALS:

 

"This is not Normal:" Trumpism, Ineffectiveness as Governance and the Unending Campaign

 

Fast Capitalism is seeking critical essays for possible inclusion in a symposium about the changing dynamics of US politics during the Trump administration ahead of the 2020 election cycle. The goal is to gather both scholarly essays and political commentaries in time to present careful critical studies of the changing political realities in the United States since the 2016 national elections as well as the 2018-midterm electoral contests.

 

A popular refrain heard from citizens, journalists, and politicians in the news media describes Donald Trump's actions as "not normal." At the same time, there has been a consistent effort to normalize his actions in the Republican Party, the White House, and some media outlets as well as many social media streams.   By July 2019, public discourse has reached the  point that the President's tweets that four liberal, non-white congresswomen should "go back" to their own countries seems to many like ordinary common sense on another Sunday, and such comments do little to nothing to weaken his support among his Republican base. In turn, this "not normal" loss of basic civility between the White House, the Democratic majority in the House, and many ordinary citizens begins to look far more like an acceptable new normality as too many others in public life emulate him.

As 2020 approaches, Trump's new national order of "not normal" pushes further and further towards demagoguery, authoritarianism, and illegality. From his interview in which he said he "would like to hear" information from a foreign government to get dirt on political opponents to hinting that a win in 2020 could enable him to ignore the 25^th amendment (i.e. the presidential term limit) to run again in 2024 and 2028. From creating the short-lived Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity to track down allegations of fraudulent voting in 2016 to saying that the Congressional hearings on the Mueller report to the Attorney General were treasonous high crimes against him and the nation underscores the growing authoritarian tendencies in the Trump White House.  At the same time, Trump has used government agencies to slow the enforcement of legally enacted and longstanding regulatory policies. This selective "slo-mo governance" style increasingly atrophies and obstructs the government's everyday roles in everything from environmental protection to civil rights enforcement.

We seek papers that address Trump's impact on governance, discourse, and democracy. We are in interested in reviewing submissions in a number of forms including: scholarly research essays, commentaries, polemics, policy proposals, biographies, etc.

 

Proposals should be 200-400 words. Describe your argument and the format of your contribution. Please send proposals to David Arditi (darditi@uta.edu) no later than October 1. Full essays of accepted proposals will be due by January 1, 2020. Please let us know if you have any questions.