Edwin Eisendrath is joined by Seth Cotlar, professor of history at Willamette University.

He discussed the historical and contemporary dynamics of the right-wing political movement, highlighting the persistent conspiracy theories and alternative realities that have animated the right, dating back to figures like Sen. Joe McCarthy and lawyer Roy Cohn.

Cotlar talked about the intertwined threads of anti-communism, racism, hostility towards government, and corporate privilege in right-wing ideologies and how Donald Trump has affected, exploited and altered these dynamics.

Cotlar told WCPT: "I think Donald Trump has had a significant impact on the way millions of Americans view their fellow citizens and view the world. And he didn't turn people into people who they weren't already, potentially, but he kind of gave people permission to be their worst selves. It's this permission structure that the American right has created to perpetuate various forms of hatred and to tell themselves that they're not actually reproducing it and recreating it and solidifying it. They're just going along with it, they might tell themselves. . . . And it's been a very long process of reproducing these bigotries, resentments and so on. And what Donald Trump has done is he's taken all these cultural dynamics and just fed them into this institution that has tremendous power, weight in our society, our culture and our politics, which is the Republican Party." 

Catch “The Big Picture with Edwin Eisendrath” Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/the-big-picture).   

And find “The Big Picture (Full Episodes)” podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon and TuneIn.