Right-Wing Populist Rhetoric Among White Power Supporters In The United States

Populist rhetoric has characterized numerous movements in the United States as well as elsewhere.  We draw on data collected mainly during the 1990s based on interviews of and questionnaires from white power supporters.  Our analysis focuses on the penetration of populist rhetoric among individual supporters rather than the framing of issues by white power leadership.  Drawing especially on work of Kazin, Berlet and Lyons, and Caiani, della Porta and Wagemann,  we focus on the elements of producerism, elitism,  conspiracism, scapegoating,  and demonization.  Supporters tend to see their organizations as working class based and are critical of those at the top and at the bottom of society.  The framing of the hard working white man unjustly being taken advantage of by the very rich and those on welfare may well appeal to a number of people in hard economic times.  A small portion of interviewees mentioned support of the Populist Party (e.g., David Duke and Bo Gritz) and were much less likely to support the use of violence in the movement.  The penetration of populist rhetoric illustrates how more recent movements like the Tea Party are likely to be attractive to white power supporters and how the white power movement could be attractive to a certain segment of supporters of the Tea Party movement.