Seven thinkers
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Article is from July.
JD Vance represents something genuinely unusual for the MAGA movement: A national Republican who is deeply enmeshed with the elite world of the conservative intellectual movement — or what’s sometimes termed for convenience as “the New Right” or “the dissident right.”
As Vance himself confessed earlier this year, he is “plugged into a lot of weird, right-wing subcultures.” His transition from Never-Trump conservative to MAGA firebrand was influenced by his relationships with a handful of niche conservative writers and thinkers. Among them are people who push for post-liberal regime change, some who pine for the cultural conservatism of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, and one outright monarchist. This cohort espouses a variety of sometimes competing viewpoints, but they are bound together by the belief that the liberal project of “progress” — especially in the form of economic liberalization, technological advancement and the leveling of social hierarchies — has in fact been a mistake.
Many of these thinkers are still far, far away from being household names — but with Vance on the top of the GOP ticket, they’re only one step away from having a direct line to the White House. Here are the key thinkers who have influenced JD Vance’s intellectual trajectory — and, if November goes Republicans’ way, could define the trajectory of the country.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/18/jd-vance-world-view-sources-00168984
