Hatreds We Love: The Psychology of Political Tribalism in Post-Truth America

An in-depth study of the malignant power of group identity in contemporary politics.

Stephen’s new book, Hatreds We Love, will be published by Skyhorse in June 2024. Given recent developments, this analysis of partisan enmity could not be timelier. Fueled by conspiracy thinking and a growing indifference to facts, some Americans, primarily on the Right, increasingly see their fellow citizens as threats that must be eliminated. We are witnessing an epidemic of domestic terrorism with a rapidly accumulating body count. In red states across the country, book bans, curricular censorship, voter suppression, assaults on women's bodily autonomy, and even secessionist movements are becoming the norm. We are in the midst of the most serious challenge to the integrity of the United States since the Confederate insurrectionists launched their assault on Fort Sumpter in 1861.

Hatreds We Love is an insightful psychological reading of our current political moment. It is grounded in the illuminating scholarship of social psychologists, psychoanalysts, anthropologists, neuroscientists, and historians. In addition, author Stephen J. Ducat draws on his own clinical experience, research, and values.

In 2021, even after the January 6 MAGA coup attempt, many Americans breathed a sigh of relief that our nearly 250-year experiment in democratic governance seemed likely to persist. The giddiest of optimists began to speak of the "post-Trump" era. Alas, little did we know back then that we would not reach a post-Trump epoch at this point. After what looked like the former president's political death – multiple electoral and judicial defeats, publicly revealed treasonous acts, corruption, and numerous criminal indictments – he has risen to his feet again. Trump has been a bit like the proverbial movie monster, seemly finished off by mortal wounds, who nevertheless refuses to die, devours his pursuers, and returns to star in the sequel.

Of course, xenophobic bigotry, violent aversion to democracy, political cults of personality, and indifference to facts are global phenomena and not limited to the US. But America plays a prominent role, even abroad. For example, in December 2022, it was revealed that a right-wing coup attempt in Germany was, to some extent, modeled on America’s own post-election insurrection, which was planned and executed by the paramilitary wing of the MAGA movement. That German episode was not the first time that the actions of American anti-democratic and white supremacist groups became the template for similar efforts worldwide.

In the 1930s, German fascists looked to America as a blueprint for implementing race-based tribalism. Hitler so admired Jim Crow laws in the US, especially concerning citizenship and antimiscegenation, that he sent a team of legal scholars to America to study its statutory framework for addressing the problem of "racial pollution." While the Nazis initially found much to love and incorporate into the Nuremberg Laws, they ironically rejected a good deal of the American model as too harsh.

Many opinion writers have decried the “extremism” of Trumpian lynch-mob politics. On the contrary, Hatreds We Love argues that it is contiguous with the long history of American conservatism going back at least to the antebellum South. From this perspective, the worldview and actions of the GOP's MAGA faction are not outliers, but the logical outcomes of the consistently expressed right-wing ethos of domination, xenophobia, and the "freedom" to harm that has driven conservative politics for centuries.

Although pundits and political analysts have done an excellent job presenting the journalistic what regarding the current attacks on democracy and consensual reality, the psychological how and why are missing. What calls for an explanation is not so much the motive of MAGA politicians; there is little mystery in the sociopathic pursuit of power and wealth. Instead, the self-defeating passionate delirium of the MAGA cult members themselves, the base, is what requires the insights of psychology.

Although there is much handwringing about the toxic synergy of authoritarian political forces, white identity politics, and the embrace of post-factuality, there is insufficient understanding of the links between them. Chief among those links is tribal psychology. Yet, public discussion rarely addresses more than its most disturbing symptoms. Hatreds We Love speaks to the causes and underlying dynamics of what is now one of the greatest threats to the viability of what remains of American democracy and global democratic governance more broadly.

Zealous in-group loyalty is such a powerful driver of political behavior that people will readily abandon their values and long-held moral principles. They will even sacrifice their lives and those of their loved ones to avoid tribal exile – a fate more dreaded by some citizens than death itself. Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s Strongmen has given us powerful insights into the common features of authoritarian leadership. Hatreds We Love complements her work by illuminating the psychology of followership. It will also offer readers ideas they can readily use to craft new, more effective forms of pro-democratic political action, including strategies for creating bridges across seemingly unbreachable tribal boundaries.

Featured on The New Abnormal Podcast: Interview starts at minute 9:56