Jeffrey R. Dudas
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804758093
- eISBN:
- 9780804779654
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804758093.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This is an examination of how grassroots conservative activists use rights discourse to pursue their political goals. It argues that conservative activists engage in frequent and sincere ...
More
This is an examination of how grassroots conservative activists use rights discourse to pursue their political goals. It argues that conservative activists engage in frequent and sincere mobilizations of rights talk—a discourse that includes accusations that socially marginal Americans are seeking un-American, “special” rights that violate the nation's commitment to equal rights. The book finds that such rights talk is central both to the identities of conservative activists and to the broad appeal of modern New Right politics. However, through an in-depth case study of opposition on the Indian treaty rights, it establishes that the impact of conservative rights talk is ultimately ambiguous. While conservative rights discourse effectively expresses the nationalistic resentment that saturates New Right politics, it deflects critical scrutiny from the actual causes of that resentment. By tracing the interplay of rights and resentment, this book adds new insight to the prevailing scholarship on law and politics, which typically overlooks the importance of rights discourse for conservative politics.Less
This is an examination of how grassroots conservative activists use rights discourse to pursue their political goals. It argues that conservative activists engage in frequent and sincere mobilizations of rights talk—a discourse that includes accusations that socially marginal Americans are seeking un-American, “special” rights that violate the nation's commitment to equal rights. The book finds that such rights talk is central both to the identities of conservative activists and to the broad appeal of modern New Right politics. However, through an in-depth case study of opposition on the Indian treaty rights, it establishes that the impact of conservative rights talk is ultimately ambiguous. While conservative rights discourse effectively expresses the nationalistic resentment that saturates New Right politics, it deflects critical scrutiny from the actual causes of that resentment. By tracing the interplay of rights and resentment, this book adds new insight to the prevailing scholarship on law and politics, which typically overlooks the importance of rights discourse for conservative politics.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804758093
- eISBN:
- 9780804779654
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804758093.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to analyze special-rights talk both as it constitutes a specific set of disputes and as it reverberates generally. The book undertakes an ...
More
This chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to analyze special-rights talk both as it constitutes a specific set of disputes and as it reverberates generally. The book undertakes an in-depth exploration of opposition to Indian treaty rights that illustrates the general impacts of special-rights discourse on American politics. The chapter considers legal-mobilization scholarship, and then discusses how conservative legal mobilizations are, in large part, reactions to the political activism of women, African Americans, the physically and mentally disabled, Indians, and gays and lesbians over the past fifty years—an activism characterized by a willingness to mobilize rights as resources for social change. However, threatened by the activism of the socially marginal, many resentful Americans responded with an activism of their own. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to analyze special-rights talk both as it constitutes a specific set of disputes and as it reverberates generally. The book undertakes an in-depth exploration of opposition to Indian treaty rights that illustrates the general impacts of special-rights discourse on American politics. The chapter considers legal-mobilization scholarship, and then discusses how conservative legal mobilizations are, in large part, reactions to the political activism of women, African Americans, the physically and mentally disabled, Indians, and gays and lesbians over the past fifty years—an activism characterized by a willingness to mobilize rights as resources for social change. However, threatened by the activism of the socially marginal, many resentful Americans responded with an activism of their own. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
