War on Wokism and radical reforms: Claremont Institute president Ryan Williams explains the Trump administration’s cultural strategy
The struggle for cultural hegemony is one of the main objectives of the second Trump administration. The American president has managed to break the bond between Silicon Valley and the woke movements, also declaring war on the ultra-progressivism that lurks in the government apparatus and university institutions. In this context, the occupant of the White House is relying above all on a think tank: the Claremont Institute. Founded in 1979 by some students of the philosopher Harry Jaffa (in turn a disciple of Leo Strauss), this think tank has given numerous high officials to the current American administration. One of its objectives is, moreover, the revaluation of Western culture in direct antithesis to woke progressivism and its political recipes.
It is no coincidence that in 2019, Trump awarded Claremont the National Humanities Medal for his commitment to promoting freedom and democracy. It was also last July, when the think tank hosted J.D. Vance, who gave a speech on U.S. citizenship. It is therefore in light of all this that La Verità exclusively interviewed the president of Claremont, Ryan Williams.
President Williams, what are the main threats posed by Woke Culture?
“Woke culture poses both fundamental and practical threats. The fundamental threat is that it presents an erroneous and biased story of America’s founding and political history since then. Wokism regards the extraordinary and unprecedented fact of America’s founding on the fundamental natural rights (and related duties) of the Declaration of Independence as mere rhetoric masking the power politics and “racist,” “sexist,” and “colonialist” obstinacy of America’s founders. In doing so, woke culture denigrates the rare genius and political skill of those original men and the statesmen who were their successors. This false narrative is intended as an acid to dissolve the American constitutional order as we know it, in order to replace it with new doctrines of social justice, founded on falsehoods at odds with reality, biology and human nature. This approach to history and government is the latest evolution of old communist and Marxist pathologies, with “identity” (be it racial, sexual, or otherwise) replacing economics and class. This new version, just like the old, is fundamentally tyrannical and will end in reckless death and destruction in pursuit of utopia. The practical threat of woke culture is to balkanize Americans into “identity” factions. Because identity is a matter of personal, idiosyncratic preferences and will (rather than reason), this process is open-ended and will produce conflict, resentment, and anarchy. A republic, even one as large as ours, must share more things in common, as a matter of friendship and harmony, than elements that contribute to separating us. Wokism sows division and will reap the whirlwind of national dissolution.”
What is Claremont’s role in countering the woke culture that lurks in American institutions?
«Since 1979 we have been teaching America’s founding principles and their application to the current crisis. We teach politicians, future politicians, members of the administration, lawyers, journalists, sheriffs and academics: anyone who holds, or is preparing to hold, positions of high responsibility in American public life. We currently have over 1,000 alumni working across the country. Eighty of them work in the current Trump administration. In addition to our teaching programs, we write in The American Mind and the Claremont Review of Books, as well as academic articles and policy briefings. We also file briefs in federal courts and the Supreme Court. All of this work has the same purpose: to help patriotic and ambitious Americans, intellectually and practically, have a correct understanding of the deep, substantive, and even radical reforms needed to overthrow and replace a century of progressivism and Wokism.”
What measures would you suggest to Trump to combat woke culture?
«Trump has already made considerable progress, continuing the work started during his first term. He began to reconstitutionalize the bureaucracy and bring it back under the oversight of the American people through their elected representatives. He has pressured higher education, especially through his influence on funding, to return to a less ideologically corrupt teaching of American history. The Supreme Court majority, strengthened by President Trump’s judicial appointments during his first term, has begun to dismantle decades of bad precedent. The administration has big plans to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with an honest account of American greatness. The next phase of much of this work will be to make it more stable by codifying it into law through Congress.”
Claremont is on the front lines against mass immigration. For what reason?
«Starting in 1965 with the Hart-Celler Act, America has taken the position that all forms of immigration are good, and the more the better. Over the past 40 years, there has also been a wave of illegal immigration, accelerated in an unprecedented way during the Biden administration. This was a very irresponsible phenomenon, which largely accumulated against the will of the majority of the American people. The fundamental problem with all this is that any responsible government must ensure that the foreigners it admits into its jurisdiction – many of whom will eventually become citizens – are at least somewhat familiar with the habits and rhythms of free and responsible self-government. Not all peoples and cultures are the same and true assimilation is both difficult and absolutely necessary. The national interest, the prosperity of the American people, and orderly assimilation must be the highest priorities of immigration policy. The infinite civic heterogeneity, fueled by irresponsible mass immigration, will lead to the end of American democracy and constitutionalism, replaced by a sort of imperial and despotic government. Your Italian public is obviously well informed on the existential question of a responsible migration policy.”
The Claremont has its roots in the philosophical thought of Leo Strauss and his student, Harry Jaffa. Why are these two philosophers still important today?
«Strauss taught the West and America how to read the greatest books of the Western canon as if they still had important things to teach, as indeed they do. Jaffa took this rigorous approach to the lyrics and applied it to America’s founding fathers and one of its greatest statesmen, Abraham Lincoln. Jaffa’s distinctive contribution was to teach the American right how to properly understand the wisdom of the texts and speeches of the American Founding Fathers, especially the timeless truths about natural rights and natural law contained in the Declaration of Independence.”
Much of the Italian political establishment accuses Trump and American conservatism of extremism.
“Jaffa played a small role in writing Barry Goldwater’s Republican nomination acceptance speech in 1964. If read carefully, Jaffa’s passages in that speech deserve to be seriously considered whenever accusations of ‘extremism’ are raised. Jaffa liked to say that both Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas would have been comfortable with them. They are: “I would like to remind you that extremism in the defense of freedom is not a vice! And let me also remind you that moderation in the pursuit of justice is not a virtue!” On a more prosaic level, “extremism” is just the latest epithet hurled by the left, on both sides of the Atlantic, to silence people and end discussions on major political issues. We should shake off accusations of ‘extremism’ and turn to the serious matter of preserving civilization.”
The hatred nurtured by the far left is growing. What do you think about the assassination of Charlie Kirk?
“The deeper meaning of Charlie’s murder is that there are some extremist factions of the left who are essentially tyrannical and murderous and have given up on politics. This is the means to which the radical left always resorts, as we know from the experience of Marxism in the 20th century. Thoughtful citizens, right and left, should do everything in their power to oppose such impulses and movements.”
Why are Democrats against requiring ID to vote in elections?
«The most cynical Democrats oppose the requirement to present an identity document to vote because their coalition relies more on the votes of voters who are not entitled to vote than their political opponents. The rest of the other reasonable and moderate Dems are not as cynical or corrupt. But they operate under the false belief that requiring ID to vote is somehow “racist,” despite the fact that this requirement is nearly universal for voting in nearly every civilized country in the world.”
What do you think of Trump’s foreign policy?
«The Trump administration has been responsible for the greatest and healthiest reorientation of American foreign policy in the last 50 years. Until Trump, American foreign policy, both Republican and Democratic, had been fundamentally progressive for over a century, trying to strut around the world, remaking each nation in its own image. We are now returning to a more respectful focus on national interests and to a newfound, and long overdue, respect for the sovereignty of other nations and for the legitimate autonomy of different cultures and ways of life around the world. The American Founding Fathers would approve.”
