Viewing Right-Wing Intellectuals Through a Dual Lens

The inauguration of US President Donald Trump in 2025 has once again focused both national and global attention on the new Republican administration. In the first Trump presidency, which began in 2016, wildly differing evaluations of Trump emerged in political and media circles from a “renegade” or “traitor” from the Republican Party to a “fascist.”1 Academics that study right-wing politics also found it difficult to make sense of the Trump phenomena with some calling him an “authoritarian” and others a “libertarian,” thus making it difficult to place him on the traditional political spectrum.2 One thing is clear: Leadership scholars viewed Trump as the harbinger of a different leadership style. Some saw in Trump “transformational leadership” with others underscoring “the dangers of poor political leadership to citizens in America and beyond, especially in times of crisis.”3The right-wing political spectrum does not merely include President Trump, but a range of ideological tendencies, from conservative nationalists, focused on reforming policy within established systems, to dissident right vanguards, challenging cultural norms and mainstream values, and further right the radical right and revolutionary right.4 These divisions are essential for understanding the emergence and leadership styles within the dissident right. Conservative nationalists are primarily focused on preserving the status quo, as well as advocating for incremental reforms to maintain traditional institutions. Their focus is often on policy solutions, economic stability, and national security, all of which operate within existing political structures.5 Conversely, the dissident right represents a radical departure from these traditional approaches, viewing cultural transformation as a necessary requirement for change. Dissident right leaders position themselves as cultural vanguards, aiming to reshape societal beliefs, values, and norms rather than merely adjusting existing policy.6According to Richard T. Marcy, while historically the sociopolitical term vanguard was related to the French word avant-garde and was linked to military expeditions that would disrupt the enemy and the Leninist notion of intellectuals propagating Marxist ideals, the term “has evolved to include groups of intellectuals and activists that work towards spreading their own particular brand of political ideas (whether Right, Left, or other), often through propaganda and other forms of agitation, in an attempt to subvert and overthrow the prevailing mainstream culture and—ultimately—the political establishment.”7 According to another scholar, a vanguard is “a closed organization of revolutionary elites that organizes and directs the masses, and that ultimately takes state power.”8 Yet, for Marcy, vanguard leadership is a type of leadership that operates outside mainstream politics, aiming to change public thinking rather than gain direct political power—a key trait for the leaders in this study.9 Vanguard leaders do this by challenging existing political narratives (sensebreaking), offering alternative ideological perspectives (sensegiving), and reshaping peoples’ interpretation of social and political issues (sensemaking). They use provocative tactics, media influence, and cultural disruption to shift public opinion and create space for political change.10The vanguard right's cultural focus often places its leaders in opposition not only to liberals and the left, but also conservative movements. Inspired by the New Left's focus on cultural struggle as a prelude to political change, dissident right vanguards have insisted that conservatives and extremists on the radical right and revolutionary right have abandoned the cultural terrain.11 While mainstream conservatives might emphasize law and order, or preserving religious traditions, vanguard leaders target the broader cultural environment, critiquing what they see as the decay of Western civilization due to liberal ideologies and “globalist” influences. By framing their mission as a “cultural crusade,” they distinguish their efforts from the policy-driven goals of their conservative counterparts.12Given that political ideology and leadership are both important for understanding vanguard movements, our aim herein is to combine two distinctive branches of academic literature: the radical right and studies of leadership (in particular vanguard leadership). With the exception of a few scholars such as Marcy, Huntington, Hawley, and Zúquete, leadership has been a neglected aspect of studies of the radical right.13 The literature on the radical right suffers from several problems: confusion in relation to terms and conceptual lenses or categories (e.g., a tendency to use the of and the of the in a distinctive as well as ideological and such as Zúquete, and have to study the radical right an or and the and ideological and of the radical In the literature of the French New Right, found different a the of an and While studies have vanguard leaders and on the Left, from to the and the New this to dissident right vanguard leaders on both of the In are in the literature on the radical right and leadership studies to the of studies of political ideology and vanguard dissident as further vanguard leaders such as French the and and US or and others that conservative and radical and revolutionary have these vanguard leaders in our was the of the of the radical right towards and on the was a in the US radical right towards and to and and represents a of that are with the through the and a type of with a and direct both the conservative and liberal and The intellectuals or as well as an to and as leaders of a vanguard In these leaders a reshaping the cultural and peoples’ are also the with a by vanguard leaders an position of with the public while the or often by themselves as a public in with the existing on the leadership of sociopolitical this the dissident right vanguard leaders and their leadership and with political leaders on the conservative right. In the the vanguard leaders in relation to their to (e.g., the of ideological and of their ideas on the radical right or revolutionary but in some the conservative right (e.g., of status or of new ideas such as or and in public that political ideas are to for the or of dissident right through such as framing and a in ideological In poor leadership movements, and in the of right-wing ideology for all first the the conservative the dissident the radical and the revolutionary right. the tactics, and of vanguard vanguard leadership to conservative right leadership and these to our dissident right vanguard that vanguard leaders aim to the to make it to political and the prevailing liberal the of in our dissident right vanguard does not that is a but it is that the dissident right has on both of the the due in to the of that was to the of the radical not all dissident right are to Marxist that the key to revolutionary change was ultimately the of values, and in the has often and to the Yet, all vanguard leaders mainstream liberal or conservative political narratives (in the of and the and They all alternative and ideological perspectives that to the and are in with through the of or In the in to reshape of political or social issues by challenging terms such as and as new the political such as or making or cultural to the of liberal from the or French also the ideological and of the dissident right vanguard as are few studies of vanguard leadership in to the dissident with with to vanguard leadership and studies of right-wing the of the some scholars that political ideologies would the of as the the of and in the liberal the of and the of the of of political ideology have that the term ideology is an in the social and its study to the from the French to the key political ideologies in this and first the term in to to a of are and a of They are only a and not of political is a of and that of the of and sociopolitical that ideologies have they to the and they have an to target and they for social by an of the for their and themselves for a or have and They the of the and for a social In our in the or as well as a that or have than that to extremists of all political some scholars the of and scholars have to right and and different political scholars have that ideological extremists a of a struggle and ideological of a for or the tendency to and the that is in to the of are different to right and and differing within right and left, that and have of or as different by from of and important ideological on the on the is our that are ideological of the the conservative the dissident the radical and the revolutionary right. Some scholars have a a radical and an with the a to the of liberal distinguish these of the in that this to and in are movements, and that might several is a to the different of By conservatives are not but the other categories are by of and the dissident right use and to or broader cultural and political change, to the radical right and revolutionary are to are also important ideological and the of the conservative might as an and an that emerged the of the French to this The conservative right is on two key political and social change and not or are not of the status and of traditions, and in the of change. or is viewed as by to might by conservatives (e.g., of the status quo, and conservatives to a status might found such as of the to radical change that their political or economic of an the term is with the conservative right. the of the and the French which linked to the political that is and In conservatives in the of that they that our are to our own particular religious and they and they in of and as radical right-wing conservatives this conservative that is of radical change, but is with such as of the traditional social for and social order, as a of social and stability, a and a military The conservative right as and thus for are different of the conservative right in America and the conservative right the of the elites or the poor might conservative right In the conservative right to and the right of the conservative the dissident of the right with our vanguard the dissident right all of the right that from and are of the conservative In the dissident right the conservative right for of the of Western and In the the dissident right radical national the alternative right and all that do not the radical right and revolutionary right These dissident often from the Republican Party in the and mainstream social media (e.g., of in an with these might the conservative right with or an the conservative the dissident right often intellectuals and that operate within the they the as Yet, they use or they outside of the radical right and revolutionary right in terms of their and of our dissident right vanguard leaders both conservative right and as well as the of and for of some of the radical right and revolutionary further to the right of the dissident the radical on the that is with the and and the the of and the existing a radical of the status than the dissident right and is in or to use to a in some it might for a to the is thus to a nationalists, in and include groups in the US to or the which in the In to the conservative right and dissident the radical right often from social groups that are in a social and economic and this status their or to the right of the radical right the revolutionary right. 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