Right-Wing Populism as a Manifestation of the Crisis of Contemporary American Capitalism

In the light of the ethno-political, social and value crisis that broke out in America in 2020, there is a need to study its ideological foundations. The study shows that, although at the first stage of this crisis the demands of African-Americans, the liberals and globalists who use these demands for racial equality to overthrow President Trump came to the fore, an equally important political and ideological segment of American society is the right-wing nationalists behind Trump, who showed themselves in the 2016 presidential election. One of their heralds is the former chief aid to Trump, Stephen Bannon, who then played a major role in his election to the presidency. Based on a large volume of studied sources, both Russian and primarily American authors, media materials and political sites, the author comes to the conclusion that this figure and the ideology developed by him are extremely ambiguous. On the one hand, Bannon is undoubtedly a right-wing nationalist, a staunch opponent of any left-wing ideas, including those of left-wing liberals and progressives, and a supporter of a tough foreign policy, especially hostile to the "Communist China" and in many respects to Russia. On the other hand, he also recognizes the crisis of the current model of capitalism in the United States (by his own admission, which began with the collapse of the USSR). He believes that the basis of the crisis is the substitution of "productive initiative capitalism" by the corruption and nepotism of the ruling elite, the usury of bankers. with the corrupting role of the media. Bannon criticizes the "capitalism of personal success" without responsibility for the weak and the sick, considering it cruel and unspiritual. In his view, the "capitalist revival" in the United States - of which he is a proponent - should begin with the strict restrictions of the "elite of elites" who have taken over the world and continue to get rich at a time when "working white men and women are sliding into poverty". As for Putin's Russia, Bannon believes that Putin deserves to be understood as a "traditionalist and economic nationalist". At the same time, he condemns "Russia's kleptocratic system and the predatory nature of Russian business imposed on the country by globalist liberals". The author of the article comes to the conclusion that the extremely contradictory ideology proposed by Bannon to America and Europe, although it contains many correct negative assessments of the current financial and speculative model in the United States, is at the same time based on an idealistic view of the possibility of returning the country to a humane model of capitalism, which, in practice, this country has never had and cannot have in principle.

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