Your rank-and-file conservative doesn’t articulate it in those terms, obviously. But my family in Oregon doesn’t like the federal government ruling them from 3,000 miles away for concrete reasons. (In their case it’s long-standing family bitterness at the government seizing their homestead to build the pacific coast highway.) Those same social and political phenomena are present the world over, and are the reason federal systems exist all over the world.
Yes, it’s a William F. Buckley type that might make the comparison to Switzerland to explain how federalism is a neutral principle. But that doesn’t mean that what the folks in Oregon feel is merely pretext for racism. Just because someone can’t articulate their attitudes in terms of political theory (in this case, the resentment people have for being governed from afar and the governmental structures created to mitigate that) doesn’t mean that those attitudes can’t be explained in terms of that political theory. The Buckley type is just articulating and explaining concrete social phenomena on the ground.
That's all fine. But I don't think social science research supports the idea that rank-and-file (or self-identified, if you prefer) conservatives in the US are actually motivated by a devotion to, say, Federalism (as opposed to, say, hegemonic masculinity, white nativism, etc).
> The Buckley type is just articulating and explaining concrete social phenomena on the ground.
"Explaining", or "dressing up"? You're speaking in good faith, but personally I don't think that's the case for most of the rank-and-file, or the people who represent them.
> conservatives in the US are actually motivated by a devotion to, say, Federalism
"Federalism?" No, that's an abstract political construct. But ask them how they feel about folks in Washington D.C. deciding what goes in the school curriculum in Sibley, Iowa.
> That's all fine. But I don't think social science research supports the idea that rank-and-file (or self-identified, if you prefer) conservatives in the US are actually motivated by a devotion to, say, Federalism (as opposed to, say, hegemonic masculinity, white nativism, etc).
There is newer social science research suggesting that tests used to measure for attitudes such as "white nativism" (e.g. racial resentment tests) instead measure for conservative beliefs. Thus, the results don't change if you change the survey questions to ask about white people or other groups instead: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/renos/files/carneyenos.pdf (p. 17) ("Three important features are prominent in this figure: First, conservatives respondents (white boxes) show more resentment toward all groups than do liberals (gray boxes). Second, for conservatives, the distribution of resentment is nearly identical when asked about a white and Black target group to the distribution when asked about any alternate group, except with a slightly lower median.").
Questions purporting to measure "racial resentment" often presuppose a larger societal or government role for addressing racial inequality. Opposition to such programs is deemed "racism" but could also just be opposition to government programs generally. Only about half of Black people themselves support government programs to address the economic conditions of Black people: https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/the-roots-of-black-politic... (see Figure 0.5 a-c). 62% of Black people say that race should not even be a "small factor" in college admissions: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/25/most-americ...
To use your examples: what does "hegemonic masculinity" mean in this context? Is your test for "hegemonic masculinity" also going to return positive results for people who just believe in traditional gender roles (including women)?
What does "white nativism" mean in this context? My in laws in exurban Oregon are frustrated that their school is suddenly 30% immigrants who speak a variety of Latin American languages that aren't even Spanish. They want Trump to enforce the border. Are they white nativists?
Or are you just defining "white nativism" to mean "anyone who opposes mass immigration that changes their community's culture?" If my family back in Bangladesh was faced with the same sort of mass immigration (from say Myanmar) as my Trump-voting in laws in Oregon, their reactions would be identical! What a lot of people deem "white nativism" is the pervasive belief among people around the world that they have the right to preserve the culture of their communities.
Yes, it’s a William F. Buckley type that might make the comparison to Switzerland to explain how federalism is a neutral principle. But that doesn’t mean that what the folks in Oregon feel is merely pretext for racism. Just because someone can’t articulate their attitudes in terms of political theory (in this case, the resentment people have for being governed from afar and the governmental structures created to mitigate that) doesn’t mean that those attitudes can’t be explained in terms of that political theory. The Buckley type is just articulating and explaining concrete social phenomena on the ground.