New conspiracism is antiparty, not “just fix it” pragmatism or reform-minded Progressivism

Evidence

Another American political tradition—pragmatism—is also antiparty, and it provides another contrast to conspiracist delegitimation. A perennial feature of American politics is the pragmatic call to “just fix it,” or, “How about being realistic and just solving the problem?” From this standpoint, parties seem like needless sources of gridlock, obstacles to getting things done. For his part, Trump valorizes action over discussion. As he says, “The problem with politicians is that [they’re] all talk and no action. It’s true. All talk, it’s all bullshit.” And he says, “Only I can fix it.” Trump’s boast doesn’t align with pragmatism any more than it does with Progressivism, though. Pragmatism is a collective process of democratic decision-making. It focuses on specific problems, policies, and outcomes, and it looks to specialized knowledge and expertise. Pragmatism is concrete, specific, and technocratic. The new conspiracist mind-set, in contrast, is intractably unpragmatic, uninterested in the intricacies of decision-making and policy-making. The new conspiracism is not about making democracy or government work at all. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 219

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes conspiracist antipartyism from Progressive and pragmatist antipartyism by their constructive intent.
• XREF: connects to: Progressive-era muckraking was conspiracism fused with a theory of democracy — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 72; New conspiracism differs from classic conspiracy theory in kind — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 185; American anti-partyism historically aimed to democratize, unlike today’s conspiracist version — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 214 (+1 more)