Using Trump to Help Explore the New Right

The New Right is considered more of a political than a sociological perspective but its influence has been considerable in society, particularly in the USA and the UK since the 1950s.

With its emphasis on conservative values such as a biological division of labour and reducing state benefits, students and staff alike can get fired up during a class discussion of its policies.

Donald Trump’s win for the Republican Party in the US elections is a good way to get students to explore the core aspects of the perspective. So it is worth reviewing in advance the general differences between left and right wing politics initially.

Following this, students could prepare materials for a debate or presentation related to: ‘How Trump Won The Election.’

Here, students could conduct their own research using the Internet or be provided with resources such as articles, videos and so on, to map their findings to New Right theory.

Some suggestions of resources include (with a link to both left and right political sources):

• The Guardian: Policy pledges examined: what could the next president really do?
• BBC News: Donald Trump presidential agenda
• The Guardian: Why American elected Donald Trump
• Fox News: What led to Donald Trump’s presidential victory?