Podcast Summary: The Realignment | Episode 592 | Laura Field: How the MAGA New Right Took Power – From the Flight 93 Essay to Trump 2024
Released: February 5, 2026 | Host: Marshall Kosloff | Guest: Laura Field

Episode Overview

This episode features Laura Field, political theorist and author of Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right. Marshall Kosloff draws on his own experiences in conservative spaces to probe Laura’s deep dive into how disparate intellectual factions united to transform Trumpism—beyond one presidency—into the GOP’s prevailing ideology. They unpack the genealogy of the MAGA New Right, its remarkable institution-building, and its growing dominance, contrasting its approach to the often brittle and policy-centric response from the center-left. The discussion branches into higher education, the limits of liberalism, and what it means for the future of American politics and civic life.

Key Themes and Discussion Points

1. Defining the MAGA New Right & Its Constituent Factions

[02:18–36:51]

• The New Right as Intellectual Movement:
  Laura emphasizes the MAGA New Right’s intellectual roots, focused on merging disparate conservative traditions (Claremont, post-liberal Catholics, and national conservatives) into one dominant GOP coalition.

  • “The book is really focused on the intellectual movement behind Trumpism... this coalition… is now pretty much ideologically in charge of the GOP.” [03:02]

• The Claremont Institute:

  • Founded by students of Lincoln scholar Harry Jaffa, emphasizing a rigid, almost dogmatic vision of the American founding and nativist principles.
  • Instrumental in defending Trumpism, especially through Michael Anton’s Flight 93 Election essay, which framed Trump as a last-ditch chance to save the nation.
    • “He saw very clearly that Trump represented this older sort of old right, more isolationist, more closed, more nativist… and he was like, yes, that's our guy.” [07:13]
    • Notably, Rush Limbaugh read Anton’s essay on air, translating academic arguments into populist language and “activating” a wide audience. [08:19]

• The Post-Liberals / Integralists:

  • Mainly conservative Catholic thinkers (e.g., Adrian Vermeule, Patrick Deneen, Sohrab Ahmari), envisioning a state actively promoting the "common good"—often with religious connotations.
  • Anti-neoliberal economically, more open to communitarian state power and even authoritarian measures when aligned with their vision of virtue and the common good.
    • “The post liberals are very different in that they want to, they're quite open to communitarian social values… they're quite comfortable with a top down government and with authoritarian style of government.” [10:03]
  • Integralism aims to reintegrate, in theory, Church and State. Vermeule’s “integration from within” is explicit about infiltrating federal bureaucracy.
    • “He has a very clear theocratic streak. I mean it's not, it's not hidden.” [14:59]

• National Conservatives:

  • Organized around Yoram Hazony and his Virtue of Nationalism (2018), emphasizing a homogenous, unified national vision as the ideal—eschewing multiculturalism in favor of ‘shared religion, history, language.’
  • Serve as a convening “umbrella” for the New Right’s ideologically diverse actors, aiding in translation from ideas to policy to coalition-building.
    • “It's the framework that... is the most political. It's where politicians and donors and all of these thinkers and wonks get together.” [28:47]

2. From Esoteric Ideas to Real Power

[32:30–38:10]

• How Intellectual Movements Captured GOP Machinery:

  • The fall of Reaganite orthodoxy during Trump’s rise created an intellectual and staffing vacuum.
    • “Everything was demolished and there was this window of opportunity… and just having interesting personalities like Steve Bannon to just jump into that open void in space and just talk a lot.” [36:51]
  • The New Right seized this with “manifestos,” coordinated conferences, and institution-building, successfully bringing their ideas from academic circles into White House staffing (e.g., Project 2025) and securing key politicians (e.g., J.D. Vance).

• Persistence After Setbacks:

  • Even after setbacks (Jan 6, Trump’s first loss, DeSantis pivots), the movement continued to build, “hopping” between vehicles and never losing focus.
    • “They kept at it… they start, you know, Hillsdale, did their big program... they just kept going and then they kept organizing… and then they helped Trump get back in.” [32:30]
  • Pragmatic coalition-building—not always aligned on first principles, but united in opposition to a hollowed-out, technocratic liberalism.

3. What Makes the MAGA New Right Effective (Compared to the Left)?

[39:19–70:53]

• Culture, Meaning, and Rhetoric:

  • The right excels at speaking to decline, national purpose, and existential stakes—themes the center-left struggles to meet with mere policy solutions.
    • “The new right has at a sort of cultural propagandistic advantage perspective is they talk about culture and they talk about decline... even like the human soul and the good.” [39:19]
  • Hollywood, celebrities, and “poll testing”—the center-left’s standard messaging tools—feel hollow by comparison.
    • “They think a good message is just going to be like George Clooney and Julia Roberts... I don't think the people of America want to hear from them.” [41:33]

• Institution Building and Talent Development:

  • The New Right invests in summer schools, fellowships, magazines, and think tanks focused on formative education and networking, forging an ideology-first rather than party-first culture.
    • “They have these summer schools... different fellowships for media people… where you go and you learn to write an op ed, talk the talking points, and you learn to network.” [08:56]
    • “They also recognize that ideas matter in such a way that they build institutions out from that.” [68:55]

• Vacuum on the Left:

  • Liberal and center-left spaces are diffuse, party-first, and lack ideological/civic infrastructure to match institutions like Claremont or the National Conservatives.
    • “...my sort of reaction of center left spaces then is that center left spaces are party first spaces... it's very much, much more ideological [on the right].” [67:00]
    • “The thing is, there isn't [an equivalent on the left]. Right?... It's a kind of... absence... gaping hole... that I think you and I both can intuit it.” [70:53]

4. The Higher Education Debate & Critique of Liberalism

[41:36–68:55]

• Why Higher Ed Became a Flashpoint:

  • The right viewed initiatives like the 1619 Project as emblematic of elite liberal "takeover." Even when the actual impact was more localized, it became symbolic fodder for a broader narrative about cultural decline and leftist hegemony.
    • “In pockets, in elite spaces... there has been a kind of takeover. Right. But it certainly isn't universal.” [45:28]
  • The rise of critical studies, deconstructionism, and identity politics—especially in elite institutions—created both genuine intellectual advances and, in some spaces, a stifling illiberalism.
    • “There has been a real preponderance of this critical approach that often turns into a kind of identity politics... over time, it became... the only mode of inquiry.” [52:53]
  • The New Right’s counter-offensive exploits liberalism’s inability to speak persuasively about “the good life,” meaning, and tradition.
    • “We don't really. Liberals have a hard time talking about some of this, about knowing their own selves, right. And, and then the new right comes along and they're like, oh, well, we don't have any trouble. We know... what a good life is.” [58:35]

• Memorable Assessment:

  • “There's a kind of brittleness that comes into our politics where we're very self righteous and also completely incapable of speaking about things like literature and religion. But we're very sure that we're right a lot of the time.” [58:36]

5. Liberal Vulnerability: Illiberalism in Liberal Spaces

[63:16–67:00]

• Identity Politics and Enforced Illiberalism:
  • Marshall describes personal experiences with illiberal practices leftward (e.g., “privilege walks”) that discouraged dissent and fostered groupthink, making opposition to such exercises a “taboo.”
    • “Privilege walks are stupid. Sorry, I'm just gonna say it's a stupid idea... you clearly could not object to any of this because... you'd be described as like a conservative or like a Republican.” [63:16]
  • Laura agrees that forced conformity, disclosure, and diversity statements have become litmus tests, sowing resentment and alienation, particularly among those feeling unable to speak up within their own institutions.
    • “There's a kind of illiberalness to. Absolutely. To that kind of forced disclosure of the self... that's really dangerous.” [65:18]
    • Cites Jonathan Rauch: “a kind of coercive conformity.” [66:00]

6. The Importance of Ideology and Building the Future

[68:55–83:04]

• Ideas-First Politics as Both Weapon and Liability:
  • The New Right’s strength is building unity, talent, and institutions on the basis of ideas rather than factional loyalty.
    • “They have this facility with the traditions that we all kind of know about, but they have a kind of much richer investment in it... and they also recognize that ideas matter in such a way that they build institutions out from that.” [68:55]
• Missing on the Left:
  • There is no equivalent “civic infrastructure” among liberals/left—no space for non-partisan contestation of ideas, no support from party-adjacent funders for ideological work.
    • “They have no response except for like, yeah, a kind of nuts and bolts civics course or something. But that's not what we're talking about.” [72:58]
• Formative, Pluralist Education Needed:
  • Laura calls for a regeneration of the humanities, a pluralist “formative education” for free citizens that is open to both tradition and critique, literary greatness and social history.
    • “We do need some vision of this. We need to know what the purpose of education is. And it can't just be career training... a study of our own traditions... it should be full of contestation and different perspectives.” [73:13]
• From Partisanship to Citizenship:
  • Ideological contestation is not a luxury, but a civic duty. Education must cultivate citizens “who understand what they’re fighting for and why it matters on a level of principle.” [82:07]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“The sensationalism of the [Flight 93 Election] rhetoric cannot be overstated.” – Laura Field [08:11]

“The post liberals are very different in that they want to, they're quite open to communitarian social values and economic values... and it also means they're quite comfortable with a top down government and with authoritarian style of government.” – Laura Field [10:03]

“They kept at it... they just kept going and then they kept organizing. There were new institutions. They took over the Heritage foundation and then... they had Project 2025 ready to go.” – Laura Field [32:30]

“If you, I think I have a line at the end of the book where I talk about... the Democrats are just obsessed with... poll testing... and then the Hollywood stuff... it just, it's just like a demonstration of the hollowness, like don't they have anything to say for themselves?” – Laura Field [41:33]

“There has been a real preponderance of this critical approach that often turns into a kind of identity politics... But over time, it became the habit, it became the only mode of inquiry.” – Laura Field [52:53]

“What the new right understands is you need formative education. And I love the language of Aristotle... we need education that is fit for free people.” – Laura Field [73:13]

“Civic education… sounds cloying… but for a kind of formative education in political reality and contestation and just in political history… as citizens, we need that—not as party members, but as citizens of the future.” – Laura Field [82:07]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:18] Definitions: Claremont, post-liberals, national conservatives
• [07:13] Flight 93 Election essay and its impact
• [08:19] Rush Limbaugh “translating” esoteric ideas into the mainstream
• [10:03–17:17] Post-liberal Catholics and integralist thought
• [28:47] Emergence & purpose of the National Conservatives
• [32:30] Path from intellectual movement to power and institution-building
• [39:19] Liberal/left’s policy focus vs. the right's cultural messaging
• [41:36–52:53] Higher education: culture war and academic critique
• [58:35–61:15] Liberalism’s struggle with meaning, tradition, and the “good”
• [63:16–67:00] Illiberalism & identity politics within liberal spaces
• [70:53–76:17] Absence of ideology-driven infrastructure on the left
• [82:07] Civic culture and formative education as a citizen’s duty

Closing Thoughts

Furious Minds and this conversation provide both a roadmap to understanding the MAGA New Right’s rise and a mirror for the center-left’s vulnerabilities. Laura Field urges liberals not to cede the language of meaning or the machinery of institution-building to their adversaries. The episode ultimately offers both a warning and a challenge: the battle for America’s future will be won not by poll-tested campaigns or party branding, but by those who invest in civic, intellectual, and cultural infrastructure rooted in first principles, tradition, and pluralism.

Further Reading:
Laura Field, Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right