In the Project 2025-Trump Regime, My Books Are More Relevant Than Ever

You meed to understand an enemy to be able to stop them

In 2024, I wrote two short but information-packed books about politics. They were pertinent to the US election (along with all the other elections in 2024), but they are even more pertinent now after the US election results. That’s particularly true because the election, and the results thereof, are not about Trump. They never were and never will be about Trump.

This election, like all of politics, was about power. Trump isn’t the power, he’s the facade of it, a symptom. If Trump died tomorrow, very little would change. In truth, the people behind Project 2025, the real power in this new regime, are also symptoms of much older, and larger, forces.

What happened in 2024 and what has now been unleashed in 2025 is the fruition of a plan that began in the early 1970s. I’m not talking about a conspiracy theory, I’m talking about power exercising power. This plan, this Project 2025, actually has its roots in the American traditions of exceptionalism and nationalism. I explain the history and what’s happening now in my books. Educate yourself.

A Philosophy Professor Explores the Motivations and Goals of the Right Wing

(Publisher press release)

Many Americans are concerned about the angry rhetoric in politics, in particular the venom coming from Donald Trump and the right wing. Many Americans want a better answer to MAGA and the right wing than fearmongering and name-calling. Two new books by philosophy professor Dr. Douglas Giles combine to explain how Americans can understand and respond to the right wing.

Avoiding petty partisan politics, Giles demythologizes political action and conflict in his books, Left Wing, Right Wing, People, and Power: The Core Dynamics of Political Action and Why Trump? Why Some People Support Him — How the Rest of Us Can Respond. By providing important social and historical context, the two books provide a well-reasoned, rounded view of the Trump campaign and those who support it.

Left Wing, Right Wing, People, and Power traces the historical development of the left wing and the right wing to reveal that the core of politics is the conflict over power. Despite specific differences of time and place, political actions are consistently efforts to preserve or change the structure and dynamics of power. With this insight, we can better understand political positions and actions from across the political spectrum.

Why Trump? shows there is little new in Trump or the things he says and does. His success in attaining power lies in his ability to harness a long-simmering feeling in a segment of the American population. Realizing that simple reality opens the door to a deeper understanding of the particular strain of US political culture behind the movement that currently takes Trump as its focus.

“Trump is a symptom far more than he is a cause,” writes Dr. Giles. He explains that “the right wing seeks a return to a moral purity” that they imagine existed back when America was “great.” Their agenda is writ large in Project 2025 — a game plan to concentrate power in the possession of a few at the expense of everyone else.

Dr. Giles urges an understanding of the right wing that leds to actions beyond despair and complaining. “Both before and after the election people have complained a lot about Trump. There are people who make money off of mocking Trump and those who support him. That strategy didn’t work before the election and it won’t work now.”

“There’s the old adage that you need to know your enemy to defeat them, and even if you don’t consider MAGA and Project 2025 the enemy, they probably consider you their enemy. We need to understand what the right wing is and what motivates people to support Donald Trump and extreme agendas like Project 2025. When we understand what’s going on in the Project 2025-Trump regime and why, we can work together to construct an alternative.”

Politics is a hostile mess, but Left Wing, Right Wing, People, and Power and Why Trump? elucidate what’s at stake and what motivates people to political action. The two books clearly and concisely explain the motivations and goals of the right wing and how we can constuctively respond to the right wing and defend our democracy by engaging in a constructive politics.

About the Author

Author Dr. Douglas Giles is a professor of philosophy at Elmhurst University, and he researches the root causes of bigotry and injustice and their role in political action. He earned his PhD in social philosophy at the University of Essex (UK) and has written extensively on the history and nature of ideas, ideologies, and paradigms. He is the author of How We Are and How We Got Here: A Practical History of Western Philosophy and Rethinking Misrecognition and Struggles for Recognition.

Dr. Giles is a seasoned lecturer and video producer, skilled in public speaking, panel discussions, and interviews. He is available to those eager for serious and deep conversations about philosophy and politics and those looking for practical solutions to society’s complex problems.

Book Availability

Left Wing, Right Wing, People, and Power: The Core Dynamics of Political Action
Douglas Giles
Real Clear Philosophy
ISBNs: 978–1735880839 and 978–1735880846
Available in e-book and paperback

Why Trump? Why Some People Support Him — How the Rest of Us Can Respond
Douglas Giles
Real Clear Philosophy
ISBNs: 978–1735880891 and 978–1735880853
Available in e-book, paperback, and audiobook

Website URLs: https://dgilesauthor.com/left-wing-right-wing-people-and-power/ and https://dgilesauthor.com/why-trump/

SOURCE: Real Clear Philosophy/publisher

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Contents - Left Wing, Right Wing, People, and Power

1. What Are “Left Wing” and “Right Wing?”

2. What Is the Core of Politics?

3. A Brief History of the Right Wing

4. Two Liberals—One Right and One Left

5. The Spectrum of Left Wing and Right Wing

6. Right-Wing Movements Today

7. Left-Wing Movements Today

Appendix 1. The Fake Left

Appendix 2. The Fake Political Dimension

Forward Foreword

Bibliography

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Contents - Why Trump?

1. Framing the Issue: What Is the Issue?

2. If You Think Trump Is the Problem. . .

3. The Lessons of the Power Spectrum

4. The Strongest Power in Politics

5. People Aren’t Stupid—They’re Lazy Thinkers

6. What Lurks Behind Conspiracy Theories?

7. The Fine Line Between Patriotism and Jingoism

8. Calvinism and the American Conception of Evil

9. America’s Long History of Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric

10. Let’s Call Bigotry What It Is

11. “Christian” Nationalism

12. Making America Victims Again (and Always)

13. The Big Lie—Desire Versus the Law

14. How Do We Break the Cycle of Antagonistic Politics?

Reference List