Going Low: How Profane Politics Challenges American Democracy

by Finbarr Curtis

Overview

Liberalism puts its trust in civil discourse and rational argument. Today, its opponents enthusiastically flout these norms, making a show of defying so-called political correctness. In the Trump era and beyond, right-wing figures delight in sheer offensiveness. What is at stake in breaking the rules of civility to “own the libs”?

Going Low examines how the offensive style of contemporary politics challenges liberal democratic institutions. Considering the rise of illiberal politics and debates about the limits of free speech, Finbarr Curtis draws on the insights of religious studies to rethink provocation and transgression. He argues that the spectacle of brazenly violating taboos is a show of dominance over a supposedly censorious liberalism. Profaning liberal pieties is the ultimate form of “winning.” Curtis contends that deliberate offensiveness dovetails with the privatization of public goods: both represent the refusal to accommodate the sensibilities of others in a diverse society.

Going Low offers a series of essays that recast recent controversies, including Trump’s reality-TV presidency, white evangelical complaints of liberal bigotry, bakers who refuse to bake cakes for LGBTQ weddings, and hostility toward the activism of athletes and college students. Together, these essays shed new light on contemporary political discourse and reveal why illiberalism has turned to profane politics for a profane age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231205726
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	07/05/2022
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Finbarr Curtis is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Georgia Southern University. He is the author of The Production of American Religious Freedom (2016).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Reality of Donald J. Trump
2. Steve Bannon and the Clash of Civilizations
3. Cartoons and Guns
4. Christian Values and the White Evangelical
5. Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Art of Religious Freedom
6. NFL Protests and the Profane Rites of Something
7. Fear and Safety on Campus
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

This marvelous and surprising book offers the first satisfying account of why offense is an essential idiom of secular politics. Political scientists, pundits, and scholars of religion alike will learn from what Curtis discovers when he digs with gusto into the significant power of profanation.

Kathryn Lofton

Going Low is a wide-ranging exploration of today's political culture deploying conceptual tools from religious studies scholarship. There's something distinctive about how political discourse works in the Trump era—from right, left, and center—and this book limns this new landscape.

Vincent W. Lloyd

07/01/2022

This is a timely explanation of current political realities in the U.S. The analysis, done from Curtis's (philosophy and religious studies, Georgia Southern Univ.; The Production of American Religious Freedom) viewpoint as a religious academic, is a unique and clarifying perspective of how profane politics have grabbed hold of the nation. "Going low" refers to the act of using inflammatory speech and skirting reality to garner fervent followers in the political arena. Curtis explains how and why this illiberal tactic is so successful theoretically. He offers many examples from famous conservative figures such as Donald Trump and Steve Bannon and recent historical events, such as Trump's presidency, the NFL protests, and the Masterpiece Cakeshop legal fight. These case studies exemplify how going low elides truth and reason and instead taps into a new emotionally charged reality constructed on fears and fantasies. Through the profane, politics become a zero-sum, winners or losers battle, wherein one side keeps trying to compromise to maintain democracy, and others refuse to believe they are playing the same game. VERDICT Although academic, the prose is still accessible, and the author does a skillful job of breaking down the strategies that everyone will recognize from daily news coverage. An excellent buy for any political collection.—Halie Kerns

Library Journal

Going Low’s compellingly written and skillfully argued insights into the relationship between illiberal secularism and discourses of offense offer scholars essential tools to make sense of the US political landscape, challenging us to rethink relationships between religion and politics in the US.

American Religion

Finbarr Curtis's book is bold, analytically curious, and it makes a pressing argument about the mechanics and fragility of the contemporary American order. Going Low is a book that punches you in the gut with its argument about the secular age gone bad and getting worse. Curtis's account of the Trump phenomenon is the one that makes the most sense of a volatile moment that remains resistant to pedestrian hot-takes or 'serious' analyses of political economy.

John Lardas Modern