Description
This paper investigates the discourses and representations constructed within the United States about armed forces veterans involved in far-right movements. Using the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack as a case study, particularly the reactions emerging from the anti-Trumpist political spectrum, the research analyzes multiple, often dissonant and contradictory, voices, including governmental actors (Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary), the media, and civil society organizations such as social movements and think tanks. It examines how the (re)construction of stereotypes of the “ideal veteran”—heroic, apolitical, sacrificial—contrasts with that of the “deviant veteran”—radicalized, pathological, exceptional—within public discourse and collective memory. This process, it is argued, functions as a mechanism of “nostalgic rehabilitation” (Tidy, 2015) of liberal militarism, reaffirming the image of the armed forces as guardians of democratic order and portraying veterans as a vulnerable group to be protected by society. The study also explores potential fractures within the dominant discourse, identifying spaces of anti-militarist resistance. Drawing on insights from Critical Military Studies, it conceptualizes liberal militarism as a set of practices that (re)produce orders and subjectivities, structuring the boundaries of public discourse on violence, legitimacy, and belonging in post-Trump America.
