“the populist desire (left and right) for a single, national community in which all persons and all ideas and all social norms are subordinate to the whole.”
Exactly which populists on the right desire this?
The ones that populate his imagination.
Exactly which populists on the right desire this?
He may be thinking of the 1930s or the 1950s when it was assumed that there was one American type that people had to assimilate to. That view wasn't just held by populists back then. In recent decades many conservatives of all varieties have held up the 1950s as something positive in contrast to the chaos of the 1960s and 1970s, but there was a growing understanding that there was no one American type or way of life that all Americans were going to conform to. I think deep down that's what we realize today, but if those who want to be critical are going to see conformity and homogenization in everything their opponents say.
Also, Birzer may be coming from a more localistic "small is beautiful" anti-Walmart tradition. I don't think he understands that many of the Trump supporters he is criticizing have similar views, and many of those he would have voted for in previous years don't. Right now, the drive for compulsive conformity is coming from the corporations, the Democrats, and the left, so caricaturing right populists seems counterproductive if you are opposed to big government, big business, big tech, and social control over individuals, families and communities.
It looks like Walmart is losing -- to Amazon. Is that better? I suppose we are going to have to learn to live with and deal with Amazon, as we did with Walmart and Sears.