THE RIGHT Lacaning America or years, right-wing ideologues from Paul Ryan to Nigel Farage have driven a reactionary politi- cal project whose only purpose is to destroy whatever is put forward by others. But as recent history shows, the basis of their politics—a desire for negation—is undone by their ascent to power. To quote Slavoj izek, “desire must have its objects perpetually absent.” If adog catches a car that it chases, the car ceases to exist as an object of desire. As Gary Younge describes at right, the same holds true for the British and American right, which have pushed narrow agendas that only bear meaning in relation to liberal formations like the Affordable Care Act and the European Union. Without the dominance of liberal institutions, oppositional right- wing programs lose all substance. In the writing of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, the objet petit a stands for an unattainable object of desire; the more you possess it, the greater the lack. We can only hope that Ryan, Farage, Donald Trump, and their friends find something to fill the vacuum that power has created inside them, and perhaps a good thera- pist as well. —Evan Malmgren