Continuing the Conversation about the GOP Maga Movement

Please join the discussion.

I received thoughtful responses to my last blog post.  I’m sharing two of them with you.  I have only two comments, and both are largely supportive of what my friends have written.  I think Ted’s compilation of the Maga base is correct.  I suspect that it would be wise to see them as overlapping categories rather than all reinforcing.  That is, how many Trump supporters check all the boxes is largely unknown and more to the point the number who fit most of the categories is not clear.  Also, I know Ted would agree with me that we need to avoid stigmatizing many great people and good friends.

I also suggest that corporate America is split when it comes to whom they will entrust their financial muscle.  The two parties compete for this essential money necessary (in the mind of the political elites) to compete in a national election.  If the realignment that I described does resolve into two new coalitions bases for the Democrats and Republicans, I might expect Silicon Valley coming down on the side of the Republicans and new energy and East Coast finance siding with the Democrats.  But this is largely speculation at this point.  At any rate neither party will be without a substantial “war chest,” and corporate partners.

With respect to the article that Daryl recommends, I caution drawing two much certainty out of friendships and sources of intellectual stimulation.  A person can benefit greatly from conversations with people of considerable insight and imagination without becoming “followers,” or true believers. 

Please all of you respond to this if you can.  It is a discussion worth having, now and as the election nears. 

Ted Coltman’s comment:

Jul 21

Could you be a little more specific about who is realigning with the emergent MAGA party, and why? As far as I can tell, it’s a coalition of overwhelmingly rural and exurban; heavily white; mostly not college-educated; often current or former blue-collar or pink-collar workers, owners/managers of small businesses, or professionals who no longer own their own practices; often people who identify themselves socially or politically as evangelical Protestant Christians or “traditional” Roman Catholics; usually fairly xenophobic people, particularly as to skin color, assumed or avowed religion, and assumed or avowed sexuality and gender; and emphatically isolationist. This emerging coalition’s grievances that—until this realignment—have not been addressed by any major political party have mostly to do with harms to their social status, physical and mental health, economic security (especially with respect to employment, housing, and food), or geographic access to standard-of-living components such as health care, education, mobility, recreation, and entertainment. The harms have been real, and for a variety of reasons they have often been more pronounced in rural and exurban areas.

The MAGA party’s proposed remedies, however, seem to be a hastily conceived pastiche of the traditional GOP’s economic policies benefitting large multinational corporations and extremely wealthy individuals and the most performative expressions of the emerging coalition’s xenophobia and isolationism. There’s not much there addressing the harms that the emerging coalition groups have actually experienced. That doesn’t bode well for the outcome of the realignment.

Daryl Close:

Jul 21

I find J. D. Vance to be much scarier than Trump. Vance is very smart, literate, and is a deliberate code switcher with a variety of personas.

You might be interested in this backgrounder on Vance: "The Seven Intellectual Forces Behind JD Vance's Worldview" (https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/07/18/jd-vance-world-view-sources-00168984)

I think that there is strong evidence that Vance is some sort of neo-monarchist. Consider his admiration for “Dark Enlightenment” blogger Curtis Yarvin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin) and for fellow reactionary, Peter Thiel, both anti-democracy cranks.

No good news here.

Best,

Daryl

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