My last post, The World Turned Upside Down, argued, however, that the “different constituencies of the Trumpist movement” include:
(1) fundamentalist nostalgists, (2) outright illiberal authoritarians, (3) seemingly-libertarian post-liberal techno-futurists who might better be described as “crypto-fascists,” and (4) the forces of chaos.
So, it’s actually four “separate pathways of Hell.”
Vance represents the third of these, Trump the fourth. This post will tackle the first: the challenge of the “fundamentalist nostalgists,” those who insist – as have others throughout history – that our society is in a moral rot and the only solution is to turn the clock back to a supposed former era of conservative political, moral, and religious orthodoxy.
Assuming there is indeed a dire need to Make America Great Again (as opposed simply to, say, keeping it that way), is this the way to do it? History suggests otherwise...
I think I mostly agree with Eric Schnurer's post here. I guess I would just add 1 faction to it.
If you know anything about Donald John Trump, you know that the only 2 things that he believes in, are himself and absolute power for himself. He's not interested in political philosophy and doesn't really practice any particular political philosophy. I've made this point before but if he thought acing and talking like a Socialist... hell, a Communist, would guarantee himself absolute power over anyone who even tries to confront him and challenge his power, that's what he would talk and act like.
Donald Trump chose American, Anglo-Saxon nationalism, 10 years ago, because he saw a group of Americans who thought America wasn't just going to hell (to paraphrase Eric Schnurer) but has been there at least since the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
And DJT rightly calculated that if he became their leader, (cult hero or icon, god even, would be more accurate) he could use these people (which is exactly what he's been doing) to not just become President of the United States, (which is something he thought about doing since his early 40s) but obtain absolute power for himself and be untouchable for the rest of his life. If you think about it, his "MAGA" movement, is the best con he's ever pulled and probably the best political con ever pulled in American history, as far as how successful he's been with it politically.
So I guess where I slightly disagree with Eric Schuner is how about many factions of the so-called MAGA movement there are in America:
The main core of "MAGA", are the religious (perhaps far-right cult would be more accurate) and cultural fundamentalists, who see themselves, as the "real Americans", because their families have been in America since the 1600s and they are Northern European ethnically. But that's not Donald Trump's wing of this movement.
Donald Trump and I would argue J.D. Vance, are part of the oligarchic wing of this movement. And these are people... the Elon Musk's, the Kevin O'Leary's, the Peter Thiel's, who are very wealthy and believe that the rich should and do own America and everyone else are essentially just guests in their country. Including lower-educated, hard-working, small town, blue-collar Americans, who couldn't be more loyal to Donald Trump, if he was the only person allowed to ever run for President and every American was required by law to vote for President, or go to jail for not voting.
But then you have this very unserious, reality TV, Donald Trump wannabe wing of "MAGA", that just like their cult hero, are only in politics at all, to obtain absolute power for themselves. All these former and current "reality TV stars" who are in bed with Donald Trump (perhaps not just politically) and see themselves as Donald Trump. Todd and Julie Chrisley, who 2-3 months ago were still in prison, but they got pardoned by President Trump, simply because they support the President politically. And the Chrisley's would just be 1 example of that. And these are people who essentially believe that as long as they support Donald Trump 100% of the time, they'll never be in trouble for anything.
So 10 years ago, anyone who wasn't "MAGA", was referring to this movement as Nationalists, or Christian Nationalists. But I'm done with that. To be a Nationalist:
"A person who strongly identifies with their own nation and vigorously supports its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations".
From the Oxford Dictionary.
And these folks don't love America. They love their own people, their own corner of the store, their own neck of the woods (So to speak) When you think your country has been in hell for the last 60-65 years, when most if not all the available evidence is to the contrary, you are not much of a patriot, or nationalist. Are you?
Whatever you want to call MAGA... they just represent what can happen to a country when it's own people take their own democracy for granted and in a lot of cases don't even bother to vote, or perhaps even worst... don't even know who they're voting for before they vote. And we get stuck with the most unintelligent, unserious people, who think American democracy is nothing more than the latest "reality TV show", running our country for us, because we didn't do what needed to protect our country from people who should be in Hollywood, or some place, instead of trying to run our government for us.
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