The MAGA coalition is widening. That’s great. But I gotta admit there’s something about it that’s starting to get under my skin.
Since 2015, this movement was really just the inevitable result of class war, a populist response to elite aggression. From the very first Hillary smears MAGA was painted as the unwashed hillbilly party, a bunch of undereducated bigots, basket of deplorables, domestic terrorists. Which of course was just an extension of the same narrative Obama had pushed about a hateful people clinging to guns and religion. Which itself was an extension of the “hick” narrative pushed by Hollywood and all media since at least the 1970s. But looking beyond the endless portrayals of simple-minded country folk in TV and movies, We also grew up with characters from Deliverance, The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The thing about these films is the creators weren’t entirely unsympathetic to the plight of the “rural savage.” in fact depending on where you sat culturally, you might even have been rooting for the monsters to mutilate these arrogant interlopers.
That’s kind of where I’ve always been, and where I’m at now. I don’t really care what happens to unsuspecting urbanoid libs, I’d never want them literally eaten by cannibals, but I’m not too concerned with what happens to them, nor am I expending energy on helping them see. They are now in charge of their own destiny.
Good luck, libs. May we be united again some brighter day.
With RFKJ and Elon and company joining in the fun it seems a “classical liberal” faction to MAGA is further coalescing, which by the way I’ve got nothing against, I believe it makes all the difference and likely is one of a few factors that leads to a landslide victory.
But with this I’m noticing a trend in this so-called unity party which is perhaps unavoidable. That same elitist, classist democrat party vein is of course still running through this group: Let’s be honest, they still won’t touch a toothless white trash MAGAperson with a 10-foot pole. Maybe you’ve seen the hats are changing colors: black, navy, gray, colors of the more fashion-conscious neoliberal elite. You won’t see RFK sporting a classic red MAGA hat, but instead his own MAHA version in some more “tasteful” color. Green feels like the move here, right?
Bret Weinstein will call today’s democrat party the true existential threat, but he’s still not coming down from his perch to rub elbows with ugly bigots who enthusiastically chant for mass deportations, and he’s not likely to express anything but a kind of forced or “circumstantial” support for Donald Trump.
None of these people will ever say they love the guy. They’re here to make sure they get their say and try to rein him in a bit.
In truth what it feels like is a lot of these people just want to reform and get back to their nostalgic idea of a democrat party. They’re maybe even on this train for a shot at that, they surely don’t love the idea of 12 years of conservative Republican control, which is more realistically what it’s going to be. We of course should expect RFKJ to run again in 2028, maybe even as a democrat.
I don’t love the establishment GOP either, in fact I want all of them gone. But I certainly have no hope for any form of democrat party, after what they’ve become in the last few years and what they’ve done to this country and this President, they can never be redeemed.
Donald Trump is not going to save the world alone and he needs a team to do this work, a Herculean task lies ahead. But no one should have any illusions; the same social class boundaries are still very much intact, and none of these newcomers are likely to ever sport the red hat or embrace a wide swath of people in this country the way Trump does.
I’m fine with an alliance to defeat evil, I welcome it. And we are going to win. But when the shit goes down, I’m still with Leatherface. And I expect a large number of Americans will be right there with me.
