This Is How A Downward Spiral Begins
The MAGA artifice is crumbling, but rank and file Republicans can’t walk away from a decade of complicity by saying, in essence, “the Trump era was CRAAAAZY!”
The illusions of mastery and forward motion are essential to the Trump project.
If the movement weakens, and begins to flag, its internal contradictions become much easier to detect, and everyone who’s signed up to operate its machinery is exposed. They weren’t swept along by some irresistible juggernaut; they were fully in control of their own faculties. They knew the difference between right and wrong, and chose wrong.
The hours and days after the 2024 election were, thus, crucial. Donald Trump won, yes, but that wasn’t enough on its own, not with a mere plurality. They had to foster a sense of cultural dominance and permanent political realignment in order to make resistance seem futile. Trump issues some demand, he speaks for the people, and the rest takes care of itself. Congressional Republicans fall into line, party apparatchiks affect a menacing tone, and—before anyone’s sense of morality or reason or self-respect can kick in—compliance is achieved.
For several months, at least, this was tragically effective.
It’s hard to say when the artifice began to crumble. But the failed censorship of Jimmy Kimmel and the success, in defiance of right-wing histrionics, of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show were two key tells: Fascists do not, in fact, dominate American culture.
Trump Has Lost The Culture
Democrats were slow to mount opposition to Donald Trump, because they got it in their heads that his popular vote plurality was tantamount to a lasting public verdict on MAGA cultural politics.
I think the political artifice is crumbling, now, too. If I were a complicit party actor, I’d be very worried, about the GOP’s future, if not my own.
Consider the following three still-unfolding developments:
Republican voters are ignoring Trump’s endorsements in high profile GOP primaries.
Trump-backed nominees are “tacking to the center” by abandoning years of election denialism and admitting that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
MAGA operatives find themselves unable to achieve narrative dominance, in large part because they’ve shredded their own credibility.
Let’s take these in order.