4/5 wrote:A political party isn't an ideology or a belief system. It's a corporation that wants power above all else.
Agreed. And like any corporation, it needs a sufficient customer base in order to achieve its ambitions.
Traditionally, political parties have done this by thinking about people as demographic tabulations….trying to find the right message for each and every subgroup they see as attainable.
This means that a lot of promises are made on the campaign trail. These promises are understood to be secondary to the ones being made to more powerful and important financial backers (something that is not at all different in a Trump party, btw), and will mostly not be followed through.
This system, of course, feeds its own rot. The “voting doesn’t change anything” ambivalence cycle is a natural consequence of this approach…as is the fantasy that a third-party built out of “common sense” could “get things done.”
But parties also know that if you make a level 10 promise to a voting group and then come back in four years with zero accomplishments, you’re going to take a big hit in support levels from that group. You promised level 10 accomplishments to each of 17 distinct demographics of voter, knowing you couldn’t deliver level 10 accomplishments for 17 demographics of voter, so now you come up with a level 3 and a level 1 achievement for each group and treat them like bigger successes than they actually are. You create small victories for that group
that you otherwise wouldn’t have been motivated to create, to cover up for the big victory you lied about during the campaign.
It is, to borrow a terribly tired cliche, a system that says “the rich and powerful are going to eat 2/3 of this pie, and the rest of you can each get a sliver of what’s left.”
All maga has ever been to me is: let’s give 80% of the pie to the rich and powerful instead of just 2/3, and then stop splitting what’s left with the other voting blocks.
We’ve all been telling one voting block for years that they are the real America, which by definition means other people are less American than they are. MAGA co-ops that mentality, telling them that because they are the real America, it’s unfair for them to have to share what’s left of the pie. It’s their pie. They are entitled to it. No one else is.
And anyways, isn’t it better to get 20% of the pie than to have to share 33% of it with dozens (or even hundreds) of other groups?
It is an entitlement fantasy, wrapped in the language of bitterness and grievance. An entitlement fantasy that is so infused with a hatred of entitlement that it can’t even be honest with itself about what it is.
So now, instead of the party messaging being responsive to the organization’s need to win over specific groups of voters, the reverse begins to happen. The messaging becomes less and less important, because what you’re really chasing is the feeling of not having to share that pie.
Nothing has to make sense around it. There doesn’t even have to be an ideology. Cities can be cesspools of violence, decay and destruction, and also somehow gilded comfort zones for weak and out-of-touch elites. It can be an affront to parental rights if you allow a teacher to call a trans kid by their chosen name, but not if you wanna hang the 12 Commandments in the hallway. It can be a party for the little guy, and also directly opposed to unions, overtime pay, and OSHA. We’ll eradicate environmental standards, and also you’ll have to cleanest air and water you’ve ever seen. I want less centralized government, a strong economy, more individual freedom, and regional leadership…and also I want an unchecked president, mass deportations, martial law, and strict enforcement of my moral code. We’re standing up to the out of touch elites and taking back the power. Anyway, here’s Elon Musk to say a few words.
Sad to say that’s also what makes it endlessly fascinating. It is an inherently childish worldview…”we will become an isolationist nation who abandons our agreements and partners and who aggressively implements harmful tariffs…and also, we will continue to enjoy all of the power, influence, and economic standing that trade and imperialism have created.” It can’t even be honest with itself about the consequences of the things it wants, because it is at its core a movement based on stubborn posturing. On feeling big. Some opportunist with access and skin in the game wooed Donald Trump and convinced him that he wanted tariffs. So he began talking about them. So the rank and file felt pressured to defend his words. So then they were backed into a corner of promoting tariffs. So then the voters determined that tariffs were brilliant,
obviously. So then right wing media “free thinkers” suddenly began to love tariffs, because people who make their money by being “free thinkers” always conveniently believe whatever their audience currently believes, right up until their audience changes their mind.
The ironic thing about people who are drawn to Trump by their hatred of “the elites” and backdealing corruption is that they’ve essentially stepped in a bear trap, and just refuse to admit it’s a bear trap. Actually, it’s a really good boot. You don’t have a boot like this one? Ha ha you fucking idiot. Of course the elites hate this boot. It’s changing things.
This has made the Democratic Party apparatus lazier too, because they’ve seen in their demographic tabulations just how many groups react negatively to Donald Trump and his messaging. Too many of them have been in politics for too long, and are too detached. They only know how to process this in terms of opportunism, and that has made them a much weaker alternative to MAGA than they could and should be.
