Following up tristero’s post below about Marjorie Taylor Green reminded me of this piece by J.V. Last at the Bulwark. I think he’s right. Republicans are no longer engaged in governance and policy. They are engaged in marketing and branding. And that’s all they are doing.
The whole article is well worth reading but here’s an excerpt:
The unifying principle that binds Red Bull and Elon Musk is attention economics: The idea that in a world moving toward post-scarcity,1 the attention of human beings becomes increasingly valuable.
And not just “valuable,” but in extreme cases, much more valuable than goods and services. For instance:
In 2020, Tesla delivered 499,550 cars. Tesla’s market cap is currently $661.57 billion. Let’s compare that with the Big Four’s numbers for 2020:
So, you know, you could revolutionize supply chain logistics and vehicle reliability. Then you could make several million cars and trade them to consumers for money.
Or you could have a memelord as your CEO. They’re equally valid business plans.
Which brings us to Matthew Louis Gaetz II.
A lot of people have goofed on Matt Gaetz for this statement: “If you aren’t making news, you aren’t governing.”
But he’s right. Or at least, right in his conclusion that Republican party politics now behave according to attention economics.
Does it matter to his future political prospects that Matt Gaetz doesn’t advance legislation? Does it matter that Madison Cawthorn staffed up his office with comms people? Does it matter that Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t have committee assignments?
Well, these quirks would matter in a system where legislative accomplishments influenced voter behavior. But the preponderance of evidence suggests that Republican voters don’t care about tangible government outcomes.
They don’t care whether or not a border wall is built, or who would have (theoretically) paid for it. They don’t care about whether or not the government fails to manage a global pandemic, killing hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens. They don’t care if unemployment is up—or down. They don’t care about stimulus checks. Or the national debt.
It’s a little bit like—check that—it’s exactly like Red Bull.
Consumers don’t care who makes Red Bull. They don’t even care what’s in the can that says “Red Bull.” What they care about is the amazing content on the Red Bull YouTube channel.
This is post-scarcity politics. Republican voters—a group distinct from Conservatism Inc.—no longer have any concrete outcomes that they want from government.
What they have, instead, is a lifestyle brand.
And if you want to move up the ladder within a brand network, you don’t do it by governing or making policy.
You do it by getting attention.
Donald Trump was the first figure to understand that this was where Republican voters had moved. Once you view Republican politics as an attention economy, everything about Trump’s rise and domination makes sense.
And it explains Matt Gaetz, too.
His current—I’m not sure what we’re supposed to call this, maybe “predicament”?—isn’t a threat. It’s the best thing that could possibly have happened to him. Gaetz gets to fill the attention vacuum left by Trump’s exile. He gets to posture and preen. Everyone talks about him and the fact that Democrats hate him only makes him more attractive to Republican voters.
This “scandal” has leveled up Matt Gaetz and made him a contender for any office he so desires (so long as he doesn’t actually go to jail) because the attention he has from Republican voters is incredibly valuable—and can be leveraged into power. No part of the Republican voting coalition will consider any of this as a mark against him.
I think this is an important insight. It explains the behavior of all the politicians who now sound more like twitter trolls than serious politicians. They don’t even try to engage in anything of substance. It explains Tucker Carlson’s recent descent into madness as well.