So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
Study authors from More in Common report the results of focus groups and interviews of 10,000 people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024. Beyond MAGA finds that Trump voters fall into four broad categories (The Atlantic gift link):
About 29 percent of 2024 Trump voters are what we call the “MAGA Hardliners.” These are the fiery core of Trump’s base, mostly composed of white Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, who are animated by the belief that God is on their side in America’s existential struggle between good and evil. Then there are the “Anti-Woke Conservatives”(21 percent): a more secular and affluent group of voters deeply frustrated by what they perceive as the takeover of schools, culture, and institutions by the progressive left. Another 30 percent are the “Mainline Republicans”: a more racially diverse group of middle-of-the-road conservatives who prioritize border security, a strong economy, and cultural stability. Finally, we have the “Reluctant Right”(20 percent). Members of this group, unlike the other three, are not necessarily part of Trump’s base; they voted for him, but have ambivalent feelings toward him. Only half identify as Republicans, and many picked Trump because he seemed “less bad” than the alternative.
(It’s that last 20 percent that I’m focused on. But that’s another story.)
The first three are sticking with their man-child no matter what. It’s not about coherent ideology, and certainly not about consistency. Trump knows where to stroke them. He fills several roles for them based on the glasses through which they view him.
First, 58 percent see him they seem him as “a builder trying to fix a broken system” even though to the left he seems to be demolishing it. His second role is as redeemer of the status they believe they’ve lost. “Most Trump voters in our study believe that America’s cultural institutions have been dominated by those who scorn their values and way of life.” Also, “Seventy-six percent agree that ‘The woke left has ruined American education, news, and entertainment.’” Is it because when they view music and media they no longer see themselves at the center of American culture? Why couldn’t those people have just stuck with sports?
For those who revel in transgression, Trump is a “blasphemer,” “a gigantic orange flashing middle finger” to those they feel have done them wrong. The authors explain, “About 90 percent of MAGA Hardliners and Anti-Woke Conservatives agree that the ‘left actually hates America.’ This generates a desire not just for redemption but also for retribution.” One wonders if their sense that the left hates America is projection. Isn’t it really that they hate how America has changed since the 1960s, America the diverse?
And lastly, he is a “grand narrator” and the hero of his own story. This role is “understood only in the context of a decades-long collapse of trust in American institutions including Congress, the press, academia, and the scientific establishment.”
But it’s Trump’s performing skills that make it all work:
Trump’s political skills were forged in WWE arenas, on reality-TV sets, and in the luxury real-estate business—industries that live and die by their ability to capture attention, simplify narratives, and deliver emotional impact. These experiences taught him how to establish emotional bonds with audiences that far outweigh any connection based on shared ideology.
Trump’s detractors may dismiss these bonds as empty or irrelevant. But for the people who experience them, they are very real. The relationship Trump has established with tens of millions of Americans offers them something they cannot attain through conventional politics. In his various roles, he embodies the reality that they want. This is the source of his power.
For a taste of the reality they really, really want, ask Rep. Max Frost (D) of Florida.
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want