I've been reflecting on this excellent piece - and I think one thing that really weirdly advantaged Trump in 2020 was his relative silence. He didn't talk much about the pandemic at all, and that white space was filled by progressives, scientists, and activists - democrats and the left "owning" the pandemic and 2020. Thus Biden and progressives being seen as responsible for what people didn't like about 2020-2021. The American people can be simplistic and assign the most responsibility to whoever talks the most. More broadly - there was a lot of this in Trump's first term - he didn't really say much of substance and let others do the governing. This created lots of voids where career bureaucrats, state governments, pundits stepped in, and got held responsible - all while Trump stood on the sidelines as a constant outsider, complainer, and agitator, fighting back agains the deep state and mainstream.
As you astutely noted in this piece - Trump is now the establishment. He's going to be held responsible for everything. He's not ready for that at all, and he is incorrect in believing he'll still be seen as an outsider counterculture force. Nope, he's the establishment now, and he's not ready for how much everyone is gonna hate him for it.
As one of the people who pushed back on your characterization of MAGA as the cool kids I wanted to link to an article Ross Barkan just published where he describes MAGA as the the quintessential "uncool" Outer Boroughs political movement while the Democrats are the "cool" kids from Manhattan.
Barkan cites movies that take place in the Outer Boroughs such as Saturday Night Fever and Working Girl to discuss the differences between Manhattan and the 4 other boroughs. I also commented that Other People's Money is another triangulating between Manhattan, the Bronx, and rural working class New England mill towns(the later two basically being described in movie as the same). When the main character played by Danny DeVito arrives in the fictional New England mill town he says out loud he hasn't seen a place this classy since he left the Bronx. Anyways I think Barkan's article is worth a read with an observation that the main female characters in all three movies at the end of the day have an absolute disdain for downwardly mobile working class males(especially so in the theatrical version of Other People's Money)
**I don't know of any women from working class backgrounds in the outer boroughs(probably because I never lived there) who went "Manhattan" but I know of multiple ones from Upstate NY and New England who went to "Manhattan" and can see this from real life experience miles away.
"In the Democratic Party, Trump sees Manhattan. His followers see Manhattan, too. They exult because they have won, but they lack all patrician grace, or the self-assuredness a technocratic, managerial party might bring to bear in victory. They are ruddy and angry and anxious. They know, when their thoughts go quiet and the TV’s turned down low, this is it—this is the zenith. Second term presidents get unpopular. Majorities slip away. Opponents wise up. An outer borough will not just become an inner borough."
I've been reflecting on this excellent piece - and I think one thing that really weirdly advantaged Trump in 2020 was his relative silence. He didn't talk much about the pandemic at all, and that white space was filled by progressives, scientists, and activists - democrats and the left "owning" the pandemic and 2020. Thus Biden and progressives being seen as responsible for what people didn't like about 2020-2021. The American people can be simplistic and assign the most responsibility to whoever talks the most. More broadly - there was a lot of this in Trump's first term - he didn't really say much of substance and let others do the governing. This created lots of voids where career bureaucrats, state governments, pundits stepped in, and got held responsible - all while Trump stood on the sidelines as a constant outsider, complainer, and agitator, fighting back agains the deep state and mainstream.
As you astutely noted in this piece - Trump is now the establishment. He's going to be held responsible for everything. He's not ready for that at all, and he is incorrect in believing he'll still be seen as an outsider counterculture force. Nope, he's the establishment now, and he's not ready for how much everyone is gonna hate him for it.
As one of the people who pushed back on your characterization of MAGA as the cool kids I wanted to link to an article Ross Barkan just published where he describes MAGA as the the quintessential "uncool" Outer Boroughs political movement while the Democrats are the "cool" kids from Manhattan.
https://rosselliotbarkan.com/p/the-outer-borough-mind
Barkan cites movies that take place in the Outer Boroughs such as Saturday Night Fever and Working Girl to discuss the differences between Manhattan and the 4 other boroughs. I also commented that Other People's Money is another triangulating between Manhattan, the Bronx, and rural working class New England mill towns(the later two basically being described in movie as the same). When the main character played by Danny DeVito arrives in the fictional New England mill town he says out loud he hasn't seen a place this classy since he left the Bronx. Anyways I think Barkan's article is worth a read with an observation that the main female characters in all three movies at the end of the day have an absolute disdain for downwardly mobile working class males(especially so in the theatrical version of Other People's Money)
**I don't know of any women from working class backgrounds in the outer boroughs(probably because I never lived there) who went "Manhattan" but I know of multiple ones from Upstate NY and New England who went to "Manhattan" and can see this from real life experience miles away.
"In the Democratic Party, Trump sees Manhattan. His followers see Manhattan, too. They exult because they have won, but they lack all patrician grace, or the self-assuredness a technocratic, managerial party might bring to bear in victory. They are ruddy and angry and anxious. They know, when their thoughts go quiet and the TV’s turned down low, this is it—this is the zenith. Second term presidents get unpopular. Majorities slip away. Opponents wise up. An outer borough will not just become an inner borough."