When the best party in town is a cult

Back when, for a season (mid-1990s), it was my task to lead an emerging group of mostly young people in combating California's racist ballot initiatives, I often insisted that a part of project had to be to ensure we were "the best party in town." 

It was tough work; the majority just wasn't there for the anti-racist California we're still inexorably becoming thirty years on. And we were committed to being mostly honest with the people we drew into the struggle: we were unlikely to win right away. So emphasizing the role of joy in struggling together for a distant aim was all the more important.

This is what movement energy should look like. Happy faces at the March for Science in the spring of 2017.

Movements that include joy alongside discipline and ferocious dedication are powerful.

So from that background, I was struck by David French's explication [gift article] of what's with fanatic Trump fans. Their attachment to this loathsome man seems so inexplicable. French explains: for his fans, he's fun.

... their own joy and camaraderie insulate them against external critiques that focus on their anger and cruelty. Such charges ring hollow to Trump supporters, who can see firsthand the internal friendliness and good cheer that they experience when they get together with one another. They don’t feel angry — at least not most of the time. They are good, likable people who’ve just been provoked by a distant and alien “left” that many of them have never meaningfully encountered firsthand.

... Indeed, while countless gallons of ink have been spilled analyzing the MAGA movement’s rage, far too little has been spilled discussing its joy.... For them, the MAGA community is kind and welcoming. For them, supporting Trump is fun. ,,,

Perhaps it is not surprising to find an observer and historian of religion offering an insightful description of the Trump cult. It functions like a religion in an a-religious environment. Diana Butler Bass writes The Cottage.

If the last two decades have taught anything, they’ve revealed that politics isn’t about intellectual assent. It, like every other form of congregating, has become an expression of identity and a quest toward a more authentic self (as well as public performance)...

... In the United States, Trump supporters — “MAGA” — don’t act like a traditional political party. They had no platform for the 2020 election. They behave in ways that seem counter-productive to recruiting new adherents or forging political compromises. Indeed, some critics refer to them as a “cult,” a moniker that might be the closest to reality.

MAGA is an identity. It was birthed in a decades-long crisis of legitimacy and strengthened through institutional failures (especially in the Great Recession and its aftermath). Certain like-minded Americans discovered that others had the same grievances about work, class, status, and race. They clustered together and found common enemies — and eventually forged a new vision of what it meant to be American and a new hero (Donald Trump) to embody their political dreams. Theirs is not a political party based on a set of ideas. It is a community borne out of frustration with social change and a certain kind of malformed nostalgia. They don’t vote for a political party. They formed a community and follow a leader (the reverse is possible as well — following a particular leader forms them into a new identity found in community).

So how to detach a huge fraction of white America from the satisfactions of the Trump cult? They are by no means a majority, and the weight of their numbers is declining, but there are a lot of them. 

I think the Biden administration has this right. The first prerequisite would seem to be a decade or so of secure, rising living standards. In the context of domestic conflict and climate disruptions, that's a tough order, but probably essential. This is the aim of Bidenomics. So far so good.

The other portion of the remedy is probably spiritual. Can a large majority of the people of this country unite around any kind of inspiring vision? The vision I cherish -- the hope of a multi-racial, gender-exploring, safe, equitable, and sustainable community -- merely looks like hell to too many MAGAs. But there seems to be no humane alternative to making something like it work. I still hope to be part of the best party in town.