If it wasn’t already clear, the anti-Trump right’s resistance to economic and cultural populism embraced by the MAGA movement is predicated almost entirely upon an aesthetic revulsion toward a people whom they consider inferior and inconvenient.
A few days ago, a short video of a pair of late-middle-aged white Americans dancing alongside a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump with moonshine went viral on Twitter after being shared by an account named “Republicans against Trump.”
“Live shot from Magadonia,” the caption reads.
In a large, unkempt outdoor space, trucks, American flags, and piles of yard waste are in clear sight. The couple bobs and jives to a recording of “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” from the Coen Brothers’ “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” What looks to be a medical mobility device appears partially on screen as the woman in her daytime pajamas works her way across the video’s threshold, and the pair’s dog is preoccupied with something it seems to have found on the ground.
The couple is energetic; they’re undeniably excited. We don’t know why, but they’re clearly having a good time. The generally clean cutout of Donald Trump stands in stark contrast to the couple’s rugged appearance and the thick puddles of mud on the ground.
It’s apparent that “Republicans against Trump” — which call themselves “pro-democracy conservative[] Republicans fighting Trump & Trumpism” and use their platform to repeat the same braindead, reheated talking points about democracy and decency in an attempt to restore Bush-era establishment norms — shared this video solely for the sake of belittling their countrymen for enthusiastically supporting the 45th president.
But why? Under Donald Trump, Americans were happier, richer, and safer abroad. Under Trump, the U.S. attained full employment, conservative judges flooded the judicial branch, and the country attained energy independence. These are just a few of the Trump administration’s successes; no conservative, let alone any Republican, can deny them in good faith.
So why do the ostensible establishment Republicans appear to genuinely despise those who continue to celebrate Trump?
In a 2010 essay for The American Spectator titled “The Ruling Class,” the late Angelo Codevilla argued that entrenched political interests are so insulated and detached from the rest of the country, the people they purport to serve, that they develop a sense of holier-than-thou resentment.
“Republican and Democratic office holders and their retinues show a similar presumption to dominate and fewer differences in tastes, habits, opinions, and sources of income among one another than between both and the rest of the country,” Codevilla said. “They think, look, and act as a class.” This paradigm obviously extends beyond the political and applies to business, finance, and culture as well.
And this is where Trump thrives because, beyond the policy, he is a cultural figure who, despite being part of America’s elite circles, sided with the people and agreed with them that they were being screwed by tyrants in benefactors’ clothing.
Sure, they hate Trump, but they really hate you. They hate you so much they’ll ridicule the clothes on your back, the teeth in your mouth, and the way you pronounce your words; but don’t you dare disrespect the Democrats or disregard the norms that led us to a state of cultural freefall and decay.
Campaigning on a message of “hope” and “change” in the wake of the Great Recession and the Iraq War, among other things, Barack Obama was able to turn an extraordinarily pessimistic cultural and political environment into one of hopeful optimism. He failed to capitalize upon this and subsequently became an incredibly divisive and toxic individual who turned Americans against one another for his own political gain while the nation continued to circle the drain. But he was initially able to amass immense loyalty because he inspired hope.
Trump entered the political arena with nothing to gain and everything to lose and was verifiably able to change the country for the better. In doing so, in temporarily reversing the decay, he gave millions of Americans hope. He still does.
The Republican and Democrat parties, Big Business, entertainment conglomerates, et al. convinced the American people the country’s best days were behind them. Trump convinced them to step into the arena and keep fighting.
But when cynical elitists see common people expressing a love of country grounded in something other than a love of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, they recoil in disgust because they know their grip on power is not absolute.
Samuel Mangold-Lenett is a staff editor at The Federalist. His writing has been featured in the Daily Wire, Townhall, The American Spectator, and other outlets. He is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @smlenett.
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