So Much Winning

 Every once in a while, I come across an axiom that really explains certain aspects of our world. I by no means believe that there is one rule that will unlock perfect understanding, but axioms like "The cruelty is the point" or "every accusation is a confession" do really explain aspects of the modern American "conservative" movement.

I've increasingly centered my thinking on this issue around the concept of "winning."

When I hear "normie" Republicans talk about politics, I'm increasingly struck by how devoid of actual policy substance they are. I disagree with much, if not all, of Reagan's policies, but he was advancing a policy agenda. The desiccated corpse of Reaganism is still propped up in the corner of the GOP conference room, but so much of Trump and Trumpism is post-policy that - famously - the GOP didn't even bother to write a platform in 2020. The current House majority is pursuing an incoherent and profoundly unpopular set of disparate policies that seem less a governing agenda than and series of blogposts at Breitbart.

 There's a brutal cynicism in GOP politics today. Leaving aside the members of Cult 45, the average Republican seems "OK" with Trump...as long as Trump was winning. Trump's currently vulnerability when it comes to 2024 is that he lost in 2020. This is why denying that he lost goes beyond the narcissistic wound. It's not just the ego damage, it's that "winning" was his brand. 

How could evangelicals support Trump? He's twice divorced; he's likely never been to a church that wasn't a photo op; he couldn't cite scripture with a gun to his head. However, when he won* in 2016, that was enough. He was a "winner" and winning was all that mattered.

Since 1988, Republicans have won only one popular vote for president, and that was an incumbent president in a time of war. They are losing the culture war (in many cases they have already lost) among the population at large. Certain anti-democratic aspects of American politics allows them more power than they should probably have, but ultimately, they are starved for victories. Trump gave them on. Hell, George Santos gave them one.

I'm teaching Russia right now, and we just read an argument that the Russian state is "incoherent." Russian politics is non-ideological, in the sense that it does not address issues of freedom and equality - simply what is best for the state. The overlap between Putin and the American Right is at least partly based on this movement beyond a politics that might improve the material life of their citizenry. The descent into ethnonationalism is a politics beyond policy, beyond ideologies of freedom and equality. 

It's cynical and corrosive and probably a bigger threat than actual fascism in this country.