I have been fed up with The Nation magazine over the last several years because what used to be a fearless and honest voice on the liberal side of the media spectrum has been increasingly devoted to content which just drives the click-rate above where it really should be.
That being said, I must reverse myself for a minute and point out that a new article on the issue of what MAGA really represents hits a new high for contemporary political content and deserves to be quoted and widely read.
I’m referring to an article by Chris Lehmann, who covers DC-doings for The Nation, and has published lots of commentary about various political things, but this particular piece goes into much greater depth and detail than what we usually get from Lehmann or his other liberal pundit friends.
And basically, what Lehmann has caught onto is the degree to which the whole MAGA thing was invented by Trump as a way to create a new interest that would stand somewhat apart from the traditional GOP and would be based on what Lehmann refers to as an ‘aesthetic,’ which is another way of describing the Trump brand.
But the problem with this strategy was it worked for a while because it was new, it was different, and it was totally and completely under Trump’s control.
What’s now happened, and here is where Lehmann’s insightful argument can really be felt, is that the MAGA narrative is now being put out there by a bunch of rank amateurs like Katie Britt, whose response to Joe’s State of the Union address that was “cloying and artificial” and played like a 2024 “infomercial for nothing at all.”
What made Trump unique back in 2016, and Lehmann hits this one right on the head, was not that his political ideas were so new or different, but he delivered his pitch in a new and different way. Politicians didn’t describe their opponents as ‘assholes,’ or ‘jerks,’ or ‘enemies of the people.’ But when the same insulting and nasty commentary is delivered again and again and again, at a certain point the shock value begins to fade.
And when this same messaging comes out of the mouth of someone who sounds as “cloying and artificial” as Katie Britt sounded the other night, the whole MAGA ‘aesthetic’ begins to take a dive. And just to make sure that we appreciate how far the MAGA message has deviated from the course originally set by Trump when he first joined the electoral parade, Lehmann made a point of mentioning how some of Britt’s “barking” was just so “Palinesque.”
Every morning as I’m driving to work, I’ll flip on the local AM shock jock just to hear what the day’s attack messaging is going to be. I note, by the way, that Hunter Biden is no longer a target of MAGA wrath, and even the ‘ruinous inflation’ seems to have been jettisoned in favor of something having to do with getting tough with Iran.
But the bottom line, which Chris Lehmann really understands, is that MAGA was never anything other than a way for Donald Trump to capture media attention and run up those stupid ‘truths’ every night on his website.
What Lehmann doesn’t mention is that by holding off until last week to begin his re-election campaign, Joe’s SOTU message sounded not only vigorous, but exciting and new.
Meanwhile, the MAGA message, or what Lehmann brilliantly refers to as the ‘aesthetic,’ has been around too long and is showing clear signs of “wear and tear.”
Give yourself a few minutes and read the whole thing.
Comments