This isn't a post about statistics or polling or necessarily hard evidence. It's just a feeling. And Feelings, as they say, are not facts. But stay with me on this one. Just for a minute.
On January 6th we watched a wild insurrection unfold at the Capitol. Many of us had been watching both the Congressional exercise of certifying the election, possibly in tandem with the "rally" being held on the mall, near the White House. Eventually, the rally became a "march on the Capital, and then the Capital became a mob scene... but throughout, there was an air of unseriousness. Crazy outfits, flags, people who seemed unclear why they were there or what they were even doing. I'm not trying to suggest there wasn't sinister intent. Just that some of it was, well, ridiculous.
Later, of course, as we saw pictures from inside, we saw more of this. The guy with the antler horns headdress. The guys with painted faces. The frat party antics, albeit, violent out of control party antics. Yelling incoherently. Some more intent on stealing a lectern than making a statement. Pissing on statues. Or making statements like "Stop the Steal" with no real indication they knew how or who to stop.
We treat the Trumpist right as a serious threat, and obviously, some are. Some of them are, clearly, true believers, engaged with a dangerous lie fed to them by a corrupt, lying criminal enterprise, led by a failed real estate magnate desperate for attention and fame.
But some of these Trumpist folks are the guy with the antlers. And we really should ask why we're taking that just as seriously.
Lurking within the hard right is a group of folks - mainly middle aged or younger white men, some women - who really don't take any of this seriously. Who are enjoying the performative street theater of Trump rallies and the politics of the last 4 years because they like the show. They like being able to act out. And - here's a deep secret - many of them don't care if there was a steal, or whether Trump is lying or not. They probably even get that he is. But the point is... they don't care. And they think it's ridiculous that you or I do.
Liz Cheney was ousted from House leadership for challenging the Big Lie. And clearly, some wanted her out for being disloyal, for challenging the Truth of Trump, as they see it. But as Madison Cawthorn said "Na na na na, nana nana, hey hey, goodbye Liz Cheney." There was plenty of unserious, I just don't like her feedback out there as well. Liz is about as serious, and as wonky, as right wing policy gets these days (which, yes, is its own example). And part of what the party and its base are rejecting, and still replacing, is the sense of taking anything about federal government seriously.
Cawthorn... Marjorie Taylor Greene. Lauren Boebert. Josh Hawley. Ted Cruz. On both side of the Capital, the Republicans have bomb throwers and outrage machines, offering nothing, literally nothing, of substance to policy discussions. Just bullies and drama queens and fame whores looking for their latest five minutes of glory in the national news feed. The right considers Joe Rogan, a modestly successful comedian turned podcast host, who famously reiterates on a regular basis that he has no idea what he's talking about, an essential conduit for reaching a significant part of the right's voting base. Why? Because like his listeners, Rogan doesn't really get why we should be taking any of this seriously.
Or take the Fox Friends who play the merry pied pipers to this nihilist line - the Tuckers and Gutfelds and Watterses who offer up sarcasm as if it's serious analysis then say "it's just a joke" when challenged. Just today, Tucker's role as source for much of the Trump world gossip floating around current news reports and upcoming books revealed, yet again, how Fox's top star believes, essentially, in nothing except his own self absorption. Yes, what Tucker is selling, crass as it is, represents significant danger. But even he, really, doesn't quite believe that the rubes are really falling for it. But if they are... well, it pays the bills.
On the left, we frequently fret about the shrinking minority of this Trumpist base, because we take them seriously, and as a serious threat, not just to the left, but to the fundamental order and underpinnings of our representative democracy. We worry about their fealty to populists and authoritarians, frauds and liars and cheats. But the bigger problem is that along with the true believers is this group of absurd nihilists who really don't believe in anything at all. Not particularly interested in ideas, or critical thinking, prone to fall for conspiracy logic and eager to be in on the joke... it's the nihilists that we really can never reach. We will never convince them, or win them over. At best, one day they will decide something else is cool, some other online gewgaw will distract their attention, maybe one day something will matter to them... but don't get your hopes up. Conservatives have signed on to this nihilism with gleeful abandon. Because nothing matters. Because they've largely just given up.
Since the election, a lot of the fun has fallen out of this faction. Partly, that too is on Trump, since he was never really in on the joke of it all - too sensitive and too afraid of ridicule, Trump really has no sense of humor. He's not joking, and never has been. There's really much less of the "can't they take a joke" excuse making the right used to offer up when challenged on their most outrageous, out there catcalls and threats. Things are ugly, and mean, and getting meaner and uglier by the day. And without a Trump that airs on TV and major social media every day, more than a little of the entertainment of these Roman Follies is gone too. So the question remains, how long will the nihilists stay with this party if it's no fun and less popular?
My guess is that they're already slacking off - Republican identification numbers are cratering, hundreds of rioters are facing serious criminal trials, Trump is sidelined... some people don't know when the party's over, but it's sure looking like last call on some of this. Then again, when you can gin up outages over Dr. Seuss and imminent calls for veganism, when Tucker and Gutfeld and Jessie Watters still rule the roost at Fox... heck even Rogan still has his primacy. The show will go on. The nihilist appeal is, after all, eternal. Nothing matters. Life is just one sick, absurd joke. If anything, perhaps, the real point is this: majority white culture was in some ways always bound to find its way to this dead end. Smoke if you got em. You never had it so good.
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