Frank's Musings

MAGA Voters won’t listen to reasonable arguments in the abstract. They feel that Trump shows them how to succeed by disobeying the establishment’s rules.  Ramaswamy and Haley missed this point in the primaries.  They proudly restated Trump’s tirades in rational terms; but their arguments fell on angry ears that are deaf to what is  viewed as pusillanimity.  Unfortunately, Harris didn’t take up the banner in the general election, either.

The MAGA movement is not based primarily on policy differences. It is a paroxysm of resentment at being left behind.  Its members can be weaned away from a demagogue only by believable promises of improvement in their economic well-being and in their living ease.

This is where the Democrats must focus to weaken the reliability of the MAGA base for Republicans. Defeating that electoral juggernaut means instilling a sense of being valued by the program of the “establishment” to create safety-net incentives and encourage risk-taking and determined effort by ordinary citizens in their career, budgeting, and investment decisions. That should have been  the centerpiece of the 2024 Democratic platform.  Instead, the Harris/Walz campaign only targeted the minority slice of the public that are critical thinkers, who are equally concerned about  the general welfare as well as  individuals’ well-being.  That portion of the population is often accused of ignoring the concerns that really matter to most people.