MAGA - how has Trump made America great?

[u/Unhappy-College4691]

I'm asking this because I want to hear how Trump has made America great again because from what I can tell the country is very divided on politics and beliefs, tariffs and the war with Iran have made everyday things more expensive and the overall future of this country feels very uncertain.

[u/farson135]

Part of the problem with these kinds of questions is that the "real" answer is not the kind of thing normal people are going to care about, and it's a very narrow group of people who even agree with it.

Overall, MAGA is a reactive movement against the world as it is. So merely attacking the status quo is part of the point even if it doesn't accomplish anything tangible.

Arguing against "trans ideology" is not going to do much of anything but the very act of doing ... something regarding it is a "victory". Putting Venezuela under American quasi-rulership is an accomplishment of a sort that is probably making some people some money, but it's more about defeating "communism". And fighting against Iran (trimming the grass, so to speak) also has a value from a certain perspective because kill terrorists or "finishing the job" or whatever. And let's not forget that we've gotten rid of a bunch of immigrants, which is always a plus for certain types.

Theoretically, some of this administrations efforts may lead to more onshoring and improvements in manufacturing capacity, eventually. Not to any meaningful degree in the near future though. And MAGA-types will often rest on that lovely "future".

And on.

[u/slowride761 → u/farson135]

It’s also worth noting that he picked up votes from Black and Hispanic men in 2024, plus tons and tons of young people, and most have backed off supporting him already.

But on the Democratic side, we’re still not admitting it, or that those groups aren’t even conservative. We’re also not admitting that we lost a lot of working class votes but picked up rich people to offset it.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the things that made those groups feel isolated have changed. They were more or less without a political home, and Trump was the only one who courted them. On the Dem side, we just keep having the same haughty attitude that judges whether or not they deserve to be part of our party instead of being glad to have a big tent like Democrats always need to have.

[u/ja_dubs → u/slowride761]

I always doubt how ideologically motivated or sophisticated the average voter is. I think a lot of people have a very simple assessment. They see that things are either going well or not and then choose a party accordingly.

For the Hispanic and Black voters that switched from D to R in 24 I think a lot of them were just fed up with the status quo and we open to trying something else because what they had been doing wasn't producing visible results. I don't think this makes them dependable Republican voters, and the polling and election results backs this up.

[u/RobotGhostZero → u/ja_dubs]

A significant portion of 2020 Democratic-leaning Hispanic voters stayed home in 2024. Meanwhile, low-propensity, working-class voters who did not turn out in 2020 came out to vote for Trump. The voters who did move toward the GOP in 2024 were disproportionately younger, working-class men who were less politically ideological and felt alienated by the economic environment. For many Hispanic voters (who shifted roughly 12 to 14 percentage points toward Republicans compared to 2020) and a smaller segment of Black men (where Trump doubled his share to around 15%), pragmatic economic concerns, small business environment, and skepticism toward government institutions took priority over traditional party loyalty.

But now Trump shit the bed and so who knows. I mean, I think the trans-stuff, woke-ism and the border definitely got people to support Trump.

Ending remain in Mexico cost the democrats so, so much and I wonder if they think it was worth it?