the conservative reality
(part of) why the GOP wins
I remember a few years ago making a joke to one of my friends that american conservatives make up their own reality to get mad about or justify their actions. at the time I was making a joke about conspiracy theories, but now I understand that it goes far beyond that. for the past decade, basically the entirety of american conservatism has centered around the creation and spread of simulacra - self-referential signs with no relation to reality. I think that this adoption and mastery of a strategy built on simulacra is why they have become so successful in recent years.
of course the most blatant aspect of the strategy is what I referenced initially: conspiracy theories. this is a pure manifestation of simulacra; it's not at all covert and everybody outside of conservative circles will recognize its artifice. any joe shmoe will understand that it is all a sham. the conspiracy theories have become a natural background noise to the conservative machine, which is pretty terrible, but what’s worse it that the hyperreal sentiment has been adopted by the most mainstream conservatives and their talking points.
a good example is the conservative attack on trans people and trans rights. the trans "issue" had always lingered (obviously conservatives are anti-lgbt in all forms), but it gained serious traction after donald trump's first presidency. what was the basis of the trans attack? well... that's a great question. it's certainly not that trans people have any real influence on the daily lives of americans: they make up less than *half of a percent* of the population. and it's not even that conservatives are exposed to or interact with many transgender people, for the above reason. it's pure simulacrum: the issue doesn't refer to any reality, any experience of the american people. it was fabricated by the conservative establishment to give conservatives something to rally behind. it reminds me of a famous clip where donald trump says something to the effect of, "five years ago you wouldn't even know what the word means, transgender. you wouldn't even know what it is".
the popular transphobia of conservatives has started to seriously rot the brains of the base. a yougov poll showed that americans thought trans people made up 21% of the country. 21! among online conservatives, the word transgender has become an insult. the very idea of being transgender, completely separated from reality, a language of its own within the republican base.
another good example that was a key point during the 2024 general elections was tariffs. trump ran heavily on enacting tariffs to "compete with china". this is another hyperreal talking point: there is no reason for the united states to "compete" with china in this way. for one, the united states doesn't even manufacture anything anymore. a tariff on chinese goods won't get stores to replace chinese items with american items, because there are no american items! it just leads to people buying the same stuff but this time more expensive. the other point is that there isn't any reason to compete with china to begin with. china is just another industrial country trying to boost its economy and global influence. the united states is far and away its biggest trading partner. the battle against china is a fabricated reality, created by conservatives to get working class americans to vote for policies that will make their lives worse.
me, I've looked through many conservative issues and talking points and I come to the same kind of conclusions, and it led to a question: what do conservatives really believe in? eventually, I realized that the main thread for all conservatives is CAPITAL. of course, the dems love their fair share of capital as well and I think they are very ghoulish, but republicans are truly dedicated to the game. everywhere you look in the party, you find people who dedicate their career to getting the bag. think of tucker carlson and his band of fox pundits trash talking trump in a private group chat; congresspeople voting against one thing in session but asking for those same things for themselves or their constituents; politicians/pundits saying one thing and then walking it back when it supports the current agenda; and much more. they don’t actually believe in anything they say or ostensibly support. it’s all a farce to gain support and keep the money flowing.
really, they're a party of grifters and con men, believers in capital and hyperreality. you'll find a perfect mix of those two things in the party's current leader. donald trump is someone with intimate knowledge of capital, being a businessman with numerous properties around the nation. he's also someone with intimate knowledge of hyperreality, being a former tv personality. he knows how to capture people's attention and make a show. he understands how to make the unreal seem real, how to make a reality out of nothing. ultimately, this is why he is so successful and why I suspect he won the 2024 election. media has infiltrated the very core of american life so much that the actual real doesn't mean much to us anymore. instead of clinging onto (evidently weak) notions of reality, he played into the fantastical simulation of modern conservatism and the simulacrum-laden life of today's americans. again, this is why he has triumphed above all others: when life and politics are theater, it's better to be an actor than a lawyer.