Yet such fantasies are now the common currency of politics on the American right. Remember the days when pundits solemnly declared that Trumpism was caused by economic anxiety? Well, despite a booming economy, there’s still plenty of justified anxiety out there, reflecting many people’s real struggles: America is still a nation riddled with inequality, insecurity and injustice. But the anxiety driving MAGA isn’t driven by reality. It is, instead, driven by dystopian visions unrelated to real experience.
That is, at this point, Republican political strategy depends largely on frightening voters who are personally doing relatively well not just according to official statistics but also by their own accounts, by telling them that terrible things are happening to other people.
I wish I was robbing banks, but that is not the point.
In this scenario, everybody is speeding. It is no lesser to scare people that migrants will take their jobs in order to be in power than it is that abortion will be illegal everywhere in order to be in power.
I understand that Republicans are clearly more directly tyranny, but there is no less tyranny in pretending to care for vulnerable groups in order to hold complete power to pretend to defend them by inslaving all identity groups equally.