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One could argue that this misapprehends the problem. Populists might only want to win the culture war, and don't give a fuck about the policy war, which is what is being conflated here. The whole point is that the Republicans are trying to fight hte culture war with policy, and not very well. Trump never had any policy, but he fought the culture war like a champ.
It doesn't just "misapprehend", it completely fails to grasp. The populists are winning.
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Perhaps. But I keep seeing reports of court cases where a reasonable ruling or dissent comes from "____, a Trump appointee".
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That’s like saying “we only care about winning the war; we don’t care about winning the war of bullets.” You can’t win the former without winning the latter.
I don't think so. Policy is part of how politics works, but the media landscape, cultural institutions, academia etc. are not really about policy at all. In short, the culture war is a bunch of stuff related to politics that isn't really politics. In the aggregate, politics is not about policy, almost no one gives a shit about policy. They care about group competition. Republicans still contest policy, but they gave up the culture war ages ago. The mainstream "conservative" voices are people like David French.
Trump was terrible at governing, never had a handle on how the place worked, and his policies were almost uniformly unsuccessful. The ones that were successful were mostly bad for his base (bump stock ban, etc.). But he was the first to fight the culture war on the national stage, without apology or dissembling. It is my thesis that this explains both the unprecedented hatred, and unprecedented support.
The left has been using culture to fight politics for a long time. Andrew Breitbart recognized this weakness ages ago, and deliberately set out to create parallel cultural institutions to engage in that fight. His project has slowly come on line, although he's been gone a while. It is now being co-opted by the reigning conservative money groups. But any fight needs a figurehead to go out and duke it out in the media, on Twitter, in court etc. And because the Republicans wouldn't do it, finally a shady real-estate grifter and reality TV show host took up the mantle.
I’m not suggesting doing only policy. That is pointless. But you can’t eschew policy either.
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The "fought" here does a lot of work. If you understand it as "engaged", then yes, he engaged a lot. If you understand it as "won", then no, we aren't tired of winning the culture war, in fact we're not even close to it, and Trump didn't do much to stop the victorious march of wokeness through the social institutions. All the feeble attempts he made were instantaneously reversed once he was gone, except maybe for the SCOTUS which has and will deliver some important wins, but even there it's not assured, and also SCOTUS can't rule the country or the culture, it's not its function. So I am not sure he really deserves the title of "champ" here.
It's not hard to be the best when there is zero competition. The Republican party is almost entirely estranged from its base.
True enough but Trump is not really helping this, viciously attacking people in his own party when they try to become his competition, and often even when they don't but he feels (justifiably or not) slighted by them. This helps his personal brand, but doesn't help neither the GOP nor the base which needs things done, not an idol to worship. Well, to be honest, some do need an idol to worship, but it's not healthy and not helpful to them. Ultimately, they want the win (or at least a win) in the culture war, not a tragic hero that whines on Truth Social about how everybody prevents him from achieving true greatness.
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