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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 19, 2022

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The alt-right, with its emphasis on race and replacement, is fringe and represents a small fraction of Republicans.

The anti-Trump "moderate" Republicans poll poorly in primaries, and Trump's approval rating remains sky high among Republicans.

What do the above two assertions say?

They say two things.

  1. Trump is not alt-right, never was.

  2. There is a massive swath of Trump-loving voters who are off the radar of the media by being neither fashy-racist nor anti-Trump "moderates".

[Jerry Seinfeld voice] Who are these people?

I'll tell you who they are. They are the Rush Limbaugh crowd. Or wherever they are now. I grew up with them, they are my people. I listened to Rush in his final year, and listened to his callers, and the vibe of his following (which was massive) was the same as I remember it. On median: They are hardcore Trump supporters. Yet they find the emphasis on race of both the left and the fringe right distasteful. In fact they itch for national unity and an end to civil strife and they saw in Trump the best hope for unity. The whole idea of Trump being divisive they saw as media propaganda, e.g. to them Trump's stance against illegal immigration is in fact about illegal immigration and not secretly about "brown people". In their eyes Trump had the back of anybody with a Social Security card. They think Hitler was, in fact, evil af and love to relate their parents' or grandparents' stories about kicking his ass.

They have an essentially Reaganite attitude toward American politics. They see taxation as fundamentally a seizure of the productive elements of society and while they see it necessary they think it should always be done with great solemnity and respect for the taxed, whose sweat fuels all government projects. They saw Trump as the obvious candidate for anybody into Reaganite politics and are beyond infuriated that the left's propaganda painted them as Hitlerian for wanting the obvious best candidate for policy positions that had nothing to do with race.

Etc etc.

I don't know where this crowd is at now. But if anybody deserves to be called "silent majority" (if only among Republicans) it's them. Not that they were silent on Rush's show, "ignored" may be a better term for them, ignored by media and its focus on the battle between crazy fascist racists and the nice wholesome Cheney family.

I really think there's a massive, massive amount of these people and yet I don't hear these particular opinions being expressed basically anywhere.

I don’t know where this crowd is at now.

We’re working our 40 hr/wk jobs, or doing whatever has taken up our schedules since retirement, and coming home tired to watch Fox News not talk about the election fraud Dinesh discovered. We’re listening to podcasts by Jack Posobiec and Charlie Kirk and wishing we were young enough to be in TPUSA. We’re sending 5-year-old memes to our families on Facebook, never noticing they’re not promoted outside five or ten people. And between all that, we’re trying to avoid being called racist to our faces for holding the same pro-American colorblind ideals we have since The Cosby Show became our favorite sitcom in the 80’s.

I say “we” because I got my start in politics watching the short-lived Rush Limbaugh TV show with my dad before high school. I still consider myself a Rush/Reagan Republican, a libertarian in all but party affiliation. My parents are described above too.

Thank you for the post. I feel seen.

EDIT: another poster has given a more left-friendly explanation for “where this crowd is at now”: quietly coexisting with their liberal friends, and “hiding their power-level” as 4chan would say.