Yet ironically as he is attacking marginalized groups he also makes his supporters feel like one and worthy of the same sympathy that they see blacks getting.
Yes. That’s not ‘ironic’ - it’s the point.
Like with a lot of fascism they kinda want to have it both ways.
No. They don’t want it ‘both ways’. They see themselves as the victims. They see those who they want to victimize as the enemy responsible for their victimhood. That’s just one way.
Though from what I’ve seen Trump himself isn’t actually all that relevant
Let’s test that. Remove Trump.
Others have tried to replace Trump, or to ‘out Trump’ him and become the head of the GOP. But even though incredibly powerful party members like Mitch McConnell have been COMPLETELY honest about what kind of complete and utter asshole Trump is, and how unsuitable they are for any kind of political leadership, Trump still has won the GOP and owns it completely. If Trump doesn’t like someone, they’re gone. He can’t MAKE someone successful in the party, but he can completely ruin them if he doesn’t like them. Even McConnell has only been able to cling to his position because he’s such a tick and has been buried into the system for so long. But just imagine the kind of shit McConnell would have gotten up to if Trump didn’t hate him and had actually supported him.
No one else has been able to be the lightning rod for the GOP, the core of this hate-motivated third party that rose up and ate all the other allied sub-parties that used to make up Republicans in the USA. Just look at Vance - even when someone toes the line as hard as they can, but they aren’t Trump. The second Trump is gone, Vance will be moldy and extremely weird used up bacon. He has already thrown away every thing his entire career was built on, and Vance still can’t do what Trump is doing.
So. I think Trump is relevant.
Cause people can pick out the parts they like and just project onto him the rest.
Yes. That was the lesson he learned from Sarah Louise Palin.
Just watch HIM watch HER talking - you can see him practicing how to do what she did. That Sarah Palin ‘so close to sane but then not quite’ and never actually say anything that anyone can blame you for or stick on you as an actual fact.
Before Palin, Trump tried to make sense. Afterwards, he realized how to do what she was doing, but better. Meaner. More inciting. But never actually saying anything that anyone could point to as an actual statement or opinion.
Trump isn’t stupid. He may be addled and demented, but he didn’t get where he is by being stupid. he’s very smart, and you can literally watch him stealing what others are doing - kind of like Rogue - all he has to do is see someone use their mutant powers, and he is able to do it himself.
I have hard several MAGA folk urging for what is in all reality a communist revolution.
I think you mean ‘Authoritarianism’.
It’s why Evangelicals think he’s more religious than anyone else.
I don’t believe Evangelicals think he’s religious at all. I think they believe he is just a tool to achieve their goals. He’s an “instrument of God’s will” who faces persecution by his foes. He is “the anointing” to mark where “God’s presence will come down to Earth”. He’s the enormous overpriced boat you have to buy to prove your love to Christ so that you can finally permit Christ into your bank account and save you from foreclosure because Christ loves you and you have let him into your life by finally proving your faith through correct purchases and overextending yourself.
He’s a part of the Divine Plan. But more like a “modern-day Cyrus” who was used by God to fulfill divine purpose without actually being a believer. Trump, in this twisted Evangelical construct, is an ‘instrument of God’s will’.
But that doesn’t make Trump “good”. “God uses flawed individuals to accomplish His plans”. Trump is just a catalyst. And the Evil that Evangelicals trust Trump to ‘fix’ are all about social and cultural things that Evangelicals think Christians should be in control of.
That’s about social and cultural control and authoritarianism, not communism.