Jamie Raskin, Democratic representative from Maryland gave a town hall speech in a conservative pro-Republican pro-MAGA district on Long Island a few nights ago. He was doing it in order to take advantage of the fact that many Republican Representatives have been afraid to come out themselves to town hall meetings, because they would have to incur the wrath of their constituents as a result of their association with Trump’s economic policies. Raskin proclaimed to his audience that they were being ruled by a bunch of morons in Washington. That was a very dramatic statement for Raskin to make if only that he was indirectly implicating all the MAGA supporters whose votes put Trump in office in the first place. The moronic behavior did not stop with Trump; it was and is pervasive among all his supporters including probably most of the members of the town hall meeting that Raskin was presiding over.
In a previous article, I pointed out the connection between dumbness of humans in modern technological society, a state of being that is accelerating as life becomes increasingly frictionless as a result of the proliferation of devices to make everyday life easier. The more frictionless that everyday life processes become in today’s world, the less people feel connected to anything in it. When people feel disconnected from everything in the world, that is when they feel seriously numb. And when people feel disconnected from everything, it becomes hard for them to mentally bond with anything to mentally grasp anything. In other words, to really know anything. And that is when they recur to an abrasive, turbulent, unpredictable cult leader like Trump in order to pull out of their In other words, it is not as if MAGAism is going to simply disappear at the end of Trump’s second term or if something should happen to him before his second term is over. And when Jamie Raskin vents about how he and the members of his town hall audience were being ruled by a bunch of morons in Washington, it’s not like there is an easy solution in terms of getting rid of these morons. Sure, the Democrats can become the dominant party again in the mid-terms at least in the House of Representatives. And maybe they can gain the Presidency and the Senate again in four years. But I do believe it is going to be quite some time before the MAGA people are erased as a significant influence in American politics. They will continue to be at least the loyal opposition for quite some time. And this is because the strength of the MAGA people doesn’t have anything to do with the attractiveness of their particular political positions (which are frequently shifting anyway). It has to do with the shock value that they generate.
And how disruptive they are to people’s daily lives. And as long as people today continue to sink deeper and deeper into the experiential vacuum, they will continue to feel drawn to the chaos and the instability present in a MAGA style people grouping. Nothing like a little entropic disintegration (the process that occurs to something in a vacuum) to frighten people out of their numbness.
And for those of us who want to fight off the threats of numbness without joining a cult, where are we to turn for help? One possible way may be to generate a source of organic stimuli within a person’s mind. This notion goes against everything I have been writing about up until now. It assumes that it is possible for a person to feel fully alive and to fully function and perhaps to not become a moron in spite of lacking a serious source of organic grounding in the external world. A major consideration is that even assuming that it was feasible, would there be negative side effects to developing a source of organic stimulation that would make external bonds unnecessary.
For one thing, an extremely intense source of organic stimulation would probably be required in order to survive while surrounded by an experiential vacuum. So, would such a strong source turn a person into an animal or a savage? A creature who lacks a defined sense of self and is ruled by his passions. As opposed to a modern cult member who lacks a defined sense of self, lives in numbness, and is ruled by his cult leader. Like Trump.
Oh well. One can speculate until the cows come home. The Jamie Raskins of the U.S. government have a difficult task ahead of them.
Hopefully, the Democrats can win control of the House of Representatives in 2026, the Senate and the Presidency in 2030, and then keep winning elections until the MAGA threat magically evaporates. One can only dream.
© 2025 Laurence Mesirow
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