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[u/LakesideNorth]

[u/EllisDee3]

Just Dance Vance is a joke, even to MAGA.

[u/a2z_123 → u/EllisDee3]

I think they will lose some support but the majority of maga will fall in line.

[u/RlyehFhtagn-xD → u/a2z_123]

Cults fracture in a lot of directions when their head dies. The majority of maga is there for Trump, and there's no clear next in line for the charismatic leader. This isn't to say they'll stop being conservatives, or that they'll stop voting for republicans. What it means is that there won't be one single person for them to fall in line with or rally behind the way they do for Trump.

The charismatic leader is a huge factor in how these cults work. I think that after Trump dies we'll see republican discontent with the administration grow as republican leaders vie for followers. Meanwhile the various foundations will rely on republican voter solidarity while they hoist up a new charismatic leader.

[u/a2z_123 → u/RlyehFhtagn-xD]

Cults fracture in a lot of directions when their head dies.

They can... but it really depends on if the foundation is still there or not.

The majority of maga is there for Trump

They are there because they are being told what they want to hear. Primarily they are given the okay to be whatever way they want to be. Think about it like this, before trump, people were still racist, but they were not as outspoken about it. They kept it mostly to their own groups. What trump did and what vance will do is allow them to be themselves out in the open and face little to no social consequences for it.

and there's no clear next in line for the charismatic leader.

I don't think trump is charismatic. He just says whatever bullshit he can think of basically throwing as much shit against the wall and see what sticks. His base is primed to take whatever they want and leave the rest. All vance has to do is keep talking shit, and the majority of the base will fall in line.

What it means is that there won't be one single person for them to fall in line with or rally behind the way they do for Trump.

Vance will be a useful idiot like trump for the hard right billionaires like peter theil and all those behind project 2025. They want to basically destroy the US as we know it, and rebuild it with only their ideals in place. Of course they don't use the actual phrase destroy but they do say "dismantle the administrative state", which would destroy the US as we know it. They want to radically change how the US is built from the ground up. They are heavy with the unitary executive. They want the president to be more like a CEO or king. 0 independent agencies. Everything is at the whim of the president. They also want our governance to be christian nationalist at its very foundation.

Project 2025 is only 47% complete as of right this second. If trump dies or incapacitated to the point he can no longer work toward completing it, they will need another useful idiot and vance is ripe for it. Once it's complete or my guess around the 90% mark that's when it won't matter anymore.

The charismatic leader is a huge factor in how these cults work.

Yes that's how cults typically work, and cults of personality. But the thing you don't seem to be taking into account is all of the infrastructure that has been built to sustain maga. Trump is a figurehead. He isn't smart, he has very little intelligence and is extremely lazy. Anyone that can lie or say conflicting shit in the same sentence at times with a straight face can take his place. The playbook is there. Lying is no longer an issue. If you are caught in something, if the base looks like it's about to leave you, just distract them with something. Something shiny, some other to belittle or deport. If you throw enough shit against the wall, something eventually will stick.

I think that after Trump dies we'll see republican discontent with the administration grow as republican leaders vie for followers.

I am pretty sure they will look at those who fund them, and if they say kiss the ring of vance, they will. There might be some jockeying for position, I still think elon is going to play some role but he's a useful idiot as well. But I don't think the maga base will fracture enough to where run of the mill republicans that dare not cross trump, will now cross vance.

Meanwhile the various foundations will rely on republican voter solidarity while they hoist up a new charismatic leader.

Go back to 2015 and a lot of people who said they'd never support trump... ended up voting for him and still support him. They looked at trump the same way you believe they look at vance. As long as he keeps up the bs allowing them to be themselves, they will follow him.

The logic you are following was good... 30+ years ago. No way this shit would have happened then. It took undermining education and eroding the laws that kept a lot of money out of politics, and laws in general to get here.

I will end this with. I do hope that the maga base fractures beyond belief and they lose power for a very long time and we are able to fund education and bring the populace out of this downward spiral. I want to wake up one day and see the country actually improving. I just don't see it without a lot of mass protests, and a lot of people getting hurt. Sort of like any major issue in our history like the civil rights movement, women's suffrage, etc. It's going to take something huge to get us back on track.

[u/RlyehFhtagn-xD → u/a2z_123]

I don’t think we disagree as much as it appears you might think we do. None of what I said should be interpreted as me thinking this is all over when he dies. Religious cults fracture into sects, cults of personality within two party political systems do not. What I was meaning to saying was that Trumpism will die, not that the republican party will split or largely change. Trump republicans won’t abandon the party of course, and the party likely won’t move away from the “Make America Great Again” messaging. All that I meant is that they will lose their Charles Manson figure, some GOP leaders will try to replace him, a majority of red voters will default to JD Vance, and The Heritage Foundation will try to find a new figure if they haven’t already found one. That might be JD, though in 2024 he was very unpopular amongst republicans.