IdeaLog

Targeting the persuadables

Posted on April 17, 2024

The first thing you need to know about politics is, you can’t persuade everyone. When people say that MAGA (Make America Great Again) voters are impossible to persuade, that they believe what they want to believe, it’s mostly true. But it’s also mostly irrelevant. We don’t need their base; we can save this country by winning over persuadable Americans.

The MAGA movement has gained control of the Republican Party by convincing a majority of their primary election voters to believe outrageous lies and support extremist candidates. What’s important to understand is, MAGA gets its strength from the psychological phenomenon of social identity.

Science tells us that a great deal of people’s self-image comes from their social identity, that is, the group or groups that they see themselves as a part of. Social identity divides the world into us and them, the in-group and the out-group. The us can be something as inessential as which sports team a person favors. It can be about an individual’s social class or family, college or country. Being part of the group makes people feel good inside. It enhances pride and self-esteem, and usually there’s nothing wrong with that. But people also enhance their self-image by denigrating them, the out-group. Individuals can get an emotional thrill by blaming, discriminating against, or cheering the misfortunes of their out-group. Obviously, this kind of politics can turn ugly, and it has.

MAGA employs a myth of white victimhood, a supposed decline from a past greatness, caused by racial, ethnic, religious or gender minorities, and the “liberals” who support them. In this way, opponents become enemies, demonized so that MAGA supporters can feel justified in hating and repressing them. This goes beyond racism from America’s past. It requires more than discrimination, it requires debasement. The MAGA system insists that the out-groups “deserve” punishment and the in-group should feel the pleasure of inflicting humiliation. (“Ha, ha! Owning the libs!”) MAGA leaders, in turn, praise followers for that crudity, cruelty, and even violence, releasing them from all constraints of law, reason and decency. (E.g., threatening perceived opponents and hurling inane insults.)

Most people who support MAGA don’t think they’re racists, or that they’re being unfair to others, or swallowing lies. They’re just supporting their social group, their friends and family, their team. What could be wrong with that?

Well, plenty, and even many Republicans think so. By pushing away a slice of traditional conservative supporters, MAGA has (hopefully) planted the seeds of its own destruction, turning some of the party’s loyal voters into persuadables.

Who is persuadable?

Polls consistently show that about 20 percent of Republicans are uncomfortable or very uncomfortable with MAGA and Trump. Most of them will probably hold their noses and vote for MAGA candidates anyway. But there is a serious chance that five-to-ten percent of them, especially those who are college educated, understand empathy, or care about abortion rights, will break away because they love freedom, democracy, and the rule of law more than they love the Republican party.

Republican-leaning Independents are even more likely to change sides than registered Republicans. And there is, still, a small slice of swing voters who are so disengaged from politics that they have no idea of what’s going on. They probably won’t pay attention until an election is just weeks away.

Finally, there are plenty of registered Democrats who are upset with their party. Left-wingers, Muslims, and many others are dismayed about Israel. Progressives and young people are disappointed that Democrats haven’t made bigger changes. Some Latinos and perhaps even Black Americans are attracted by MAGA’s authoritarianism. All the while, social media confuses everything. We need to empathize with and court our friends, of course. But ultimately, they will tend to understand and agree with anti-MAGA messages quicker than anyone else. That’s because they’re the ones accused of being “vermin,” and “poisoning the blood of our country.” They would be the first ones harassed, persecuted and even imprisoned by MAGA. Let us kindly and patiently explain that, if they have to see the election as a choice between two evils, it is obvious which is the lesser of them.

In sum, there is certainly an anti-MAGA majority. To capture it, we must craft our messages in a way that persuadable Americans will hear and understand.