Trump-American culture vs. elite culture
COMMENTARY
By Newt Gingrich - Wednesday, November 20, 2024
OPINION:
The most unexplored and ignored aspect of President-elect Donald Trump’s nine-year odyssey is that, despite his wealth, his habits appeal to a far larger share of Americans than the elite passions for fine food and highbrow books, movies and television.
This struck me as I watched the coverage of Mr. Trump’s trip to Madison Square Garden for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event on Saturday. As Mr. Trump ate McDonald’s on his plane, it occurred to me that there is a cultural appeal that endears Mr. Trump to most Americans.
People have often said that politics is downstream from culture. Usually, they mean intellectual and artistic culture defines politics. The theory is that what the professors teach this decade may shape the political debate a decade from now.
This definition is too narrow. Culture can also be about what people like and with what they are comfortable.
Mr. Trump’s personal and recreational choices dwarf the attractiveness of liberals in the same zones.
On Saturday night, Mr. Trump went to Madison Square Garden to watch a UFC event with Dana White, CEO of UFC. Mr. Trump was accompanied by Elon Musk, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Robert F Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswamy, Kid Rock, and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
When Mr. Trump entered the arena, the standing-room-only crowd began chanting “USA.” Joe Rogan, the most successful podcaster in the world, commented that the noise was unbelievable because people were so enthusiastic. Mr. Rogan has long been a UFC commentator. His podcast interview with Mr. Trump attracted more than 40 million watchers and listeners — and had a bigger audience than the opening game of the World Series.
Liberals’ reaction to this outing explains a lot about their failure to understand the cultural and political revolutions that are underway.
The Daily Beast reported: “Panelists on CNN’s Inside Politics compared Donald Trump to tyrannical Roman emperor Julius Caesar after he attended a UFC event in New York last night. The panelists mocked Trump’s attendance at the event.”
To say that they just don’t get it is an extreme understatement.
The key insight for me was the picture of Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Johnson and Donald Trump Jr. eating McDonald’s on the plane. Donald Trump Jr. cheerfully held up the box of french fries his father had been giving out a few weeks ago at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania.
As I’ve written before, an estimated 87% of Americans visit McDonald’s at least once a year. Further, 40 million Americans have worked at McDonald’s, including Jeff Bezos. In terms of cultural identification, it would have been hard to top Mr. Trump selling french fries at the drive-thru window.
Because Mr. Trump made his career building properties, he has a knack with blue-collar workers. This has been a major part of the enormous transition of the GOP into the workers’ party.
Oprah Winfrey talked Mr. Trump into letting her film him at his Chicago hotel doing various jobs in 2011. You can watch him walking a dog for a customer (and asking if he has earned a tip). Here is a future president working as a waiter and loading luggage. After you watch that, you will better understand how comfortable he was riding in a garbage truck and wearing the vest of a garbage collector.
Sports may be the biggest gap between liberals and most Americans. When discussing culture, we must remember that virtually all sports favor winning, working hard, striving for excellence, showing endurance and getting back up when knocked down. “Fight, fight, fight” is the mantra of competitive athletes.
Liberals’ contempt for sports is even greater than its contempt for McDonald’s. Yet the market for sports among Americans is enormous.
An estimated 1 billion people watch World Wrestling Entertainment each week. Linda McMahon is the WWE’s co-founder and co-chair of the Trump transition. Millions have watched the “Battle of the Billionaires” when Mr. Trump tackled WWE co-owner Vince McMahon back in 2007 (it’s still on YouTube and still hilarious).
Golf is also a constant part of Mr. Trump’s life. An estimated 45 million Americans play golf, and an estimated 40% of all Americans (135 million) read about it or watch it on TV.
Football, especially the NFL, is an enormous draw on television. “Sunday Night Football” has averaged more than 20 million viewers every Sunday for the last six weeks. There was a classic irony when “Saturday Night Live” (audience about 5.6 million) gave Vice President Kamala Harris enough coverage that NBC felt constrained to give the same amount of time to Mr. Trump on “Sunday Night Football” (over 20 million viewers).
The conservative pro-sports culture outdrew the liberal comedy show nearly 4-1. That’s a pretty good yardstick for the relative appeal of the Trump competitive worldview and the shrinking base of the left-wing worldview.
This concept of a cultural divide is worthy of more study and may explain more than traditional political analysis.
It’s also the biggest aspect of Mr. Trump’s appeal that liberals simply don’t get.
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READ MORE: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/nov/20/trump-american-culture-vs-elite-culture/
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