Recently, one of America’s most conservative as well as influential newspapers, the Wall Street Journal, ran two intriguing pieces. One observed that “MAGA is taking back the culture,” the other – by the well-known academic and public intellectual Walter Russell Mead – argued that “American exceptionalism is back.” Together they raise important, perhaps vital questions.

The essence of “MAGA is taking back the culture” is that the return of Donald Trump to the presidency comes with a noticeable shift in US culture, broadly understood. Trump’s first term in office saw him hold the political high ground (if often in a chaotic and beleaguered manner) while facing gale-force headwinds in the public sphere. This time around, however, trends in the latter are converging with the politics of Trumpism. Being traditional is an increasingly popular thing: In June 2023 already, pollster Gallup found that 38% of Americans identify as socially conservative, the highest number since 2012. In addition, 44% considered themselves “economically conservative,” also the highest score since 2012.

Anecdotal but intriguing evidence now includes American Football players performing Trump’s trademark shimmy as a victory dance, Disney cutting a story line about transgender issues out of an animated series, and MAGA baseball caps making appearances among students at elite university campuses. As Italian Marxist classic Antonio Gramsci – a brave intellectual as well as a victim of Mussolini’s Fascism – might have sighed, it looks as if the reactionaries have the ideological hegemony, again.

Mead’s “American Exceptionalism is Back” also makes a simple claim: In the US, and only there, populism (of the right-wing variety, of course) and high-tech capitalism (and its “tech-lords,” Mead’s term) can form more than a temporary coalition. That combination, Mead believes, can last by reconciling the crackling-high tension built into it – think Steve Bannon vs. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg – and becoming the basis........

© RT.com