MAGA is a reward program for mediocre white people
I figure a huge component of the MAGA movement is about rewarding failed and/or mediocre whiteness. Donald Trump clearly comes off as a classless racist who had no political qualifications but still achieved the highest office in the land, and he did so by rallying mediocre whiteness. He gave those folks the energy to hope — he talks like them, hates who they hate, and mastered the basic rules of their culture. Then Trump took it a step further by investing in that same type of whiteness, and hiring a string of unqualified mediocre white people to hold big positions that I don’t think they fully understand. Rick Perry runs the Department of Energy, which he once promised to abolish. Callista Gingrich became ambassador to the Vatican, even though her job history is mostly about co-authoring children’s books and being Newt Gingrich’s mistress. (OK, and then his wife.)
The latest example of this is Stephanie Grisham, who has apparently had problems with booze and plagiarism and falsified expense accounts. She is now White House press secretary, even though she has yet to host a press briefing and hasn’t granted that many interviews. She still has the opportunity to fail upward. We basically know nothing about her except that she’s a flawed and damaged white person, like the bulk of Donald Trump’s base. I guess if I was was a poor white person watching him elevate someone like her, I’d put on a MAGA hat too, and halfway believe there was hope for me too..
https://www.salon.com/2019/08/27/the-strange-saga-of-stephanie-grisham-maga-is-a-reward-program-for-mediocre-white-people/