A month into the second term of the president they view as the second coming, MAGA social media users coalesced upon a singular talking point. No, not a defense of Elon Musk's rampage through the federal government that is destroying scientific research, threatening people's Social Security checks and may very well lead to a major economic crash. Nor were they super keen to talk about Donald Trump's baseless claim that Ukraine "started it" when Russia invaded. Instead of focusing on how congressional Republicans plan to pay for rich people's tax cuts by taking away ordinary people's health care, or how Trump's tariff threats and games will likely lead to more inflation, or the soaring price of eggs and the rising fears of bird flu, MAGA marked the one-month anniversary of Trump's return to office by rehashing a recycled and easily debunked "study" to dunk on liberal women.
"New poll shows liberal women the most unhappy, lonely" declared a triumphant Fox News headline. This story was blasted across the channel, repackaged in multiple formats, and shared throughout right-wing media outlets like the New York Post and the Daily Mail. MAGA users on social media went nuts, gloating and congratulating themselves, mostly without bothering to read the article they were so excited about. If they had, they might notice this is the same "data" that gets resurfaced in both conservative and (shamefully) mainstream press every few months. They might even see the flaws in this "research," which depends on self-reporting and doesn't control for the pressure on conservative women to "keep sweet" even when they feel miserable. Or that liberal women probably aren't more depressed, just more willing to get treatment for it.
The timing of this not-new and not-reliable "information" is sure helpful to MAGA leaders, who need to distract Trump voters from the disaster that is Trump's first month in office. The best way to quell any nagging doubts in the rank and file is to remind them of why they went MAGA in the first place: to stick it to the liberals. Telling each other a fairy tale where liberal women will pay for their sins of self-respect and independence is a good way to soothe themselves. More importantly, they can pretend all this destruction was worth it, if they can force women back into the kitchen.
This is why it's so important for liberals to respond with two raised middle fingers and an invitation to the culture warriors to kiss our collective rear ends. Most Trump voters didn't want the decimation of social services they depend on, economic chaos or the rising threat of all-out war in Europe. They just wanted to make all those queer people, feminists, big-city book readers, Black Lives Matter activists and people who got the jokes in the "Barbie" movie bend the knee. Fascism was supposed to bring them their Hallmark movie, to make the prodigal liberal daughter give up her career to marry the pickup-driving lunkhead next door. It was supposed to pull Taylor Swift off the Billboard charts, and turn her into a "tradwife" instead.
As Rebecca Traister wrote in New York this week, since the election there's been an almost-gleeful flood of scolding from centrist pundits, telling the "woke" left to tone it down and change who we are. Trans people have been especially singled out for blame, but the larger gripe about progressive acceptance of difference is not hard to miss. "Columnists and consultants were sure that distaste for explicitly feminist, LGBTQ+-friendly and anti-racist politics was potent," Traister writes. Liberals celebrate individuality and non-conformity, and, the hand-wringers insist, this is what hurts them. Drag queens, cat ladies, immigrants, and Super Bowl halftime featuring hip-hop artists: The carousel of MAGA hate offers up targets of various degrees of seriousness, but what they have in common is that they don't fit the hyper-white, conservative Christian, straight, sexist and bland image of what Americans are "supposed" to be. But, as Traister shows, Democrats won in 2018, 2020, and 2022 while engaging in a "woke" celebration of diversity, so it is likely not why they lost in 2024.
To be certain, the left does need to relearn how to be more fun and less focused on language policing. "Do better" is a phrase that needs to be retired forever from social media, for instance. But that urge towards leftist conformism will not be solved by giving in to right-wing conformism. There's no electoral value in acceding to this pressure to get rid of your piercings, pretend that "YMCA" is not a gay song and get married to a dull-witted former high school bully who won't let you play Chappell Roan. The smarter move is remembering how fun it can be to be the ones who stand up for the god-given right of every American to be as weird as they want to be.
Denying Republican voters what they want — liberals giving in and conforming to the soulless MAGA milieu — isn't just satisfying, but strategically wise. This is simple behavioral psychology. You don't give toddlers cookies because they tantrum, or they will tantrum more. It's also crucial in helping illustrate how Trump is not their savior and cannot give them what they want. He cannot make that cute liberal girl abandon her career to marry some bitter incel. He cannot make queer people stop reminding MAGA voters of the sexual freedom they deny themselves. He can't get reggaeton off the radio or make people standing in line speak English. He can't make mermaids or hobbits white. He can't make Tom Hanks stop making jokes about how MAGA is racist. All Trump can do is make Americans poorer, sicker, and less safe — including his own voters.
We can already see the first inklings of how the liberal refusal to submit is frustrating the right and making them even more whiny than usual. As the blogger Scarlet at Dialects of Decline noted earlier this month, the online right isn't acting like they won the election. "They are crybabies of the highest order," she notes, bellyaching non-stop because liberals continue to hold them in contempt. "They also need you to like them," she mocks, pointing out how MAGA men online "openly cry about no one wanting to sleep with them" and "have mental breakdowns if you boo them." The election was supposed to bring about their cultural ascendance. Instead, it's just increased the eye-rolling from the left and the realization the fun girls will never think they're cool. So they're freaking out. Good. Keep at it, liberals, and soon we'll have every flavor of MAGA in a "why won't you be as lame as me?!" meltdown.
There's a lot of anxiety about the lack of more meaningful resistance to Trumpism, especially as the second term, in the grand tradition of sequels, is both louder and more terrible than the first go-round. No one seems to know what to do. Democratic leaders are hamstrung by the lack of meaningful power to disrupt Trump. Ordinary citizens feel like street protests are a waste of time and energy. The legal strategies deployed last time are running up against an administration that has declared it has no obligation to follow this law. No one seems to know what to do, and it's paralyzing.
I hope more creative solutions for organized opposition emerge soon, but it has only been a month. The one thing we can all do right now and every day is refuse to cooperate with the cultural pressure to conform. On the contrary, there's no time like the present to get even weirder in MAGA eyes. Wear what you want. Sleep with whatever consenting adult you want. Dye your hair whatever color you want. Read "queer" books and support the local drag shows. Post on social media about how much fun you have being childless and single. Eat vegan fusion while sipping craft cocktails. Ride a bike instead of driving. Once I land on a design, I'm getting another tattoo.
The beauty of this plan is that everyone can act on it in whatever esoteric way they want. Go out and have fun in the kookiest, most "woke" way possible. It's not just that living well is the best revenge. As the serious material implications of Trump's far-right agenda hit his voters in their pocketbooks and doctors' offices, it offers a daily reminder that Republicans didn't get the one thing they wanted, which was to strip us of our joy and our pride. Give 'em liberal defiance, not liberal tears.
