The Case for Trump 2024: The Overton Window

George W. Bush (2011): “If you study history is that there are some “-isms” that occasionally pop up. One is isolationism, and it’s evil twin protectionism, and it’s and it’s evil triplet nativism. If you study the 20s, for example there was an America First policy that said who… pic.twitter.com/ZWzogR0qEM

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) July 18, 2024

HOLY SMOKES! MUST WATCH!

Young Tucker Carlson perfectly describing new Tucker Carlson, nearly twenty years ago.
pic.twitter.com/WympsJCpX6

— Han Shawnity ?? (@HanShawnity) April 16, 2024

Mitt Romney: “We are connected to the rest of the world. Our economy is connected to the rest of the world…I laugh at the phrase ‘America First…’” pic.twitter.com/6wS2Yljp8R

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 16, 2024

“Muh Overton Window.” 

In the 2016 election, the single most important reason why I supported Donald Trump was to “move the Overton Window” and because I saw him as a bulldozer who was running over Conservatism, Inc. He was a useful instrument in blowing up what later came to called the dead consensus.

By that point, I had been involved in rightwing dissident politics for 15 years. I came of age during George W. Bush’s first term and developed my core political beliefs at that time. This was during the historical peak of Reaganism when George W. Bush plunged America into the War on Terror to get Saddam Hussein’s WMDs and to end evil and tyranny in the world. Neocons were at the zenith of their power. White Nationalists, paleocons and right-libertarians mingled on fringe internet forums.

“Journalism” was still taken seriously. The SPLC and ADL were considered respected “watchdog” organizations on the Right. The SPLC was still powerful enough at that time to police the Right and to get people fired for their “associations.” Bill Kristol defined the Right at The Weekly Standard. Commentary Magazine was considered another intellectual powerhouse on the Right. Pat Buchanan, Sam Francis, Steve Sailer, Joe Sobran, Peter Brimelow, Jared Taylor and later John Derbyshire were all considered beyond the pale of respectable conservatism. Purges for crimethink were routine.

In the pre-social media world, you were cooked on the Right if you offended the wrong people. You weren’t invited to be on FOX News. You lost your platform in National Review. You couldn’t amass a huge monetized digital following with a YouTube channel, a podcast or a X account. Even with all the censorship, Zoomers like Nick Fuentes do not appreciate how good they have it. Back in the day, “free speech” used to be so dismal that it was writing a Letter to the Editor in a MSM newspaper. You could also subscribe to a print newsletter like American Renaissance that was delivered via snail mail.

I lived through Freedom Fries, Sarah Palin’s electrifying convention speech and voting for the Constitution Party candidate over John McCain in the 2008 election. I remember when Obamacare was the most important issue in the country. I remember covering the Tea Party Revolution of 2010 and the ascent of the “Young Guns” like Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy and Eric Cantor. I remember looking for glimmers of implicit White Nationalism in Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally. It used to be edgy on the Right for Boomers to talk about how Obama was a secret Muslim who was born in Kenya.

“God Emperor Donald Trump”

In the 2016 election, “God Emperor Donald Trump” towered over his Republican rivals and seemed like a larger than life to activists mainly because of the dismal backdrop of what he was up against on stage and what had come before. Donald Trump in 2016 seemed like a breath of fresh air.

In 2016, Sheldon Adelson spent over $45 million supporting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in the general election. Candidate Trump spoke to AIPAC in 2016. He spoke to the Republican Jewish Coalition. In his book Crippled America which was published in 2015, Trump said that Barack Obama’s Iran Deal was the worst deal in history and he would end it. Trump ran in 2016 on moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Bibi Netanyahu was thrilled when Donald Trump won the 2016 election.

Activists were too busy posting memes of Trump shoving “journalists” into gas chambers to pay any attention to this. They performed absurd mental gymnastics to persuade themselves and their audience to get on board the Trump Train. Candidate Trump was always pro-Israel and bellicose toward Iran and made no secret about it. It was activists who were not focused on these issues in the 2016 election. Defeating Jeb Bush, the cuckservatives and Hillary Clinton was the imperative at the time.

The 2016 election was so exhilarating because it unleashed a flood of dopamine hits among activists who suppressed their doubts about Trump and their differences with both the platform he ran on and the coalition that he assembled to win the election. 2016 was the rightwing version of 2008 when Obama won on “Hope and Change” and leftwing activists were mesmerized by the candidate and believed anything was possible. “History” was being made. THE FINAL BATTLE had been won.

A colder way of looking at Trump’s victory in 2016 is that he lost the popular vote. The Republican Party lost House and Senate seats in 2016. Trump had won a fluke victory in the Electoral College by a margin of less than 1% in three Rust Belt states. He inherited the federal courts and bureaucracy from his predecessors. Congress was stocked with Reaganites who were resentful of Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party. They had the power and the motive to block his agenda and force him to play ball with them. The man was a novice and an island in the White House. Mike Pence was his Vice President. At the time, this was hardly proof that Trump had won a shattering victory over True Conservatism.

In the years that followed, Donald Trump somehow overcame the odds against him including even defeat in 2020. He has become much more popular and powerful on the Right than he was when he was elected in 2016. Gradually, he began to push out the Reaganite crowd whose numbers have dwindled over the past four election cycles (2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024). He has destroyed his enemies inside the party like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who sat on the 1/6 Committee. Jeff Flake, Ben Sasse and Mitt Romney have moved on to greener pastures. Mike Pence and Paul Ryan now stew in resentment on the sidelines. Mitch McConnell is stepping down in the Senate. Trump has rewarded cronies and lackeys who now serve as governors, senators and congressmen and who owe their political careers to Trump. J.D. Vance is the ultimate example of this type of politician. Coach Tommy Tuberville is another.

Donald Trump’s crushing victory over Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley in the 2024 Republican primary confirmed his dominance over the party. It showed how he has reshaped the base of the party over the last four election cycles. Whereas before Trump shared power in a partnership with conservative politicians with long established careers like Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell, today Trump has no serious or powerful ideological opposition within the party and what little there is left is evaporating. It has taken him eight years to reach this point, but Trump is increasingly the Big Man and the party are his yes men. Trump in 2016 wasn’t in a position to tell Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell what to do. He wasn’t powerful enough to run his party like Huey Long ran Louisiana. Now he is getting there.

Trump recently dictated the 2024 Republican platform and posted it in ALL CAPS on Truth Social. He doesn’t have to consult with anyone about this anymore. No one else matters.

In the 2024 election, Donald Trump is also in another interesting new position. He is running as the favorite and ahead of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the national popular vote.

In the 2020 election, Trump never led in a single national poll and finished down 7.2 points to Joe Biden. He lost the national popular vote by 4.5 points. He lost the Electoral College in three states (Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin) by half the capacity of Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Over the course of eight years, Donald Trump has succeeded in reshaping the American Right, the Republican Party and the Alt-Right / Dissident Right in his image. No one is shocked anymore when Trump floats mass deportations of millions of illegal aliens or imposing draconian tariffs on Chinese imports or ending the Ukraine War before he sworn into office. The stuff that was so groundbreaking about Candidate Trump in 2016 is no longer edgy. It has become normal background noise rightwing politics. Meanwhile, conservative intellectuals and organizations like the Heritage Foundation have long since moved on from Reaganism to coopting nationalism. They want to be seen as nationalists now. Mitt Romney’s domestic policy director writes more about industrial policy than activists these days.

In 2020, Donald Trump was such a lightning rod during the Summer of Floyd that he mainstreamed anti-White politics on the Left, and in the Wokelash that followed under Joe Biden we have seen anti-anti-White politics normalized on the Right. J.D. Vance is dinged as weird on X for recycling talking points about childless cat ladies and how America is not an idea which were used by activists three years ago. The normalization of transgenderism on the Left has normalized Christian nationalism on the Right.

The Overton Window has shifted so much over the last eight years that activists have been reduced to just three topics: Jews, Israel/anti-Zionism and National Socialism. You will not find them talking about anything else. It has gotten to the point where Candace Owens is stealing that topic from them. Immigration is boring because 90% of people on the Right now agree with VDARE. The Biden administration has done tariffs and industrial policy which is a new consensus. Everyone knows that black people commit a lot of crime in large cities.

Conservatism, Inc. hasn’t been destroyed by Trump, but it is not nearly as suffocating as it used to be. Conservative influencers and activists share the same ecosystem on X and Rumble. Charlie Kirk now bashes MLK and calls the Civil Rights Act of 1964 an anti-White weapon. He says that democracy is a bad idea. He agrees the Great Replacement is happening. Kirk has come to these conclusions since getting booed by Groypers in 2019. He no longer boasts about Botswana’s legalization of homosexuality.

Overall, I do not think we are in a bad place. We are running out of fresh edgy ideas. Most Southern Republicans have come to embrace the idea of a National Divorce under Joe Biden. They will never act on it though as long as Donald Trump is still dominating our politics.

As usual, the point of this article is to explain my own thinking because otherwise you would not understand the shifts in my position. I am not telling you to vote for Donald Trump. You are capable of making your own decisions. This is my attempt to flesh out my own inner monologue.

1. The Right finally moves on from Trump in 2028

2. The Alt-Right has terrible political instincts

3. Joe Biden has been a sedative as president

4. Activist brain blinds us and creates prejudice against conservative normies

5. Trump is the leader because he is the best of the Republicans

6. “Worse is better” is a cope and was tried in 2020 and maintains the status quo

7. Voting is not a sacrament. Few know this

8. Voting is not going to change anything about Zionism in the next four years

9. Activists have the chance to ride the Trump wave without making the same mistakes

10. Activists are running out of material because the Overton Window has shifted so much