It’s always there, right below the conservative veneer; and if you wait, it surfaces. This tweet highlights the difference between ‘conservative’ corporatism (traditional GOP class), and MAGA pragmatism (the blue collar dynamic).
The disconnect is found in the difference between what looks like a good ‘talking point’, and the reality of workers having to deal with the issue of mandated vaccinations in the workplace. Just quit your job… not so easy in practice.
The SD Governor seems to overlook that entire sectors of the economy are impacted by federal rules, not just individual companies. Hotel workers, restaurants, cooks and cleaners, mechanics, service industry writ large, are subject to forced business owner compliance with regulatory agencies. When the federal government initiates a mandate, all businesses within that sector are hit with the mandate. Switching jobs offers no security or escape from the mandate.
OSHA, the Dept. of Labor, the Dept. of Agriculture, and many other federal agencies create the system. All private sector businesses regulated by those agencies end up forced to adhere to those rules and regulations. Instead of targeting the solution on the employee, which to be fair does have some merit, leading political figures should be constructing their defense of workers by confronting the source of the underlying mandate; not the workers themselves.
Setting aside the reality that forced mandates for vaccination put the most vulnerable employee demographics in a position of agreeing to the jab or potentially losing the roof over their head; what MAGA voters understand better than the elites that fly above them – is their ability to think through consequences, because they have to actually live with them. MAGA people are smart, really smart, and they are pragmatic to the problems they face.
In some ways, pragmatism is on the opposite end of the continuum from ideological decision-making.
It is one thing to say, “defy the system” (ideologically), it is another thing entirely to actually carry through the process of defiance; when your ability to keep your family safe is contingent upon comfortable invisibility inside the same system.
Governor Noem approaches the issues faced from a top-down perspective. Someone like Donald J Trump has shown he understands the issues we face from a bottom up perspective; and that is entirely why the blue-collar working class has connected to him.
This tweet message makes sense for Noem, because she is surrounded by corporate insight, corporate donors and the corporate prism of politics; and that is how detached upper-management would look upon the challenge. Her suggestions ring true from the perspective of a “free trade” economic picture that exists in theory; however, that ‘free trade’ perspective has been destroyed by massive multinational corporations and government regulation.
The free-market economy is a great soundbite, but it doesn’t exist. There are now corporately controlled segments of the economy that work hand-in-glove with Washington DC through money and lobbyists. This is why buying paint (or anything) from Walmart was ok during the pandemic and “essential -vs- nonessential” lockdown, but buying paint from the local mom and pop hardware store was not allowed.
Wall Street -vs- Main Street.
Governor Kristi Noem is at her political core Wall Street (Koch Brothers etc.). Meanwhile, President Trump is at his political core Main Street.
Trump = Pure MAGA
DeSantis = Poltical MAGA
Noem = MagaLite with a twist of Koch and Corporate money
Haley = Anti-MAGA, pure corporate GOP establishment
Cruz = MAGA opportunism / splitter against MAGA