IMHO, the real problem with MAGA Republicans isn’t about policy or ideology - it’s that these people don’t know who they are.
Research shows conservatives crave structure and fear the unknown, which sounds like a personality deficit to me. When you’re secure in yourself - when you actually know who you are - you don’t freak out because a trans woman at Target is wearing a dress or someone is speaking Spanish in the cereal aisle. But if your entire identity is built on sand, then yeah, every little deviation from “normal” feels like a personal attack.
According to Cambridge researchers who studied Trump voters in 2024, 89% of them believe American values are “under threat.” Threat from what? Drag queens reading books to kids? People choosing their own pronouns? When you see enemies everywhere - that’s not strength, that’s weakness.
The research says when people with authoritarian tendencies feel threatened, they respond by demanding conformity, punishing anyone who breaks their made-up rules, and clinging to a strong daddy figure who’ll tell them what to think. It’s basically psychology’s way of saying these folks need their hands held through life.
Which explains why they all sound exactly the same. Go to any MAGA rally and you’ll hear the same talking points, the same grievances, the same conspiracy theories. It’s like they’re operating off one shared brain - which wouldn’t be so bad except that brain seems to be running on a 1950s operating system that crashes whenever it encounters complexity.
The conformity thing is wild when you think about it. These are the same people who’ll scream about freedom while simultaneously demanding laws that force everyone to live exactly like them. They want the government out of their lives but in everyone else’s bedrooms. They cry about cancel culture while trying to ban books and control what teachers can say. The cognitive dissonance would be funny if it wasn’t so dangerous.
And don’t even get me started on their obsession with other people’s lives. Trans folks just trying to exist? Threat. Immigrants working jobs they don’t want? Invasion. Gay couples getting married? Attack on tradition. People speaking languages that aren’t English? Somehow also a threat.
Anyone with actual self-esteem doesn’t spend this much time worrying about what other people are doing with their own lives.
The science backs this up. Studies on right-wing authoritarianism show these personality types view the world as dangerous and respond with aggression toward anyone who challenges their social norms. They literally cannot handle ambiguity or nuance - which is why “it’s complicated” isn’t in their vocabulary. Everything has to be black or white, good or evil, us versus them.
I found more research from 2024 found that MAGA Republicans were significantly more likely than other groups to endorse “delusional” beliefs and support political violence. We’re talking about people who believed the 2020 election was stolen despite zero evidence, who thought COVID vaccines contained microchips, who genuinely believe Democrats are running child trafficking rings out of pizza parlors. This isn’t healthy skepticism - it’s a mass rejection of reality.
But when your self-worth is contingent on external validation instead of internal confidence, you’ll believe whatever your tribe tells you to believe. Because questioning the group means risking ostracism, and for people without a solid sense of self, that’s terrifying. So they go along with increasingly absurd narratives because belonging to the cult matters more than truth.
The irony is that these are the people constantly crying about being persecuted. They control huge swaths of government, they have their own media ecosystem, they’ve packed the courts - but somehow they’re the victims. Meanwhile, the actual minorities they’re legislating against are just trying to live their lives without being harassed or having their rights stripped away.
What’s really happening is that America is changing and becoming more diverse, and people whose entire identity was built on being part of the default majority are losing their minds. When you’ve never had to think about who you are because society just reflected you back to yourself, any shift feels like an existential crisis.
People who actually know themselves don’t need everyone else to look, think, and act like them to feel secure. They don’t need laws mandating that kids can’t learn about gay people or that women must carry unwanted pregnancies. They don’t need to erase trans people from existence or deport millions of immigrants to feel safe in their own skin.
But MAGA Republicans do need all that. Because without someone to fear and hate and legislate against, they’d have to confront the emptiness where their personalities should be. It’s easier to blame the Other than to develop an actual self.
The research on authoritarianism going back to the 1950s has consistently shown this pattern: rigid thinking, fear of ambiguity, need for closure, intolerance of difference, and aggressive responses to threats - real or imagined. These aren’t the traits of confident, self-assured people. These are the traits of scared children in adult bodies, desperate for someone to tell them what to do and who to hate.
Some might believe that Trump figured out he could weaponize that insecurity. He told them their feelings were valid, that they were victims, that he alone could fix everything. He gave them permission to externalize all their anxiety and rage. Now they’re so invested in the lie that admitting they were wrong would mean confronting how fragile their sense of self really is.
But I think it was just a perfect storm. Trump isn’t a strategic genius - he’s just like his cult. They found the perfect daddy to lead them because he is them. He’s got the same fragile ego that needs constant validation, the same inability to admit when he’s wrong, the same need to blame everyone else for his failures. He’s a man who’s spent his entire life building a persona to hide the fact that there’s nothing underneath - gold-plated everything to distract from the emptiness. Of course they worship him. He’s living proof that you can fake your way through life without ever developing an actual personality, as long as you’re loud enough about it. They see themselves in his spray tan and his rambling speeches and his middle-school insults. He gave them permission to be their worst selves and call it patriotism. The emperor has no clothes, but neither do his followers - and that’s exactly why they can’t see it.
And the ultimate common ground they all have?
Facts don’t matter.
Data showing crime is down? Ignore it. Evidence that immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens? Irrelevant. Proof that trans people just want to use the bathroom in peace? Doesn’t fit the narrative. They need the threat to be real because without it, they’d have to look inward, and there’s apparently nothing there.
It’s almost sad if it wasn’t so destructive. These are people who’ve never done the work of figuring out who they are beyond what their parents, their church, their Fox News told them to be. So they cling to these hollow identities - Christian, patriot, real American - without ever examining what those labels actually mean or whether they’re living up to them.
A secure person can sit with uncertainty. They can encounter different perspectives without feeling attacked. They can change their mind when presented with new information. They don’t need everyone to validate their choices because they’re confident in themselves.
MAGA Republicans can do none of these things. Which tells you everything you need to know about what’s really driving this movement. It’s not about making America great or protecting freedom or any of the other slogans they parrot.
It’s about a bunch of people with underdeveloped personalities desperately trying to control the world around them because they can’t control the chaos inside themselves.
