Charles Duhigg

Good.

How are you?

Thanks for having me on.

And I'm looking forward to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 State of the Union tonight.

Exactly.

You might as well have two robots with you.

Yeah, let him watch.

You guys can just make comments this whole time.

It's true.

I mean, the basic question I was asking is, you know, if on the left we're so dismissive of MAGA and we say like they have their ideas are illegitimate, they are beholden to this guy who's completely mercurial.

If that's true, why have they been so successful, right?

Like what is the science behind the growth of MAGA?

And I think it's important to create a distinction between Donald Trump and MAGA because I think that distinction exists at this point.

He was the progenitor, the biggest cheerleader of MAGA.

But MAGA now has its own life outside of Donald Trump.

And what's happened is that it's been picked up by political groups like Ralph Reed's new organization, the former head of the Christian Coalition, which is called the Faith and Freedom Coalition, by Turning Point USA.

But groups like that have really picked up MAGA, the mantle of it.

And what's interesting is, unlike Donald Trump, they bring a very different approach to how to make MAGA viral, how to make it sticky, how to get people interested in it, which is to say, we're a huge open tent.

As long as you're willing to put on the red hat,

As long as you're willing to say that the president's the greatest guy on earth, Trump should be president right now, then you're welcome in, whether you're gay or straight, whether you care about immigration or you don't care about immigration, whether you're pro-life or pro-choice.