Republicans' hedonic treadmill problem

The party's voters are hooked on the thrill of Trumpism

An elephant.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

Monday's Electoral College vote officially sealed President Trump's loss. Whatever he may say or do over the course of the next month, Trump will leave office as President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20. At least for the next four years, it's over. Trump's chaos and camp, melodrama and mendacity will finally be shut off.

And millions of his voters will be desperate to get it back. The calm, normal politics Biden has promised is exactly what they do not want — not merely because of differences of partisanship or policy but because calm and normal no longer appeal. Trumpist Republicans have a serious hedonic treadmill problem.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.