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On the latest episode of Inside the Hive,<\/em> Jeff Sharlet<\/strong> suggests that there\u2019s a way in which Donald Trump<\/strong> \u201cwon this election on January 6, 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat seems counterintuitive, right? Because that\u2019s this moment when, for a brief period, even his own party renounces him,\u201d Sharlet says. \u201cA lot of attention is going on [Attorney General] Merrick Garland<\/strong>\u2019s schedule<\/a> and pressing charges, in which we\u2019re still imagining that Trumpism is a system that\u2019s working within the rule of law. And on January 6, that\u2019s just a profound pivot point.\u201d Sharlet, an author and Vanity Fair<\/em> contributing editor, who<\/a> has<\/a> written<\/a> extensively<\/a> on<\/a> what he calls the \u201cTrumpocene,\u201d or age of Trump, said that January 6 was when \u201cwe go from the period of conspiracy theories to the age of martyrdom, which is powerful stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharlet, along with Vanity Fair<\/em> editor in chief Radhika Jones,<\/strong> shared their gut-level reactions to Trump\u2019s defeat of Kamala Harris,<\/strong> while also discussing the language of fascism and the role of identity politics in the 2024 race.<\/p>\n Jones mentions how the Harris campaign was \u201cnot really emphasizing the historic nature of her run, that she would be the first woman president, that she would be the first woman of color to be president,\u201d presumably because of how Hillary Clinton<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m with her\u201d strategy fared in 2016. But \u201cthe identity politics were happening on the GOP side,\u201d Jones says, noting how the courting and messaging, from<\/a> the likes of Stephen Miller<\/strong> and Elon Musk,<\/strong> were toward men. \u201cNow, male identity, that\u2019s a big group, I grant you,\u201d she says, \u201cbut that was the drive.\u201d<\/p>\n In approaching a second Trump administration, Jones says that what\u2019s most important is separating \u201cthe distractions from what\u2019s actually happening in substance,\u201d to not allow Trump to easily shift attention. \u201cWhat is going to happen to government agencies that we depend on day-to-day?\u201d she asks. \u201cWhat is going to happen at the border? Will there be mass deportation? Will the fluoride come out of our water? There are issues that will affect the body politic, and I would like our attention to be trained on those.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharlet says that \u201cpart of what Trump has taken advantage of is this great extinction event in news organizations, the death of local news,\u201d and suggests \u201clooking at the granular\u201d at how policies are affecting people. \u201cWhere are they tinkering in these small places that seem boring and insignificant, but, you know, as Project 2025<\/a> taught us, and which the Trump movement has reclaimed today, there were people paying attention to those small agencies and what can be done with them? And how [is that] going to play out in this county in Omaha\u2026or that town in New Jersey?\u201d<\/p>\n As for covering the MAGA movement, Sharlet suggests \u201cpaying attention to abstraction and metaphor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe really frustrating thing with how we covered this campaign is there was a way in which Trump was\u2014as a fascist movement evolves, it gets into a richer and richer body of myth and metaphor, and that\u2019s what they\u2019re working with. And in response, we have democracy becoming further and further detached, so that democracy becomes this vague term, like free speech becomes a term.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt falls on us, as people who want to resist fascism, and as journalists who want to cover it, to really dig deep and translate and interpret that language and find out what democracy means,\u201d he adds. \u201cWhen I talk to Trumpers, what democracy means is a king\u2014a king that is chosen by both God and the people. A very different idea than what we have in the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n