Red Brains, Blue Brains: The Psychology of MAGA

There have been few darker days in American history than January 6, 2021.

There have been few darker periods than the eight years following June 15, 2015, when Donald Trump descended the golden escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. There have been few periods as precarious, as the nation’s internal stability and international standing took hit after hit; few as demoralizing, as our national and international response to a deadly pandemic was bungled and hundreds of thousands died; few as divisive, as an already deeply polarized citizenry has grown increasingly angry, intolerant, and violent.

And it all culminated in the unthinkable: an attack on the US Capitol, where the lives of US lawmakers were threatened, the execution of Vice President Mike Pence was called for, and people were killed.

This book proposes, among other things, that our understanding of human nature is a problem at the core of our crisis. It will seek, then, to get to the bottom of human nature, and to surface and challenge bad assumptions at every turn. Because there can be no more greater challenge in our time, no more important problem to be solved, than the breathtaking dysfunction that has annexed our attention, our emotions, our relationships with others and the country we love, than the problem that culminated on Jan. 6. It calls for the best efforts of every American, the most serious consideration of where we really are and what each of us can do, if we are to find our way back from this precipice.