Nostalgia in Politics

Abstract

Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to voters that, if elected, he would “make America great again.” Trump’s explicitly nostalgic appeal was rooted in the collective perception, shared by at least some voters, that life was better (and simpler) in the past. Nostalgic appeals have a long history in American politics. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) slogan was co-opted from Reagan’s “let’s make America great again.” Despite their long history, we suspect that, as nostalgic appeals have become central to the Republican Party’s messaging, nostalgia-susceptible voters have sorted into the Republican Party. Recently, scholars have attempted to better understand the political consequences of nostalgia on voting for populist parties, both in general and specifically for Donald Trump. We make three contributions to the literature. First, using an open-ended prompt, we consider more carefully what people mean when they say they long for the “good old days.” Second, we use these open-ended responses to inform our measurement of nostalgia and whether it reflects a longing for the past or pessimism about the future. In doing so, we show the importance of religiosity and media consumption (i.e., Fox News) as predictors of individual-level nostalgia. Third, we connect our measure of nostalgia to vote choice during the 2022 midterm election—demonstrating that the effects are broader than support for Donald Trump. Overall, we contend that if one is to fully understand contemporary politics, one needs to know how nostalgia influences political attitudes and behaviors.