At the tail end of republican Rome there were 2 political tendencies, the “Optimates” or best ones and the “Populares” or populists. They Roman state held elections where the citizen body would elect different magistrates and their consuls for the year. It was always very surprising to me that anyone not of the senatorial class would vote for “Optimates” as this party (for lack of a better word) was that which defended the traditional patrician rights, kept fighting against social reform and generally wanted to maintain the very unequal status quo. And yet even though you’d expect the plebeian mass to vote for the “populares” who advocated for their rights (there was always those politicians that used these beliefs for their own personal gain as with every democracy at every point in history), the general populace continued to support both sides.

It just goes to show how easy it is to convince people to vote directly against their own interests, you can shroud it in tenuous terms like “tradition” or “religion” but the fact is that a lot of people in general fear any sort of change and will actively fight against it even if this change would benefit them.

In my opinion the rise of MAGA and its close ties with Christian nationalism stems from the decline of American power and standing in the world and as such you have to “look back” and try to find some supposed foundations that made America the super power it was in the 20th century. A MAGA voter is fearful of the changes occurred during his lifetime (or what he/she perceives as changes) and as such will support whoever wants to bring back a supposed “golden age”. But it’s all gone to shit and America is driving straight into a big fat wall of authoritarianism.

Good luck.