Redemption

The last chapter in the book, entitled “Redemption,” begins with a summary of the book’s argument up to this point and then considers the broad cultural and political role of redemptive narratives in American life. Redemptive narratives affirm triumph over suffering and adversity and they hold out hope of progress in the future. Both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama constructed redemptive stories for their own lives, and they projected those stories onto America. By contrast, President Trump has no story for his own life—which marks the central thesis of this book—and the story he does project for America is little more than a motto: Make American Great Again (MAGA). The chapter analyses the meaning of MAGA and then considers the possibility that many Americans no longer believe in redemptive narratives. As such, Trump’s bleak view of the world and his episodic approach to life—a life without a redemptive narrative arc—may resonate with many Americans today. Nonetheless, many Americans do still see their own lives in redemptive terms; whether or not they can project that kind of narrative onto their nation remains an open question.