The Realignment — Episode 589: Danielle Lee Tomson — When the Story Breaks: MAGA, Liberalism, and the Battle to Define Reality
Date: January 8, 2026
Host: Marshall Kosloff
Guest: Dr. Danielle Lee Tomson
Episode Overview
This episode is a deep dive into the ongoing battle to define political “reality” in America and the importance of storytelling in political movements. Host Marshall Kosloff welcomes back Dr. Danielle Lee Tomson for a wide-ranging conversation focused on the “authenticity gap,” her forthcoming book on MAGA influencers, and lessons for liberals seeking to create a resonant counter-narrative as the U.S. continues through a period of political realignment. The discussion analyzes why establishment liberals struggle to connect, how political movements build narratives, and what it means to construct an authentic, engaging vision for the future.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Danielle’s Book and the “Authenticity Gap”
[03:03]
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Announcement: Danielle is releasing her book Under the Influence (Oxford UP, late 2026/early 2027) — a product of her doctoral research on MAGA social media influencers (including Steve Bannon).
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Main argument: MAGA is best understood not merely as misinformation but as performance and reality creation. The “authenticity gap” is when cultural narratives and expectations no longer align with people’s lived experiences.
- Quote:
“The authenticity gap…is when our expectations of reality, shaped by stories and culture, no longer align with our lived experiences. When that story doesn’t live up to what’s around you, it can feel like it’s unraveling.” — Danielle, [04:12]
- Quote:
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Classical reference: The Greek “authentes” (root of “authentic”) means acting on one’s own authority — even “murderer,” implying a life-or-death seriousness in the pursuit of the real.
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Liberalism’s lost narrative: Danielle references Lionel Trilling’s conception of liberalism as originally primal and imaginative, created to channel state power for individual happiness—but this narrative has become hollow and technocratic.
2. Experiencing the Authenticity Gap
[07:06]
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Marshall’s generational example: People who followed the rules (1990s “American Dream”) wake up to a reality of inaccessible homeownership, fragile job prospects, and “multiple roommates.”
Quote:“You’re just going to find yourself saying, whoa, the life I’m living — multiple roommates, no path to home ownership, a real lack of the American dream — is destabilizing... What’s so effective about the populist left and right is that they have ready-made stories.” — Marshall, [08:12]
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Danielle’s personal story: The opioid epidemic and the loss of a cousin exposed her to a painful authenticity gap—government and systems not serving Americans, leading to openness to new, often populist, narratives.
- Quote:
“For me, it was a very real life-and-death thing — these companies, pharmaceutical overlords… something about our government, our economy… were not out for Americans. That feeling of loss can be super destabilizing.” — Danielle, [10:09]
- Quote:
3. Why the Center Misses the Narrative
[12:51]
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Liberal technocracy’s blind spot: Decades of “taken for granted” liberal dominance left establishment centrists unable to recognize authenticity gaps or articulate new stories.
- “Liberals keep taking for granted that this Jenga tower…could fall apart. We don’t have the first-order thinking or language to really describe what’s happening.” — Danielle, [14:11]
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Populists as underdogs: Populist left/right have advantage in storytelling, offering visceral alternatives. Liberals — now the counterculture — must rediscover foundational narratives.
4. Storytelling as Political Power
[16:31]
- Post-2024 reality: No one seriously believes a return to pre-2016 “normalcy” is possible. MAGA is strongest as counterculture—not as an establishment. Now, liberals/centrists must learn to be the rebellious storytellers.
- “Vibes vs. wonkery”:
Marshall observes that mainstream Democratic (center-left) spaces are “ideas-free” and extremely reluctant to engage with narrative and performance, contrasting this with right and left populist gatherings where the story dominates: - “At a populist left or right gathering, maybe 10% is tactics, 90% is the stuff you and I are interested in… At a centrist gathering, there’s just no story.” — Marshall, [24:56]- Attempts to “technique” their way out (polls, policy, empirics) often backfire.
- Quote:
“If you are a politician who does not conceive part of your job as being a storyteller, you’re not going to make it.” — Marshall, [29:38]
5. The Creative, Collaborative Story Project
[30:28]
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No instant answers: Danielle and Marshall both argue that crafting a new collective story is messy, collaborative, and cannot be manufactured via focus groups or polling.
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Comparative moments in history: Periods of creative upheaval (Transcendentalism, modernism, counterculture) were characterized by searching, contestation, and “profound creativity” out of darkness and not knowing.
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Beyond abundance:
“Abundance” as a liberal watchword (e.g., in housing/tech spaces) is critiqued for being too technocratic, outcome-oriented, and sometimes detached from questions of beauty, joy, or meaning.- “Abundance is a meme, a branded tactic. But who is it for, who is the face of it, what is abundant — money, happiness, joy, recognition?” — Danielle, [34:29]
6. The Crisis of Neoliberalism and Cultural Stagnation
[38:59], [40:59], [50:22]
- Marshall’s book rec: Blank Space by W. David Marx — the best book he read in 2025 — critiques how neoliberalism’s focus on scale, popularity, and market outcomes hollowed out art, culture, and politics.
- Creativity and subculture are stifled by the logic of “attention economy,” leading to bland, derivative art and politics.
- Authenticity and subculture:
Danielle stresses that real artistic, political, and personal value comes from the periphery — from cultivating subculture, “acting from one’s own weirdness,” not chasing mass approval or instant polling.- “True art, culture, and meaning is acting on one’s own weirdness. You’re not going to please everyone… Is it real, does it fuck?” — Danielle, [52:23]
- De-materialization & loss:
Our current culture is so ephemeral that if “a meteor struck tomorrow… there’s not an artifact left of this society that maybe would be beautiful in the same way.” — Danielle, [51:24]
7. Fusionism & Building a New Coalition
[61:49]
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Lessons from conservative “fusionism”:
On the right, disparate ideological groups regularly unite around common enemies and shared, if sometimes vague, goals — a habit that center-left spaces lack.- “Fusionism is a set of ideological factions that are clear about what they want to see in the world… with enough overlap and a common enemy to bind them together and get things done.” — Danielle, [62:42]
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Critique of centrism and popularism:
Centrism is not an ideology, just a tactical arrangement; “popularism” (over-focusing on polling and popularity metrics) breeds caution and weakness.- “A centrist is just someone who — it’s a tactic, not a belief… being clear about what you want is OK, that’s authentic.” — Danielle, [63:07]
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Practical fusionism:
Liberals/lefties/centrists need a new “fusionist” story—learning to debate and disagree, but to build a coalition around clearly articulated differences and a common purpose. - “If talking to other people leads to weak and juiceless takes, then sorry — you’re a shitty moderator, you are a bad leader.” — Marshall, [71:43]
Notable Quotes & Moments (w/ Timestamps)
- On the “Authenticity Gap”:
“What really intrigued me was their performance, their storytelling…the ways in which they created reality…. Authenticity gap is when our expectations of reality…no longer align with our lived experiences.” — Danielle, [03:19], [04:12]
- On the establishment missing the moment:
“Liberals keep taking for granted that this Jenga tower that they’ve built…could fall apart.” — Danielle, [14:11]
- On storytelling in politics:
“If you are a politician who does not conceive part of your job as being a storyteller, you’re not going to make it.” — Marshall, [29:38]
- On art, culture, and staleness:
“Art used to be about not selling out, then art became — the goal of art became selling out, which is insane.” — Danielle, [53:17]
- On fusionism:
“Fusionism is a set of ideological factions…clear about what they want, with enough overlap and a common enemy in order to bind them together and get things done.” — Danielle, [62:42]
- On what’s needed now:
“You have to invest in those spaces that are not just about policy and polling…but the actual first order ideas. Go up the funnel…arts, culture, politics, beauty, health, food, all these sorts of things.” — Danielle, [73:08]
Key Timestamps
- [03:03] — Danielle discusses her upcoming book and the concept of the Authenticity Gap
- [07:06] — Marshall lays out generational authenticity gaps; Danielle shares personal narrative
- [13:31] — Discussion of why the center and liberals can’t see or fill the gap
- [16:31] — The post-2024 landscape: why “normalcy” isn’t coming back
- [21:51] — Storytelling, performance, and wrestling with narrative (“kayfabe”)
- [24:42] — Marshall reflects on the lack of story in centrist spaces
- [29:38] — Why politicians must be storytellers
- [34:29] — Why “abundance” isn’t enough as a liberal narrative
- [38:59] — Culture’s stagnation; anti-intellectual wonkery on the center-left
- [50:22] — Building subculture and peripheries; reclaiming authenticity
- [61:49] — Fusionism: lessons from the right, prospects for the center-left/left
Tone and Language
The conversation is intellectually open, critical, and occasionally irreverent, with a mutual sense of urgency about the need for deeper, more authentic, and frankly more interesting narratives in American politics. Both speakers draw on personal experience, history, pop culture, and theory—combining accessible language (“does it fuck?”) with literary and historical references. The tone is searching yet optimistic, inviting listeners to participate in the imaginative work of rebuilding the political story.
CONCLUSION
In sum:
This episode insists that building a compelling political movement is ultimately about narrative, not just numbers, and challenges the “facts-and-polling” establishment to rediscover the primal, imaginative core at democracy’s heart. As the left and center-left face a MAGA-era counterculture moment, Danielle and Marshall argue for creative, collaborative storytelling, coalition-building, and a re-centering of meaning and purpose—reminding us, above all, that “if you’re not aware of the story, you’re going to lose the plot.”