America’s Loveless Age

Trumpism plunged America into a divisive Loveless Age; singleton became the new normal (marriage fell to a 118-year low), "Seeking Mr Right, no Trumpers please" the new dealbreaker. Trump's misogyny while pandering to patriarchal grievances reflected back onto his supporters, creating fractures that bled into the dating world and beyond. Noel Terry’s book analyses the chaotic Trump presidency and why so many voted for a leader nostalgic for the traditional past. The ‘cultural war’ and fear of losing white superior status that recast racism as patriotism is explored, while the 2021 insurrection is examined as possible forerunner for worse to come, contrasting Hitler's 1930s with Trumpism's 2020s.

But as the Trumpism movement plots a devious return to power, a political game-changer out of Left Field looms: FemPower. Since MAGA failed men given their work got automated while women got hired in a postindustrial economy more congenial to female skills, the crisis in masculinity prompted those yearning marriage and fatherhood to re-evaluate traditional masculinity. Enter ambitious women (who didn't vote the anti-feminist Trump), recognizing their smartest career move is MARRYING DOWN to helpmate "daddy-trackers" (this is contrasted with traditional marry-up strategies, hence the book doubles as self-help in today's muddled mating politics). Could this evolving new mating convention and gender dynamic with more women the primary breadwinner challenging the patriarchal tradition in how households vote, scorch Trumpism's comeback in 2024?

The book seeks to make sense of today's fractured political landscape and its impact on community and romantic life to make it unique in Trump-era books.