“The O.C.” is one of the defining teen dramas of the early 2000s, an epic tale of class differences, growing up, corruption, and that time they used Imogen Heap’s “Hide And Seek” when Marissa totally shot Ryan’s brother, Trey, because what else could she do? He was strangling Ryan!
One of the most important aspects of “The O.C.” is its iconic setting, the rich and powerful neighborhoods of California’s Orange County. And while we never hear much discussion of actual politics during the course of the show’s four seasons, it’s fair to say a bunch of these Richie-Richs are right-wing conservative assholes.
By now, some of the beloved characters we watched get punched on the beach, learn about Christmakkuh, and have brief lesbian relationships are undoubtedly hardcore Trump supporters Let’s break down exactly how MAGA these “O.C.” characters have become since we saw them last.
50. Sandy Cohen
Sandy would never become a Trump supporter. He’s a bleeding-heart liberal, from his loafers to those incredibly sexy bushy eyebrows. This is a guy who adopted a kid from Chino, but let’s be fair, it was a White kid, and his own child was kind of a dud. Real Biden voter here.
49. Luke Ward
Surprised that the “Welcome to the O.C., bitch” guy is this far down the list? Sure, he may be a dick, but Luke is the guy who learned to deal with his own homophobic feelings after his dad turned to be a closeted car dealer and then moved to Portland, where we assume he joined a folk-punk band, so he’s probably pretty Blue.
48. Ryan Atwood
Ryan is exactly the kind of working-class White kid full of resentment and anger you would go straight-up MAGA. But look at his track record: adopted Jewish brother, Latina girlfriend, dead White girlfriend. This kid knows the value of diversity in American culture.
47. Dr. Kim
The Dean of Harbor High School has seen some shit. Every student she’s ever seen has OD’d, held someone at gunpoint, or been poor, and she dealt with them all with a fair hand and didn’t even accuse them of being part of a vast pedophile conspiracy. That’s really all we can expect from educators at this point.
46. Carson Ward
Luke’s mom barely appeared in the series, which means that she doesn’t have the screen presence to join something like Moms for Liberty and, by default, isn’t as bad as she could. Count your blessings, gay-cuckolded Mom.
45. Sophie Cohen
Grandma Cohen would hate Trump with a passion, but don’t think that makes her liberal. She hates estate taxes and would spit on the grave of FDR if she could, and by that, we mean if she could again. She’s really overbearing, but she knows Anti-Semitism when she sees it.
44. Lindsay Gardner
This shameless Lindsay Lohan clone has a “Dennis Kucinich for President” bumper sticker, and her dad is a ruthless capitalist asshole. She could only be an Ivanka-style MAGA icon or go hard in the other direction, and she chose the second one. Plus, she moved to Chicago, which we all know is a Godless liberal hellhole, so she’s for sure not MAGA.
43. Rebecca Bloom
Rebecca Bloom, AKA Sandy’s sketchy college ex-girlfriend, might have killed a man and burnt down a lab, or maybe she didn’t. It’s pretty unclear, unlike her intentions to fuck a married guy she once took a Writing 101 class with. Either way, she refused to narc on the friends who may or may not have burnt down that lab, which differentiates her from pretty much everyone in Trump’s inner circle. She’s a scumbag (probably), but not that kind.
42. Kaitlin Cooper
This one is surprising because you’d think that Marissa Cooper’s even wilder younger sister would be asshole enough to, at the very least, start voting hardcore racist Republican because the boring white guy she inevitably settles down and marries would force her to. However, she’s actually more likely to end up being married to Trump someday, which would mean she would hate his guts with a fire previously unseen in this world.
41. Dennis “Chili” Childress
Dennis Childress (or “Chili,” as his buddies hated to call him) is your classic SoCal surfer dude: blonde and with a dead best friend. Plain and simple, this guy is too much of a dope even to be aware of politics, let alone a rabid white Christian nationalist movement to remove power from elected officials and place it in the hands of grifters. He’s too busy hanging ten, bro.
40. Julie Cooper
Much like her daughter Kaitlin, socialite mom Julie Cooper seems like she would be an automatic MAGA voter. She loves money, is willing to fuck old men, and hates poor people. However, she’s smart enough to recognize a scumbag when she sees it and probably isn’t even registered to vote. Voting is for Chino scum.
39. Holly Fischer
Holly Fischer was Marissa and Summer Roberts’ best friend at the beginning of the series, but she just couldn’t stop fucking Luke’s brains out at any opportunity. In all honesty, Holly would probably show up at a few MAGA rallies if she heard there were yard-long margaritas there, but her heart wouldn’t really be in it.
38. Theresa Diaz
The Latin community in the United States has a depressingly deep conservative streak, which raises the possibility that Ryan’s old girlfriend in Chino could have headed that direction. On the other hand, she was not okay with being physically abused by a domestic partner, which puts her at odds with one of the primary standards of the modern GOP.
37. Dr. Neil Roberts
Summer’s dad is Orange County’s premiere plastic surgeon and a devoted father who has spent his adult life ensuring that his children are cared for, feel appreciated, loved, and respected, and grow up with a solid sense of self. What we’re saying is that he and Trump probably don’t have a lot in common other than elective surgery.
36. Casey
Surfer girl Casey’s only purpose on the show was to cheat on her boyfriend with a different surfer and get angry at Marissa for being prettier than her. To be honest, we’re going to guess she’s not very conservative nowadays because she died of a meth overdose in 2008.
35. Alex Kelly
Alex Kelly was the bad girl of the O.C. social scene, which basically means she had purple streaks in her hair and dated women sometimes, which would barely qualify her as a chaotic-neutral girl these days. She’s too contrarian to really have a cohesive political stance beyond “you suck,” so she’d probably be a Bernie voter these days.
34. Hailey Nichol
Speaking of chaotic, Hailey Nichol is another of Orange County’s trademark wild child types lashing out against a rich daddy, or a Tiffany Trump, if you will. While many rebels end up going neo-con when they (figuratively) grow up, Hailey managed to find enough stability over the course of the show to be judgmental about others, which makes her a perfect Hillary voter.
33. Brad Ward
The younger brother of Luke, this California funboy somehow had less personality than anyone but his twin brother Eric. When his older brother moved to Portland to be indoctrinated by hippie liberals, Brad stayed behind to uphold his legacy of being the biggest idiot on the beach. Undoubtedly, he could not name the current President if his life depended on it, let alone figure out what “MAGA” stands for.
32. Eric Ward
See above, but flip the names.
31. Heather
Heather with no last name once helped kidnap Marissa, helping to trigger the events that (spoiler!) led to her death, but also managed to realize maybe she shouldn’t be helping evil people out of resentment for others. We like to think she enrolled in community college, currently works as a vet tech, and isn’t “very political.”
30. Gordon Bullit
Gordon “The Bullet” Bullit is a wealthy Texas oilman and, as such, probably has some unpleasant views about race and which ones are best. However, he’s willing to ‘fess up that he’s done some prison time and probably would get along terribly with the Trump family, so he’d probably back whoever the current-day equivalent of Ross Perot is, just for kicks. Beto, maybe?