Let's Call MAGA What It Really Is
MAGA has co-opted the GOP for its own political gain. They are not conservatives and they are Republicans in name only (RINO).
Donald Trump and the MAGA movement have gotten a free ride on the Republican Party train for years.
MAGA calls itself the true form of Republicanism and the true form of conservatism while they ostracize those members of the Republican Party that do not agree with them. They use the term “Republican In Name Only” to disparage more traditional Republicans who cross them.
It’s time for the free ride to end.
It is time to turn the tables on MAGA and start calling it what it really is.
MAGA-ism, or whatever you want to call it, isn’t Republicanism. It isn’t conservatism.
MAGA is a separate political party that uses the “Republican” label as a tool to bind itself to “conservatism,” when in fact, it isn’t conservatism at all.
A brief definition of terms is in order (words matter).
What is political conservatism?
Political conservatism emphasizes maintaining traditional institutions and advocates cautious and gradual change. Conservatives support limited government. It generally supports education and social mobility based on merit. It stands for the preservation of established social and cultural norms. It believes in a strong national defense that supports a foreign policy that engages with the world and meets its international responsibilities. Conservatives, in general, support a strong and robust international economy based on free trade and open markets.
MAGA “conservatism,” on the other hand, has a foundation in nationalism. It advocates a populism that pits “elites’ and “experts” against the people, and supports an economic protectionism that hinders rather than promotes free trade and open markets. It is isolationist, anti immigration, and is transactional in its foreign policy. It states that it believes in limited government, but actually works toward excessive government intervention in America’s “culture wars,” public education, woman’s health, public health in general, and in a host of other areas and issues, invoking nostalgia in an attempt to restore the “past greatness” of an America they perceive as declining in many ways.
By definition, these two versions of “conservatism” cannot be reconciled. One is not the other. There is little, if any commonality.
If that is the case, then conservatism and MAGA cannot be the same thing.
So, it’s time to call MAGA what it really is.
MAGA is not the Republican Party, but rather, the MAGA Party.
If one buys into this distinction, this difference between the two can be a wedge that could cleave MAGA from the Republican Party, offering the potential for a restoration of the party to its more traditional beliefs and value system.
Because of Mr. Trump’s candidacy and his viselike hold on the current “Republican Party”, this may be unachievable during the 2024 election cycle.
However, if Mr. Trump loses again, the “coattail effect” of such a loss could lead to a loss of GOP control of the House of Representatives, stronger Democratic control of the U.S. Senate, and significant Republican loses at the state level. If such an event occurs, this strategy becomes much more realistic.
So, it is time to change the narrative concerning MAGA.
Instead of calling MAGA supporters “Republicans,” call them what they really are, RINOs. Force the distinction in the press and on social media; force the distinction during political debates and on other politically oriented forums. Force it in personal conversations.
Make MAGA supporters own the distinction. Make them defend their “conservative” bonafides. They can’t because, by definition, the principles of conservatism and MAGA are mutually exclusive and contradictory.
MAGA, deep down, knows they can’t defend what they believe because it is a fragile house of cards that will collapse when buffeted by the political winds. MASG-ism is nothing more than a “conservative” Potemkin Village of bluster, intimidation, retribution, grievance, victimhood, and “us vs. them-ism” that cannot stand when buffeted by the push back from those who call their bluff.
The MAGA Party is a minority rule driven empty shell. It stands for nothing other than Mr. Trump, toxic nostalgia, chaos, flooding the zone with garbage to sow confusion in a way that disguises an inability and/or unwillingness to govern and solve problems, all based on the practice of performance and reality television politics.
MAGA is bovine scatology and it is killing our politics and culture. If left unchecked, it will kill American representative democracy as we know it.
The MAGA barbarians are at the gate and the walls and moats of doing politics well might be the only things that can stop it (Thank You, Charles Krauthammer. He would deeply despise MAGA and would call their bluff.).
It is time to turn the tables, take control, and cut the head off of the MAGA snake.