What was the appeal of MAGA?

It was to some nostalgic past.

When? I read an essay that people thought the best time was when they were like twelve.
So for some 2016 Trump voters the magic past was the 80s, for others the 70s, for others the 60s, for a few the 50s.

What did all those times have in common?

US American Democracy was healthy and, after the passage of the 1960s Civil Right legislation, more representative of the citizens than ever before; big money played a much smaller role in politics and so lobbyists a much smaller role in legislation, and neoliberalism had not yet undone the post-great depression checks on monopolies.

In short, the nostalgia used to sell Donald Trump was all created in an era of relatively strong liberal democratic order.

And now, Trump 2.0 is premised on the notion that we should replace liberal democracy with autocracy because liberal democracy has failed.

The only hope for such a gambit is for the citizenry to fail to notice that the great wealth gap and a government less and less and ever-less responsive to the will of the people, and the accompanying sense of failure, desperation, and impotence were created by weakening the liberal democratic order in favor of a government representative of the will of the few (thanks to gerrymandering; the outsized power of the senate, especially now that the filibuster is used to table bills rather than to merely stall them; the nationalization of politics combined with encampments into media bubbles) and, thanks to Citizens United and related decisions coupled with the neoliberal concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands, most particularly representative of the will of those with money to spend on politics and lobbying.

At the moment the Make America Great for the First Time Ever (because we’ve been a republic, and now the idea is that we’ll be an autocratic empire where the government tells us what to think and believe and who will be in charge and we have to agree or face the consequences) revolution seems to have a fair chance of succeeding. Although most people do not want to trade their republic for Top-Fox & Friend’s autocracy, unlike a reforms proposed and designed to work within this democratic process, this revolution seeks to destroy the tools that allow citizens to openly discuss ideas and build consensus, and to then change their government through fair, regular elections within a system.

What’s happening here is clearly evil.

Because liberal democratic representative government allows us to together safeguard the universal values (aware, clear, honest, accurate, competent, loving-kind, joyfully-sharing); while in an autocracy citizens are given the devil’s choice of being publicly virtuous (standing up for the universal values, even if it means publicly disagreeing with the government and publicly calling for changes within the government) or keeping themselves and their loved ones safe.

What’s happening here is an evil type of bait and switch.

The question is will a critical mass of us internalize the situation in time to bend the whole towards the better and away from the worse.

For later reflection:

What about the Trump 2.0 thesis that Trump 1.0 was not a resounding success because of what their adversaries would call the “grownups in the room” + checks on Trump’s absolute control?

An obvious rebuttal here is that the nostalgia underlying MAGA was all created in eras with sturdy checks and balances and a professional bureaucracy shielded from politics.

What about how Trump 2.0 requires us to believe that America was never truly great because it has always been a republic and not an authoritarian regime imposing the common good on its citizens? Or would those who argue that Trump & Co need to consolidate power and force the common good down the throat of anyone tempted to talk back because, although previous generations were able to collectively safeguard the public good by together steering their republic towards the better and away from the worse, this current generation is just too wayward? What is the argument for taking away our ability to have a meaningful say in our government? And why blame the last forty years on too much liberal democracy when they’ve seen a consistent decline in the ability of the people to meaningfully impact their government? Why not blame the last forty years on the hollowing out of the liberal democratic project???? And why imagine that a system that history has seen time and time again to lead to tyranny and folly is somehow this time going to be a good idea? And aren’t those who make such arguments also glossing over the fact that if the citizens hand their keys over to an autocrat, they are forfeiting the ability to change their minds and go back to being co-owners and co-directors of this shared government???

Author: BW
Editor: AW
Copyright: AMW