Is MAGA done for?

Americans go to the polls every two years for what non-Americans might call a full parliamentary election. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs, and one third of the Senate is at stake. October’s midterm elections gave Democrats control of both chambers of Congress, as many had predicted. That President Donald Trump had put his own popularity on the line meant that Americans delivered a stunning rebuke to a man whose outsized ego and imperial pretensions had held much of the public in thrall for more than a decade.

The issues

Although many voters appear to have become inured to unprecedented levels of corruption in high places, they finally had had enough of the Trump administration’s antics. The lawlessness of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel enraged ordinary Americans, especially when legal immigrants and citizens alike were caught up in their efforts. Trump’s promise to end “forever wars” was cast aside with his ill-considered attack on Iran earlier this year. Trump’s wielding of the protective tariff as an instrument of vengeance on his political enemies effectively raised the cost of living for Americans already suffering from the ravages of inflation.

But it may be that Americans are simply tired of Trump’s evident narcissism and somewhat puerile efforts to make himself the centre of attention and to bully those with the temerity to disagree with him. Cosying up to dictators such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un and issuing threats against Canada and Denmark could hardly have reassured those already questioning his suitability for office, or even sanity. Bullying Volodymyr Zelensky into yielding ground to Putin’s imperial ambitions has made Trump appear not only egregiously unjust, but cowardly.

What’s next? 

Sad to say, Democrats in recent decades have doubled down on the very things that have alienated many Americans who might otherwise be sympathetic, including what is euphemistically called reproductive freedom. Barack Obama unjustly went after the Little Sisters of the Poor over the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act, demonstrating thereby a lack of concern for religious liberty. Democrats have rather thoroughly bought into what I have labelled the “choice-enhancement state” (Political Visions and Illusions) and others “expressive individualism,” with its emphasis on choice for its own sake, divorced from the contents of choice.

Republicans have allowed themselves to be captured by a cult of personality – the very thing that the United States’ eighteenth-century founders hoped to avoid. They have acquiesced in their leader’s efforts to evade the rule of law for the sake of getting his own way and punishing those he dislikes. It is scarcely likely that Dwight Eisenhower, the two Bushes, or even Richard Nixon would recognize what their party has become in recent years.

Is the MAGA movement done for? Probably not. The two parties desperately need to reform their internal candidate selection processes to weed out obvious incompetents well before they are presented to voters. But as a whole, Americans need to recognize that public justice requires dedicated citizens concerned for the common interest, for honouring commitments to foreign allies and for the welfare of the disadvantaged.