“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.” – Thomas Jefferson
By now, most people are aware of Joe Biden’s Reichstag speech, in which he painted a large bloc of Americans as the enemy of America. In case you missed it, Joe the Uniter, from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where our founding documents were signed, in front of a blood-red backdrop, flanked by a silhouette of shadowy marines, declared that we are in a battle for the soul of America and that the enemy lies within. In his estimation, that enemy is MAGA America. Forgetting for a moment that politicians and optics are not happenstance, and this was by far the worst depiction of the soul of America possible, we must take a moment to define who and what the Biden Administration believes is the enemy of America.
In his speech, Joe Biden suggested that our founding documents espouse equality and democracy, which are under assault. The founding documents do not espouse democracy. The word democracy does not appear in the Declaration of Independence or the United States Constitution. A republican form of government, on the other hand, is explicitly guaranteed in Article 4 Section 4 of the United States Consitution.
America is not and has never been a democracy. Perhaps in that regard, American democracy is under threat. I’ve noted prior that the Founders of this nation loathed democracy and wished never to see it implemented in the United States. If our goal is to maintain our Republic, then let the encroachment by democracy fail.
According to Joe Biden, that segment of the electorate that identifies as MAGA, or Make America Great Again, and largely supports the presidential administration of Donald Trump, is the enemy of America. The leftist press tells us that this bloc of voters identifies first and foremost by their caucasian race, their European heritage, their Christian religion, their heteronormativity, or their binary gender identity. Is this accurate? Not even remotely.
Admittedly, I don’t self-identify as MAGA, and I don’t own a trademark red MAGA hat. It is my voting history and my belief system that emblazon me with the MAGA monicker. The voting history of sixty-five percent of voters in Idaho earns them the MAGA badge as well. Strictly defined, MAGA is a loosely affiliated brand of American Nationalism. It comprises all races, religions, political partisans, and sexualities. MAGA espouses the biblical principle found in Matthew 7 of addressing the planks in our own eyes before removing the specks from our brethren’s. Ironically, this is also the leftist’s favorite verse that asks us to decline judgment of their lifestyle choices lest we be judged ourselves.
MAGA believes that the United States is at its best when it addresses its own maladies before traversing the globe and looking for problems to solve. The call to Make America Great Again is a call to get our own affairs in order so that we are in a better position to promote the classically liberal ideas of freedom and liberty abroad. Such affairs include a porous southern border, thirty trillion dollars in outstanding debt, eight-plus percent inflation, a growing epidemic of crime, and deteriorating infrastructure. To prioritize these issues, we must spurn the foreign entanglements that our forefathers warned us of, which is the crux of our conflict.
MAGA has come to understand that the crux of our conflict is an age-old conflict of Jeffersonian vs. Hamiltonian policy. A decentralized government of the people vs. an omnipotent centralized authority. This debate has shifted from one of federalism to one of globalism. Whereas our founding saw a struggle between the states and Washington DC, our current struggle is one to maintain sovereignty over authoritarian global governance. Whether the centralized authority is the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, or some yet-to-be-formed governing body, MAGA recognizes that the further a government gets from its people, the less free the people become.
The left spectrum struggles to comprehend how such a large bloc of the electorate can unify behind a boisterous man like Donald Trump because they arrive at their political adherence first and foremost by how they identify with politicians. This is why they make assumptions about the motives of MAGA voters who wish to secure our southern border. A desire to stave off rampant waves of crime and trafficking or to turn off the spigot of an already insolvent welfare system is not sufficient an explanation for them. They must instead chalk the America First policy up to character flaws like bigotry or racism.
Our system is comprised of insiders and outsiders. Those within the sphere of influence violently oppose the MAGA movement because it represents a challenge to their ill-gotten authority. This is why opposition arises on both sides of the political aisle and is often referred to as the Uniparty.
MAGA represents a public that was asleep but has awakened and is actively revoking its consent to represent it. As MAGA declares its sovereignty, the system lashes out as all authoritarians do. This is why attacks on Donald Trump only embolden MAGA on the righteousness of their cause. As the man has said, “It’s not me. It’s you they’re after. I’m just standing in the way.”
Photo by Natilyn Hicks (Natilyn Photography) on Unsplash
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