by Thaddeus G. McCotter
MAGA seeks to reform government to restore liberty; the DSA seeks to expand government to remake America into a socialist state.
[This is the second in a two-part series comparing the two populist antagonists MAGA and the DSA. The first installment regarding their similarities can be found here.]
America’s dueling populist movements, the Right’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) and the Left’s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), both believe a powerful, unaccountable entity or entities are unfairly exploiting them and obstructing their personal pursuit of happiness, often colluding among themselves to do so.
Exacerbating the situation, at least one of these powerful organizations, the government, is charged with protecting the individual from this very exploitation. Consequently, it is the collusion between the “Bigs” into what G. K. Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc deemed “business government” that the respective populist movements seek to remedy.
Yet, here is where MAGA and the DSA radically differ in their prescriptions. This springs from how each populist movement perceives America.
MAGA believes America is an exceptional nation in need of substantive reforms, with the goal being to protect the individual from the collective.
The DSA believes America is an irredeemably exploitative nation in need of radical transformation, with the goal being to promote the collective over the individual.
For all the media’s wailing and gnashing of teeth, MAGA is not a radical movement but a reformist one. Indeed, in instances of border security and immigration, MAGA is largely not advocating new laws but the enforcement of existing laws.
It is the same with voter security. Preventing voter fraud and ensuring only citizens vote in American elections is far from a novel idea. It is a call to restore the full power of citizens to self-govern and, yes, for civic sanity.
Further, MAGA’s call for the return of domestic industries that have been outsourced overseas, including through the imposition of tariffs to facilitate that return and balance the trade deficit, has long been a plank of the Democrat Party. Thus, MAGA’s support for them is actually an instance of bipartisan consensus. Equally, the movement’s call to curb the excesses of multinational corporations, especially Big Tech, is far from a radical right-wing proposition, as it too has resonance within leftist circles, notably in the area of AI regulation.
In international relations, the MAGA base’s neo-isolationism that rejects “forever wars” and foreign interventionism is also in bipartisan accord with the “peace wing” of the Democrat party that disdains American intervention as inherently dangerous and imperialist.
In sum, the MAGA agenda is aimed at curbing the excesses of both government and corporations to engender an equilibrium that facilitates—or at least does not obstruct—the individual’s pursuit of happiness, which the movement avers makes America an inspiring, revolutionary experiment in self-government.
Contrarily believing America is historically and intrinsically racist, sexist, homophobic, imperialist, etc., the DSA agenda eschews reform for radical, fundamental change.
In foreign affairs, though, the DSA agenda is a relatively traditional left-wing one. It wants to slash defense spending, shutter overseas bases, and redeploy troops home. While demanding an end to economic sanctions against communist and/or terrorist-sponsoring states, such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran, the DSA seeks to terminate all U.S. military and economic aid to our ally Israel. Of course, it would recognize a Palestinian state, as well as the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.
It is in domestic affairs that the DSA’s radical agenda springs to the fore. It seeks public ownership of large corporations and critical industries; higher taxes on corporations and the rich; a shorter workweek with no reductions in pay or benefits; and more powerful unions.
Social programs, too, are to be immensely (and expensively) expanded. Public education from cradle through college would be free, and all student debt would be cancelled. Universal health care would be “free” to patients, including abortion and gender transition procedures. There would also be publicly funded housing and universal rent control for private residences. Further, there would be paid family leave and free childcare, although there may well be less of it due to their support for abortion on demand, including partial birth abortion.
On top of the typical socialist temptation of trading freedom for “free” stuff, the DSA wants the border demilitarized and open and immigrant detention facilities closed, and restrictions on migrant workers ended. Once in the country, migrants would be able to vote despite being noncitizens. And there will be more such individuals, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would be abolished.
The DSA would also grant full voting rights to individuals with criminal convictions. Under the DSA agenda, this will become less burdensome, as they also support defunding the police by steering monies to community services.
If the DSA has its way, citizens and noncitizens alike will be voting under a radically restructured, more massive, and more invasive federal government under a new constitution. It would institute a single federal legislature based on proportional representation and elect the president by popular vote, not the Electoral College. Prior to the implementation of this unicameral body, the DSA aims to expand membership of the House and end the Senate filibuster. The Supreme Court, too, will see its power of judicial review reduced. More nebulously, the DSA wants to end the two major parties and the influence of money in campaigns and move to a multi-party system.
All in all, in a curious case of illogic, the DSA seeks to empower the very government that has colluded with corporations. The theory seems to be that electing enough DSA members to public office is a sufficient reform that will allow for the vast expansion of governmental powers necessary to remake America into a socialist state.
Ergo, the DSA’s desire to erode many of the very checks and balances that help protect Americans’ unalienable rights would accelerate the rise of a totalitarian state that would coerce and compel our nation’s sovereign citizens into a socialist serfdom found in the “warm embrace of the collective.”
In conclusion, while the causes of the MAGA and DSA populist movements are similar, thus allowing for rare and specific instances of agreement, the overarching differences between their agendas are as stark and irreconcilable as their respective views of America and the power of its government.
A reformist MAGA seeks to “drain the swamp” to “make America great again.”
A radical DSA seeks to empower government to “flood the zone” to create a socialist hellscape.
And a frustrated electorate just wants practical results that work for them.
Students of history know of the failures and horrors of socialism. But they also know that in trying times, the temptation to trade freedom for “free stuff” can be powerful.
And that the DSA is banking on it.
Better to preemptively deposit their agenda into history’s dustbin with other failed socialist experiments and rededicate ourselves to reforming, restoring, and redeeming America’s revolutionary experiment in liberty, equality, and, above all, self-government.
Photo: Supporters of President Donald J. Trump watch while he speaks. At the Reading Regional Airport in Bern Township, PA Saturday afternoon October 31, 2020 where United States President Donald J. Trump spoke during a campaign rally for his bid for reelection.
Thaddeus G. McCotter is an American Greatness contributor. The Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter
(M.C., Ret.) represented Michigan’s 11th Congressional district from
2003 to 2012 and served as Chair of the Republican House Policy
Committee. Not a lobbyist, he is a frequent public speaker and moderator
for public policy seminars, and a Monday co-host of the "John Batchelor Show" among sundry media appearances.
Source: https://amgreatness.com/2026/08/22/maga-and-the-dsa-part-two-differences-between-these-populist-antagonists/
No comments:
Post a Comment