[ A GOP presidential and congressional win in 2024 would bring a
national abortion ban, national right to work law; more tax cuts for
the rich; an eliminationist program for transgender people; Jim Crow
2; a new McCarthyism and COINTELPRO for the left.]
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STRATEGY IN THE TIME OF MAGA: BLOCK AND BUILD  
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Max Elbaum
July 21, 2023
Common Dreams [[link removed]]

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_ A GOP presidential and congressional win in 2024 would bring a
national abortion ban, national right to work law; more tax cuts for
the rich; an eliminationist program for transgender people; Jim Crow
2; a new McCarthyism and COINTELPRO for the left. _

Kyle Rittenhouse, center, speaks during the 'Defend our 2A:
Michigan's Right for Self Preservation' event on Wednesday, July 19,
2023, at Freedom Farms in Ionia Township. At left, Phil Robinson, of
the Michigan Liberty Militia, stands next to Rittenhouse., Nick
King/Lansing State Journal

 

The following is a slightly edited version of a presentation made to a
forum sponsored by the San Francisco Gray Panthers on July 18, 2023.
The presentation covered three points: (1) the nature of the threat
from the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) bloc; (2) the key
elements of MAGA’s strategy to take power and impose authoritarian
rule and a white Christian Nationalist agenda; and (3) a summary of
the “Block and Build” strategy to defeat MAGA and shift the
direction of the country.

The MAGA Threat

The front page headline on the July 17 _New York Times_ was,
“Trump and Allies Forge Plans to Increase Presidential Power in
2025.
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The article underneath contained extensive quotes from former
President Donald Trump’s political team about their plans to bring
every federal agency directly under president’s control if Trump
wins in 2024. The Justice Department will become his political police,
the EPA will become a tool of the fossil fuel industry, NLRB will
become a union-busting weapon, and so on. Trump will claim the right
to “impound funds” Congress has authorized, meaning Trump could
unilaterally cut Medicare and Social Security.

A Republican presidential and congressional victory in 2024 would also
bring a national abortion ban and national right to work law; more tax
cuts for the rich; an eliminationist program for transgender people;
Jim Crow 2.0; and a combination of McCarthyism and COINTELPRO for the
left.

Trump’s 2016 victory was the product of 50 years of organizing
driven by two of the most deeply rooted forces in U.S. society: a wing
of the capitalist class rooted in the fossil fuel industry and
libertarian billionaires like the Koch brothers, and the layers of
people of many classes who are wedded to ordering society with clear
racial and gender hierarchies.

The drive for that agenda is not new. It is the latest phase of the
60-year backlash against the gains of 1960s and the 1930s that began
within hours of passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Trump’s
2016 victory was the product of 50 years of organizing driven by two
of the most deeply rooted forces in U.S. society: a wing of the
capitalist class rooted in the fossil fuel industry and libertarian
billionaires like the Koch brothers, and the layers of people of many
classes who are wedded to ordering society with clear racial and
gender hierarchies.

An outpouring of resistance by the larger but fragmented and
less-well-organized anti-MAGA majority prevented MAGA from achieving
its goals via the 2018, 2020, and 2022 elections. This has produced a
kind of stalemate between the MAGA and anti-MAGA blocs. The drama
being played out today centers on whether MAGA will succeed in gaining
full federal power in 2024; and, if they are beaten back, what will be
the character of the anti-MAGA governing coalition.

The MAGA Strategy

MAGA has already gotten dangerously far in its quest for unlimited
power. It has captured the Republican Party and the Supreme Court. It
holds trifectas (the governorship and legislative majorities) in 22
states. It is lavishly financed, has an organized political base in
the white Evangelical Churches, and has a powerful narrative that
appeals to white grievance and provides a deep sense of meaning and
empowerment to those who accept it. MAGA has an unmatched propaganda
and disinformation apparatus in _Fox News_ and other right-wing
media. Its loyalists are active within the armed bodies of the state
at all levels. And it has incorporated openly white supremacist and
fascist militias into its coalition to serve as modern day
brownshirts.

All this was the product of decades of work guided by a sophisticated
strategy. MAGA operatives studied the rise of fascism in Germany and
Italy and knew that the fascists first came to power by legal and
constitutional means. Once they had it, they used it to eliminate all
opposition.

MAGA’s goal is to use disinformation, voter suppression, and
gerrymandering—concentrating on battleground states and swing
districts—to win full control of the federal government in 2024.

MAGA strategists then developed a strategy to take and retrain power
[[link removed]] adapted
to the particular constitution and electoral system of the U.S. This
country has no constitutional protection of the right to vote or of
each person’s vote counting equally. The Voting Rights Act addressed
that deep flaw, but it was not part of the Constitution itself and
right-wing strategists knew it could be overturned to allow massive
voter suppression and gerrymandering. There is no constitutional ban
on money unduly influencing elections. The Electoral College and
Senate system is racially biased in favor of small, mostly white
states.

The right, via organizations like the Federalist Society, played the
long game. After decades of organizing, they managed to gut campaign
finance restrictions and the Voting Rights Act. We can see the results
in states like Wisconsin and North Carolina, which are about evenly
divided between MAGA and anti-MAGA voters, but gerrymandering gives
the Republicans control
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the legislatures. States like Texas and Florida are
already implementing key elements of the authoritarian agenda
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they are accurately termed “laboratories for fascism.”

MAGA’s goal is to use disinformation, voter suppression, and
gerrymandering—concentrating on battleground states and swing
districts—to win full control of the federal government in 2024.

Block and Build

The U.S. majority opposes
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MAGA agenda. When it’s clear MAGA is on the ballot, MAGA candidates
lose.

But the majority is not sufficiently organized and united. And within
the anti-MAGA majority, progressives are not yet the largest and most
influential force. There are promising developments in labor and
youth-led movements around climate change, mass incarceration, and gun
violence, as well as massive anti-MAGA energy among women and in the
LGBTQ community. But it will take time and deep organizing to turn
this sentiment into enough durable, institutionalized progressive
clout to shape the full agenda of the anti-MAGA coalition and the
country.

We can get the time and democratic space to build that clout of we can
block MAGA in 2024. MAGA hopes to take power through electoral action,
and we cannot afford to cede that terrain to the authoritarian GOP. We
need to defeat MAGA candidates up and down the line and protect the
result. If we do so while building the independent strength of
grassroots progressive groups and functioning as the most resolute
opponents of MAGA on every battlefront, we can move the country toward
a robust multiracial, gender-inclusive democracy and deep structural
change.

_[MAX ELBAUM is on the Editorial Board of Convergence Magazine and is
the co-editor, with Linda Burnham and Maria Poblet, of Power Concedes
Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections
[[link removed]].]_

_Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to
republish and share widely._
 

* 2024 Elections
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* Donald Trump
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* Republican Party
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* GOP
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* MAGA
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* House GOP
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* Fascism
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* Democratic Party
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* Right-wing agenda
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