[ McCarthy got his gavel, but MAGA pulls his strings. The GOP is
comfy with armed fascists, SCOTUS is rolling back the 20th century.
Time to get busy.]
[[link removed]]

THE MAGA THREAT IS GREATER TODAY THAN IT WAS IN 2020  
[[link removed]]


 

Max Elbaum
January 13, 2023
Convergence
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ McCarthy got his gavel, but MAGA pulls his strings. The GOP is
comfy with armed fascists, SCOTUS is rolling back the 20th century.
Time to get busy. _

Proud Boys scream at counterprotesters near McPherson Square,
Washington, DC, December 2020. Police had separated the two groups.,
photo credit: Tyrone Turner/WAMU // NPR

 

_“__FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR, A FASCIST PARTY
HAS TAKEN CONTROL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES._ (I define a party
as fascist if it does not accept legitimate election results and does
not reject political violence; check, check.)” 

_—Michael Podhorzer, _Weekend Reading, November 22, 2022
[[link removed]]

Lots of hard work and savvy grassroots organizing stopped MAGA
election deniers from winning battleground Senate seats and offices
controlling election machinery last November. Celebrating that
achievement—and noting the ways it put a wrench in MAGA’s 2024
coup plans—was and is totally appropriate. 

But let’s get real about what MAGA did achieve. The bitter truth is
that MAGA is more dangerous and better positioned to take political
power in this country than it was in 2020. 

FRACAS IN THE HOUSE SHOWS ULTRA-MAGA IS IN CHARGE

The backstabbing fracas among Republicans over who would be Speaker of
the House had some entertainment value. And no doubt it alienated some
voters from the GOP. But from beginning to end, the underlying
politics of the battle proved that Podhorzer’s point quoted above
was right on target. Kevin McCarthy may be sitting in the Speaker’s
chair, but the fascists-in-suits of the “Freedom Caucus” are
calling the shots. 

No way it could be otherwise. Podhorzer again hit the nail on the
head, writing that
[[link removed]] “the
Republican Caucus taking power in January will be even less committed
to the peaceful transfer of power than the one it succeeds, having
purged nearly every one of its members who voted to impeach Trump the
second time. Jim Jordan, who assisted the insurrectionists and refused
to testify before the January 6th Committee, will chair the Judiciary
Committee.” 

With Jordan at the pivot, House investigations of the January 6
Committee, as well as the FBI and other security agencies, were
approved as part of McCarthy’s concession list to become Speaker.
These need to be understood for what they are: projects designed to
protect and legitimize right-wing militia and paramilitary violence
and prepare the ground for more of it in the years to come. The timing
may be a coincidence, but it’s no accident that leading MAGA figures
such as Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller are key advisors to Jair
Bolsonaro [[link removed]], whose
supporters just rioted and invaded government buildings in Brazil
January 6-style. 

A few so-called moderates groused a little about the terms under which
the most extreme MAGA stalwarts will pull McCarthy’s strings. But
not a single one pushed back against the dictat by election deniers
and 2020 coupsters. The House majority is now openly aligned with the
January 6 insurrectionists against those who defended what remains of
US democracy: Only one of the 222 House Republicans
[[link removed]] attended
the January 6 ceremony honoring police officers and others who faced
violent assault from the MAGA faithful.

MAGA OPERATIVES RUN THE SUPREME COURT

Likewise, the current SCOTUS majority are not jurists who have any
kind of “conservative” principles. They are as much political
operatives as the members of the Freedom Caucus in the House, products
of a systematic (and openly proclaimed) 40-year effort by the
Federalist Society to turn the judiciary into an instrument of its
reactionary political agenda. To today’s Supreme Court “The
20th Century Was Wrongly Decided
[[link removed]].”  

The Court majority and the entire MAGA coalition it serves
are committed to “repealing
[[link removed]] the
New Deal and Great Society safety net; unions and protections for
working people; environmental regulations, civil and human rights for
anyone who is not a white straight cisgender Christian male, and the
very concept of public goods.” Put another way, they’re gunning
for your Social Security and Medicare, your rights to vote, control
your body, breathe clean air.

RED WAVE HIT 35 STATES

Another indication of MAGA’s continuing strength is the midterm
results in states where a blatant MAGA election denier was not
contending for either the governorship or a Senate seat. In the 15
states where such MAGA candidates were prominent, the anti-MAGA
majority turned out and prevailed. But in the other 35 states, the
results were very close to the expected “red wave.”
[[link removed]] Republican
turnout exceeded Democratic turnout. Black voter turnout was down,
with both voter suppression and weaknesses in Democratic and
progressive efforts contributing to the problem. 

The problem was especially acute in the South. Chris Kromm, writing
in _Facing South_
[[link removed]],
points out that “Republicans gained about 55 legislative seats” in
that region. He added that “Republicans hold majorities in all of
the South’s 26 legislative chambers save one: the Virginia Senate,
where Democrats cling to a narrow 21 – 19 majority.”

Republicans hold trifectas—control of both the legislatures and the
governorship—in 22 states. And with “states’ rights” coming
back courtesy of the MAGA Supreme Court
[[link removed]],
we can expect to see more voter suppression, more gerrymandering, and
more repressive legislation generally everywhere the GOP holds power.
These states will become “authoritarian enclaves”
[[link removed]] within
the U.S. federal system, reprising a model of government pioneered in
the Jim Crow South after the rollback of Reconstruction.

TRUMP MAY BE FADING, MAGA IS NOT

Then there’s all the media buzz about the GOP “moving beyond Trump
[[link removed]],”
complete with coverage of the maneuvers undertaken by other
Republicans with presidential ambitions. Trump may indeed be fading,
but rather than marking MAGA’s decline, his demise is a sign that
the torch is passing to leaders who bring a more disciplined and
strategic approach to the drive toward one-party authoritarian rule. 

Among those, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis currently has the inside
track. DeSantis has “already absorbed all the lessons of Trump
[[link removed]]…without
the baggage,” notes Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian at New York
University who is an expert on fascism and the author of _STRONGMEN:
MUSSOLINI TO THE PRESENT_ [[link removed]]. 

DeSantis “already rules Florida the way a fascist would
[[link removed]],
if that fascist were an American politician without access to his own
military force who did not (yet) enjoy the power to shut down media he
did not like.” His latest stunt—demanding an investigation of
medical experts
[[link removed]] who
offered accurate information during the pandemic—only underscores
how absolutely ruthless he is.

All across MAGA world, the level of coordination between
office-holders, top Republican officials, and armed fascist groups is
now a matter of record, documented in  several sections of the
January 6 Committee Report
[[link removed]].
Active participation with or acquiescence to that
coordination—meaning support for right-wing political violence—is
now all but universal in the GOP. And valuable as the January 6 report
is, it doesn’t point out the central roles Christian Nationalism
[[link removed]] and white
supremacy
[[link removed]] play
in the worldview and practical strategy that drove the
insurrection—and still pervades the MAGA-controlled GOP today.

2024: A COUP IN DIFFERENT FORM

As MAGA prepares for 2024, Fox News and other right-wing media,
weaponized white evangelical churches, and well-funded efforts to
spread disinformation further buttress their bid for total
governmental power. The tactics they’ll use are unlikely to
duplicate those of 2020. But the goal—replacing majority rule with a
white minority theocratic state
[[link removed]]—the
U.S. variant of fascism – remains the same.

It’s going to take an outpouring of resistance even greater than
2020 to simply hold the MAGA vs. anti-MAGA stalemate
[[link removed]] we
have now, much less push MAGA to the margins and start a new
progressive cycle in U.S. politics. Resistance must be full-spectrum
– electoral engagement to defeat MAGA candidates at every level in
the 2024 balloting is absolutely essential but not enough. Year-round
organizing in key constituencies; day-in and day-out fights over
issues that affect the rights, health, and well-being of the popular
majority; and the construction of a more united social justice trend
[[link removed]] that
can take independent initiative are also a must. 

Turning those general guidelines into concrete strategies and plans is
complicated. But getting focused and staying focused on the level of
danger posed by MAGA’s drive for power is the crucial first step.

_[MAX ELBAUM is a member of the Convergence Magazine editorial board
and the author of Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to
Lenin, Mao and Che 
[[link removed]](Verso
Books, Third Edition, 2018), a history of the 1970s-‘80s 'New
Communist Movement' in which he was an active participant. He is also
a co-editor, with Linda Burnham and María Poblet, of Power Concedes
Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections 
[[link removed]](OR Books, 2022).]_

* Kevin McCarthy
[[link removed]]
* Freedom Caucus
[[link removed]]
* Republican Party
[[link removed]]
* Donald Trump
[[link removed]]
* MAGA
[[link removed]]
* House of Representatives
[[link removed]]
* GOP
[[link removed]]
* Congress
[[link removed]]
* 2022 Elections
[[link removed]]
* 2024 Elections
[[link removed]]
* Fascism
[[link removed]]
* Ron DeSantis
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]