The Ideology that brought us here
Heather Cox Richardson on the ideology of MAGA
The MAGA Ideology That Brought Us to This Moment [link to her video]
I am a great fan of Dr. Heather Cox Richardson. I read her post every morning and have started watching her videos. There are a lot of them. I mostly resonate with her perspective, but there were two points of divergence in a recent post/video that I want to note here. One has to do with the central feature of the MAGA ethos, and the other has to do with our reason for hope.
HCR notes that the central claim of MAGA and of authoritarian movements in general is that some people are better than others. Because some are better, they should get better treatment. And since the preferred structure is a dominance hierarchy, one is the best of all.
My concern with this analysis is that some in fact are better than others at some things. And I rely on those who do things better than I to do for me certain things. It makes sense that we notice those who do things well and honor and appreciate them for what they do. From my perspective, we don't do enough to honor those who do the things that enrich our lives.
Nevertheless, I don't find those who are skilled at amassing great wealth to be doing something worthy of honor. Indeed, for the most part, they are the best at being selfish and self-centered. The problem with authoritarianism is that it elevates those who are the most morally bankrupt. It claims as necessary such abominations as the institution of slavery and she notes that the rise of ICE as a dominant force will enable such abominations.
So for me the question is more about what we believe about empowering those who are already powerful. Do we want a society that is shaped by privilege? The dismantling of DEI is ostensibly about treating everyone the same, but it restores and protects existing privilege. Do we believe that privilege makes for a better society?
Some folks insist that privilege doesn't exist. Maybe we need to say this a different way. Do we create the strongest, most stable, healthiest society by resourcing those who have the most, or by helping those who have the least. It is abundantly clear from HCR's teaching that resourcing the least is the best way to create a strong community.
The latter parts of this video speak to the question of whether there is reason for hope in the midst of an administration that is building the largest policing body in the history of the nation in a manner that is not accountable to any authority outside of the whim of our President.
HCR's hope rests in the observation that we are a huge country with a long history of building justice and the presence of institutions [like the State of Illinois] that can withstand the deformations of MAGA. But ultimately this hope rests on the collective actions of the American people and the political actions of the Democratic Party.
My hope arises a bit differently. I favor the policies of the Democrats over those of MAGA [I no longer know what the Republicans want] but I am not a great fan of much of what the Democrats stand for and mostly have a problem with the two-party system itself. So, yes, Democratic victories in the polls in 2026 and 2028 would be a good thing… but that relies on there actually being midterm elections.
My faith is less in the Democratic Party, or even in the Constitution itself, than in the science of complex adaptive systems. The policies of MAGA are not just a bad idea because of what they do to the poor and the under resourced of our society, they are a bad idea because they ignore basic principles like the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Entropy will accelerate the more we have closed borders.
They are a bad idea because of the impact of positive feedback loops upon a system with finite resources. Infinite growth will destroy the economic system itself. Uniformity impoverishes the community while diversity brings vitality. Dominance hierarchies are unnatural structures which require destabilizing amounts of disorder to even exist. To the extent that there are still monarchies in the world, they are symbolic, not authors of governance. MAGA will necessarily fail because it is not in accord with reality.
And so my hope is not in the failure of MAGA. It is doomed. My hope is in the imaginative communities that are already envisioning and living into new ways of being that will be in harmony with the laws of nature such that they are secure, satisfying, and sustainable. I think Gandhi said something like, "Be the justice you seek." My hope rests in our power now to live in relationships with each other that create the fabric of the new nation, the one that is now arising and will be the phoenix that rises from the ashes of MAGA-nation.