The Genesis of MAGA

An Economic Movement, Not A Fascist Takeover

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN

A political slogan meant to unify, a phrase first brought forward by President Reagan, has been bastardized for years by the rhetoric of those who hold the megaphone for the elites in this country for eight years. The term was canonized by Donald Trump’s presidential run and victory in 2016, but the ideas and supporters of the movement began growing before he entered the political scene.

This movement started on December 8, 1993, when Bill Clinton signed NAFTA into law, but it gained momentum when China entered the WTO in 2001. These free trade policies led to the US losing a quarter of all manufacturing jobs, from 16.8 million jobs to 12.6 million jobs during the Clinton and Bush Administrations. To add insult to injury, the last few years of the Clinton Administration led to the deregulation of the financial industry with the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which ultimately lit the fuse for the crisis that exploded in 2008. When the house of cards built on the greed of these financial institutions came tumbling down, the Bush Administration's solution was to pass the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which purchased the risky bets the banks had made on mortgage-backed securities to bail them out, while 10 million Americans ended up displaced and foreclosed upon because of the collapse.

While the middle and working class was hollowed out over this timeframe, the DoD, the Bush Administration, and much of the press misled us into the Iraq War under false pretenses, leading to the deaths of 4,400 Americans, with many of the soldiers coming from areas hardest hit by our trade policies. This foolish war, for which we still have 2,500 troops deployed in Iraq, has added trillions of dollars to our national debt and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. It also left many of our bravest grappling with the emotional pain of seeing their brothers-in-arms lose their lives and limbs for a war that, in hindsight, was pointless.

These policy failures, while globalization took hold and wealth inequality rose, led to the rise of two smaller political movements: The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street. These movements helped highlight all those Americans who felt left behind by the globalized economy. These distinct movements shared many of the same ideas as MAGA: a future for America that dealt with rising inequality, a smaller federal government with a balanced budget, anti-neocon isolationist policies, and the return of a robust and more technologically advanced manufacturing base. Though both of these political movements stalled in the early to mid-2010s, I would argue that MAGA largely took up their torch.

Some in the media and on the left have said that MAGA is about returning to a Jim Crow 1950s version of America, where those of a different skin color have fewer rights and economic freedoms. Others believe it's the rise of fascism and the creation of a Fourth Reich. This rhetoric is meant to scare the college-educated electorate from ever considering the movement on a deeper level. This fearmongering doesn't stand up to criticism when we take these major policy missteps and the subsequent economic fallout into account."

When one takes a deeper look at how educational attainment has impacted life in America, we see that it's not just a story of people being left behind financially—though those with a bachelor's degree make $2.8M compared to $1.6M for those with only a high school diploma. It also paints a darker picture in terms of life expectancy.

Many in America have been left behind, especially those without a high level of educational attainment. These are the folks impacted by unfettered illegal immigration across the US Southern Border, as these migrants put pressure on their wages. The Rachel Maddows and Joe Scarboroughs of the world don’t lose their jobs to illegal immigrants; those with only a high school diploma do. These immigrants also consume benefits that should go to those left behind by the globalized economy, costing US taxpayers $150 billion per year instead of supporting Americans. The same Democrats who used to stand for the middle and working classes of America are now the party of the educated elite. In 2020, those who made up 70% of GDP voted for Joe Biden, while only 30% voted for Donald Trump. This is what MAGA and America First are all about: helping those left behind by our current economic system and the political capture of our government by elites.

The MAGA movement and Donald Trump’s platform can be summarized in one sentence. Make the US economy and the Federal Government work for all Americans, not just those who own shares in Raytheon or work for NGOs that get large government checks. It's about shoring up our security at home by closing the border, not only to protect the working class's wages but also to ensure our enemies don't use that open door to bring in combatants. The threat of enemy combatants using the Southern Border to enter the country has become a real concern. During the Biden administration, encounters of individuals on terror watchlists by the US Border Patrol on the Southern Border have increased significantly.

US. Customs and Border Protection

Abroad, the wars caused by foolish neocon policies continue, even though they've left countries in the Middle East and Africa unstable and largely destroyed. We're currently climbing the escalation ladder towards nuclear armageddon in Ukraine. How anyone could support a war that would push us in that direction is beyond comprehension. Peace through strength, as Reagan put it, is the path Trump was on in his first term. He was the only President since Jimmy Carter not to start a new war, and I expect he will pursue the path of peace again. The ongoing foreign wars and the war on terror have brought no prosperity to the American people at large; instead, they have driven the immigration crises in Europe and America and ballooned our National Debt.

The weaponization of government we’ve seen conducted by the FBI and CISA pre bunking the Hunter Biden laptop controversy, the retaliation against whistleblowers in the IRS and FBI, and the FBI literally showing up at a citizen’s residence because of their speech must end. Kamala and the rest of the democrats continue to say Trump will be the one to weaponize the government and censor speech, but they are the ones who have taken action against the American people.

That's the key conflict behind all of this. The Democrats present a message of fear over the things Trump has said about the 'enemy within,' or they compare his rally in MSG to a Nazi rally. Trump and his team, however, highlight not what the Democrats and establishment say, but rather what the many presidential administrations of the last three decades have done to, or failed to do for, the American people.