The stark truth is that this applies to liberals as well as conservatives. I’m again using a column from The Hill to make a vital strategic point for the MAGA movement:
Tinkerbell politics won’t save progressive Democrats
This progressive ‘Tinkerbell politics’ holds that electoral losses happen because we either didn’t nominate a true believer — someone who champions progressive ideals loudly and without compromise — or because we, collectively, didn’t believe strongly enough in those ideals. In this telling, any defeat is the fault of those deemed insufficiently passionate, loyal or pure.
Does this also apply to MAGA conservatives? “You betchum, Red Ryder” as Little Beaver often said.
Each of the main factions that united to elect Trump has its own brand of ideological fairy dust.
Neo-isolationists believe our nation is best served by the fairy dust of avoiding foreign entanglements, without regard for how this can strengthen our many wannabe mortal enemies. I agree that trying to be involved everywhere on the planet is foolish and costly. Selective foreign “entanglements” are, however, essential for our economy and defense.
Balanced budget absolutists favor the fairy dust of spending cuts that yield budgets limited to collected tax revenues. I agree this is a crucial goal. However, doing this quickly after leftists, and George W. Bush, have swamped our economy with debt is economic suicide.
Religious conservatives believe in the fairy dust of religious culture controlling social agendas as it did a century ago. I agree that religion is a valuable social glue. However, government enforced religion would have a lethal impact on our Western civilization’s republican governments and personal liberties.
Business conservatives believe in the fairy dust of unrestricted corporate commerce, damn near no taxes, and damn near no legal punishment for the damages they cause. I agree that humanity’s innate greed and personal ambitions are wonderfully effective attributes for creating innovations and wealth to fuel economic and technological progress. However, unbridled ambition and greed often produces grinding poverty and cruel tyrannies.
Each conservative faction, including those not mentioned, has its fairy dust of pure values that will cure crucial problems if everyone would only embrace those pure values and fight harder for them.
Fortunately for the MAGA movement, we are blessed with a unifying, pragmatic leader that understands he must have all the competing factions working together to win votes that get things accomplished. That’s why Trump frequently disappoints some of us by not adhering to our own particularly preferred brand of fairy dust.
Hopefully, MAGA’s competing factions will keep working together well enough to win more elections in 2026 and 2028. If we don’t, then we likely kill our hope of making America great again by defeating the left’s destructive and disgusting varieties of fairy dust.
Victory is in sight for MAGA conservatives. Let us not be blinded by our loyalty to a single variety of fairy dust. Human nature ensures that we will always have a variety of conflicting beliefs and goals, but you only win as part of a coalition.
So, buckle up and accept the reality of differing factions in our coalition. If that means faking unity and being affable to other factions, then up your capacity for civility a few notches, otherwise we lose. At a minimum, not publicly criticizing coalition allies should be the rule. Squabbling behind closed doors and a friendly demeanor in public is workable.
It’s vastly better to belong to a winning coalition than a losing coalition that rips itself asunder.
And, MAGA still needs to primary at least the worst of RINOs out of office. A bit of coalition discipline is also necessary to maintain power.
Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr, unaltered.