The End of Partisan Politics
The left-right binary is broken. It’s time to realign.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the political dynamics in the US have shifted and how our strategies to counter MAGA and the discourse regarding how we talk about the MAGA Right haven’t really caught up with the present moment.
This week, the Southern Poverty Law Center released its annual Year in Hate and Extremism Report. The headline finding is that the number of hate and anti-government groups dropped in the US, mainly because the beliefs and ideology these groups espouse are now in the U.S. political mainstream. Hate is the official policy of the U.S. What’s the point of an anti-government militia when the government is now doing everything you want? You don’t need to join a hate group anymore because your interests now control the Federal government, the Supreme Court, and hold a majority in Congress.
The United States of America has become the kind of country that white supremacists, Christian nationalists, tech oligarchs, and various other subgroups have long envisioned. Most of them probably never actually thought theirs would be a dream realized, especially not through elections rather than purely through political violence, but here we are.
These folks have long wanted a government that primarily exists to uphold white supremacy and cause harm to everyone else. A government where already rich and powerful men can further enrich themselves. We’re now living in their fantasy realized, and it’s as hellish as any dystopian novel.
Donald Trump and the MAGA regime wield their power freely and don’t even bother trying to hide the corruption. Convicted criminals who can find someone to pay their way into Mar-a-Lago and beg on their behalf are pardoned. As are the once and future foot soldiers from the January 6 insurrection. In the White House, Trump does the bidding of a lobbying group of White South Afrikaners, not even bothering to pretend to care about the interests of America when meeting with South Africa’s President.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world is left to rot. Government agencies have stopped bothering with the public interest and now serve the MAGA Regime and the whims of folks like Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and Robert Kennedy Jr. Instead of working for the American people, government agencies now investigate the MAGA Regime’s political opponents. Every agency has been weaponized to enrich Trump and his cronies, harm their enemies, and leave no crumbs for anyone else. America is being robbed blind and stripped for parts.
Given where we’re at, terms like left, right, nonpartisan, and bipartisan don’t feel especially useful for political organizing anymore. These are no longer the power dynamics at play. I’ve begun to think more around a spectrum of tolerance of the MAGA Regime and its goals. Here’s how I break it down:
Open Carry MAGA: These are the true believers. Those who got everything they wanted, many of whom were willing to risk everything to get here. They worship Donald Trump or support the ideology that governs by.
Flirting with Fascism: These folks have a variety of opinions on Trump personally, but they’re willing to go along for the sake of their own interests. They’re wealthy, powerful, and primarily interested in upholding a system that keeps them firmly in charge. They’re willing to spend considerable resources in service of that goal. (They complain about woke the most.)
Team White Flag: The capitulators and the wait-it-out crowd. These folks are primarily interested in saving their own necks and think that appeasement or silence will protect them. They’ll cave early and often at the slightest hint of aggression from the Trump Regime.
The Inactivists: This group is people who should be with us but aren’t being especially helpful right now. They’re continuing to play by the old rules and not acknowledging the reality of where things stand. They might also have tuned out of politics entirely.
The Courage to Fight: People who understand the risks of opposing the Trump Regime and are willing to stand up, speak truth to power, and put some skin in the game anyway. If you’re reading CARD, you are probably in this group.
This isn’t a perfect spectrum, but I think it’s a helpful way to rethink who our allies and opponents are (as well as who is simply in the way). It’s long past time to reorganize how we’re operating, funding, and what our goals are. Once we let go of the left-right binary and recalibrate our strategy around this political realignment, we can let go of a system built on the way we’ve always done things and become a stronger movement organized around where people actually are.
ICYMI
A Weaponized AI Chatbot Is Flooding City Councils With Climate Misinformation (Canada’s National Observer)
I stumbled on this article while searching for recent case studies for an upcoming training. It’s a fascinating example of where AI misinformation is headed. It also does a good job of outlining what’s ahead in the near future.
There Are Two Gen Zs (Vox)
I have been obsessed with this Gen Z divide ever since someone clued me into how election data was looking a few months back. It explains a lot about how and why I incorrectly assumed Harris would win the election in the end. It also pairs with some of what I’ve heard anecdotally from parents, therapists, and educators about the COVID pandemic’s impact on the well-being of this age group. And what I know about the radicalization of young men online.
AI-Powered Fanfiction Blurs Political Reality (Semafor)
I have no words. From Dave Weigel, “Hard to avoid on TikTok, YouTube or Facebook, AI-generated slop has become a barometer of political fame, just as it has of pop culture celebrity. Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, and presidential family members regularly appear in fake stories with tidy narratives. They fly under the radar. They sometimes get more views than real-world political reporting that’s not built for the algorithms.”
Hot Farmers, Trad Wives, and an Immigrant Reality Show: Welcome to TV’s MAGA Era (Wired)
For years, the left has dominated pop culture, and now, as corporate America seems desperate to appease the Trump regime, we find ourselves on the outs. Which means there will be a lot more crap like this on our screens for awhile.
Remote Wyoming Vacation Lodge Emerges As Haven For US ‘Dissident’ Right (The Guardian)
A must-read from Jason Wilson, one of my favorite reporters covering the Right. I’m not sure how dissident these folks are given the current state of things, but these communities continue to fascinate me.
How Structuring AI-assisted Search As A "Narrated Exploration" Got Better Answers And Made Search Fun Again (Mike Caulfield)
A fun AI resource from Mike Caulfield, who created the SIFT method of spotting misinformation.
Want even more content? Subscribers receive bonus content on Fridays.
Coda
Thanks so much for reading and supporting Ctrl Alt-Right Delete. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber via Substack or Patreon. Paid subscribers help me produce more content and keep the newsletter free for everyone. They also receive bonus content a little early on Fridays.
That’s all for this week. Talk to you again next Sunday!
Advertise in this newsletter
Do you or your company want to support COURIER’s mission and showcase your products or services to an aligned audience at the same time? Contact advertising@couriernewsroom.com for more information.
It helps to think of the Trump II administration as the endgame, a culmination, not a beginning. White male supremacy has been there since the founding -- since well before the founding, in fact. U.S. history can be seen as an ongoing fight to expand beyond (rise above?) the country's origins. Every victory -- for instance, the post–Civil War amendments, and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the mid-1960s -- has spawned a ferocious backlash against it. (I almost included the 19th Amendment here, but the backlash against it wasn't quite as ferocious.)
MAGA is the spawn of that backlash. Trump named it, but how new is it? Not very. Under other names it too goes back to the founding: think of all the white people who fought for and otherwise supported the Confederacy, even though the Southern oligarchs didn't have their best interests at heart. They've been raising monuments and flags to it ever since. They controlled Congress so thoroughly that the New Deal capitulated to them almost every step of the way.
Finally -- the left-right spectrum was devised primarily by white men of European descent. It's never adequately accounted for the interests and priorities of non-men and non-white people. This helps explain why some white liberals and "moderates" (whatever that means) like to call, e.g., Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "far leftists" even though they have nothing in common with the "far leftists" of yesteryear, e.g., Josef Stalin. IOW, it's been broken for a very long time. Realignment is long overdue for sure, but "pro-democracy" has to be a key criterion. The GOP has been evolving into an anti-democratic party since the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of the '60s and Roe v. Wade in the early '70s. An acknowledgment of economic power would also be good, since the oligarchs are benefiting from, and funding, all this "originalism" crap. But that's going to be hard, because too many of "we the people" still think that only commie pinkos talk about economic power.
Excellent insights, and article.