MAGA Is Nothing Without Trump

The New York Times ^ | Sept. 8, 2024, 6:00 a.m. ET | David French

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I spent the Labor Day weekend in Chicago, America’s greatest summer city. Sunday afternoon in particular was glorious. The temperatures were moderate, the skies were clear and the tourist sections of the city were teeming with happy Pearl Jam fans who’d just attended Saturday’s concert at Wrigley Field. My wife and I took our grandchildren to Navy Pier to visit the Chicago Children’s Museum, and as we walked back toward Michigan Avenue we saw the same sight we see every time we visit Chicago — an impressive, towering skyscraper with the name “Trump” emblazoned in immense letters across the building’s facade.

I was reminded once again that Donald Trump is a singular figure in American politics. There is no one like him, and that means that no one can replace him. While it’s always perilous to make predictions about American politics — or anything else about the future — here’s one that I’m almost certain is correct: If Donald Trump loses in 2024, MAGA will fade. He is the irreplaceable key to its success.

Last month, I wrote a column that generated intense blowback on the right because I argued that as a pro-life conservative I am voting for Kamala Harris. That was controversial enough, but what really seemed to make people angry was one of my stated motivations: that I am voting for Harris to try to save conservatism from MAGA. Defeating Trump, I said, gives conservative Americans a chance to “build something decent from the ruins of a party that was once a force for genuine good in American life.”

The MAGA response was, in essence, you’re fooling yourself. Trump or no Trump, we own the party now.

[bfkirk]

I recall the Buchananites being at war with National Review types in the 1990s, so this current divide is nothing new. MAGA is a movement, and the laws of supply and demand will require any future vacuum to be filled. What we do know is it won’t be filled by John Thune or Brian Kemp.

[Señor Presidente]

French David, surrendering his vote to a candidate who would gladly remove his rights, lectures MAGA about their ideological impurity.

This PRICK will vote for a Leftist in some 4D chess move to restore ‘true conservatism,’ but can’t see that maybe— just maybe— many MAGA supporters are allying with Trump for the same reason.

The kind of conservativism he thinks will rise from the ashes of a Harris victory is the Exact kind he and his limp-wristed friends have given us the last 35 years: Tepid, gutless, accomplishing nothing while barely braking our political descent into hell.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Reminds me of an old WW II Movie, where the SS catches the French Underground leader. He tells the defiantly—”If I fall a hundred will step up to take my place!” MAGA is more than any one man. We are not the tea party where some bad press, and IRS Audits can scare us away. It is so much more than that. It is a commitment to all that is our land, it is a scared vow to make The American Way, the thing that separates us from the world. Part of that is Truth, a true media without lies. Justice, all men and women equal in the eyes of blind justice. For a time we lost our way and tin pot politicians surged up impost their will upon us—we caught on—it was a scam—the masks didn’t work. and we were were blinded by our fear of Covid. We fear no more—we want our America back and the man who will restore the American Way is named Donald J. Trump. Still, he is a mortal man, if he should fall his sons can take up the banner until the final victory. In a future day, they will carve Trump’s face upon mountains next to Ronald Reagan’s. We will enter a new America—the last best hope for a weary world.

[sten]

if they take him out, CW2 will start the next day.

and no one will be safe.