Defeating MAGA

These are dangerous times in the United States. Jennifer Rubin writes:

The GOP has unabashedly fanned violence, propagated a parallel universe of lies and conspiracy theories and sought to subvert elections by limiting who votes and undermining nonpartisan election administration. Yet Republicans may take over the majority in one or both chambers of Congress in this year’s midterms. The risk of an anti-democratic faction regaining control of government should set off alarm bells and spur some creative political strategizing.

The MAGA crowd is a minority. But it's a loud and powerful minority:

While only about a third of Americans subscribe to MAGA views (e.g., that the 2020 election was stolen), that minority still has a chance to dominate Congress with their authoritarian-minded white grievance. For that, we can blame negative party polarization (Americans are motivated more by hate for their opponents than support for their own party); partisan self-segregation by geography; and the constitutional bias for minority rule (e.g., allotting two senators for each state, regardless of population).

Given those conditions, how does one defeat the MAGA crowd?

Steven Levitsky, co-author of “How Democracies Die,” advocates a “much broader coalition than we’ve put together to date” to combat the MAGA threat. In a lively roundtable discussion for the New York Times Magazine last week, he called on the “Bush-Cheney network” to work with Democrats in common cause. “It means that lifelong Republicans have to work to elect Democrats,” he says. “And it means the progressives have to set aside a slew of policy issues that they care deeply about so that the ticket is comfortable to right-wing politicians.”

What would that look like? It can start with a negative coalition — that is, a coalition organized around the goal of defeating MAGA Republicans. Consider the Senate race in Utah, where no Democratic candidate has a chance to win a statewide election. Instead, anti-Trump conservative Evan McMullin is running as an independent against increasingly extreme incumbent Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

In this and similar races across the country, Democrats should forgo running any candidate. That would allow Bush-Cheney Republicans, independents and Democrats to rally around conceivable anti-Trump candidates such as Evan McMullin. Yes, that means Democrats will need to vote for people who are pro-life and to their right on a great many issues. But the alternative is to throw their votes away on a sure-to-lose Democratic candidate and see incumbent senators such as Mike Lee (R-Utah) remain in office for six more years of MAGA sycophancy.

Levitsky’s approach also requires pro-democracy Republicans to stop kidding themselves. Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) stands a strong chance of losing in the GOP primary for her seat. Rather than watch as a Trump-endorsed MAGA Republican replaces her, she should do what McMullin has done: run as an independent conservative in the general election, drawing support from Democrats, anti-Trump Republican and independents. Again, Democrats need to forgo running their own candidate for the sake of maximizing the vote of one the few principled, pro-democracy Republicans left in the House.

In short, defeating MAGA will mean voting strategically. We know something about that in Canada.

Image: cbc.ca