Reflections on #MAGACommunism
Why does the Left not want a Communist message to reach workers who identify with the MAGA movement?
My spirits were lifted as the 2020 protest movement was starting to unfurl. In the backdrop of the murder of George Floyd, the US was in the middle of horribly mismanaging a pandemic and was significantly losing it’s hegemonic position as the unipolar-world power. I thought that this was it—the beginning of the end of the liberal establishment.
Reflecting on that moment today, it’s clear that any ounce of spontaneity within that protest movement was immediately co-opted by the liberal establishment resulting in a long and drawn out artificial revolt against Trump. This is why most of the liberal elites, ranging from NGOs to politicians to entire corporations, expressed their solidarity with Black Lives Matter, 501(c)(3). Even my own workplace temporarily changed its logo on social media to one donned with colors of the Pan-African flag (I laughed).
Despite being wrong about the character of 2020, I felt very hopeful in the moment. I remember how meetings within the organization I was in were overflowing with both anxiety and excitement. I was ready for any economic and political unrest to come, even if it meant the end of my generally comfortable life. I’ve always understood that the moment of revolution would spell demise for my particular class, the professional intellectual. I am a Communist and I want a revolution that will bring forward a dictatorship of the proletariat. I want to see prosperity for all. Thus, any hint of movement gets me quite excited, especially after living through decades of political stagnancy.
Today, my understanding of the political landscape is grounded in lessons of 2020. I learned that anti-racist protests helped the liberal establishment consolidate power, meaning that such protests are not inherently revolutionary. I learned that the left easily falls into the trap of misidentifying the primary enemy, meaning that they can easily be redirected into attacking who the imperialist media says is an enemy (Russia, China, conservative voters). I learned that as long as the liberal establishment advocates for “progressive” cultural values, the left will fight for them under the false premise of lesser-evilism.
Unfortunately, not all [c]ommunists like to reflect (a principle political tenant of Marxism-Leninism). My new political ideas may end up being wrong again, like they were in 2020, but I can at least have confidence that my current conclusions are based on acknowledging how and why I was wrong in the past. On the other hand, institutional “communists” seem to be incapable of even an initial reflection.
Worse, aside from a lack of ability to learn and adapt, it’s obvious to me that the institutional left would rather have no movement at all than a movement that they have no control over. The institutional left would rather see political stagnancy continued than see the liberal establishment challenged by new forces that are not of their own creation. This kind of nihilism is destructive, evil, and reactionary in the fullest definition of the term. As a Communist, I want to see a strategy meant to weaken the establishment succeed, not only for our own working class, but for the working class of the world.
The Invisible Specter
Ever since 2008, there has been a specter brewing. In its infant form, the specter was first captured by Bernie Sanders who sold it out to the Democratic establishment. This specter was then captured by Donald Trump, who like Sanders, was able to articulate anti-establishment rhetoric. This specter is in limbo right now. Sanders lied, Trump lied. The Squad and Ron DeSantis were carefully crafted to continue the lies that Sanders and Trump told, respectively. However, the specter remains vigilantly critical. The Russian special military operation politicized the specter even further and I imagine that hot-war with China would result in a similar effect. So, where are the Communists?
The Communists seem to be blinded to this specter, unless they look beyond the visible spectrum.
#MAGACommunism has been trending for a week now. Voices behind this hashtag have only one motive: find the specter and lead it with Marxism-Leninism. MAGA is only the most recent expression of the specter and the point is to show it its own ideology. Marxism-Leninism is the ideology of the specter, of the working class, and this ideology will not reach them by magic. The existing Communist parties and organizations refuse to even touch the specter. In fact, they hate the specter and liken it to fascism. This void is easily filled by other class forces, whether it is the imperialist class puppeteering it with voices like DeSantis or the non-hegmonic bourgoisie and upper strata of petty bourgeoisie puppeteering it with voices like Trump.
It can be argued that the specter will inevitably find its own ideology because the ideology of Trump is a temporary illusion. The non-hegemonic bourgeoisie, otherwise named the “middle bourgeoisie” by Mao, is bound to disintegrate. On one hand, they want freedom to rule, a chance to supplant the hegemonic imperialist class, and become the new “big bourgeoisie.” On the other hand, they want to crush the independence of the working class. They have enemies on both sides, both of which are locked in a permanent struggle against each other, leaving no room for the middle bourgioisie to form their own capitalist state based on nationalism and protectionism.
Crippling Nihilism
The left seems to have the perspective of “our way or nothing at all.” I cannot understand their perspective and think that it’s totally unreasonable. Whether or not #MAGACommunism is effective is not the point. I’m happy to see a fresh strategy and a new effort to reach the specter. If it fails I will be disappointed but my disappointment will only follow failure. Leftists however celebrate any example of failure.
Cherry picking interactions with boomers on Truth Social who are being told for the first time that Communism isn’t what they think it is obviously does not constitute failure. But the left is hungry to see this. The are excited about anti-Communist conditioning being effective. Why? Though it may seem that way, the left does not like to lose. Rather, this is a win for the left because the modern-day Western left is an objective extension of the liberal establishment, of the imperialist class.
Such expressions are hatred of workers. The left is not loyal to the working class and that is most clear because they will only support workers if workers adhere to certain requirements. This is not too different from the left’s alleged anti-imperialism. Their support for an anti-imperialist country is based on certain requirements as well. If the worker or the country meets a predefined checklist, the leftist will support them. Worse, this logic can even be applied to their anti-racism! Watch them become Hitlerites the moment a person of color (aptly defined as person on pedestal) steps out of line and breaks their requirements of solidarity.
In their mind they are winning but the working class is losing. They don’t like to lose but they do like the working class to lose. They barely make any effort to reach them. In my own experience within Kulture.TV (of which I was removed for breaking leftist requirements), my co-hosts were against the show moving to Rumble. Very early on, before Rumble become popular among workers as a source for alternative media, our show was offered a great deal which included being promoted on Rumble’s front page. Unfortunately the leftists in the group made sure to prevent the move. They refuse to let the Communist ideology reach the specter. We cannot let this be any longer. Recently murdered by Azovite fascists, Daria Dugina (RIP) put it aptly:
For me, a particularly important topic is the development of the theory of the multipolar world. It is clear that globalism is over, the end of liberalism has come, the end of liberal history. At the same time, it is extremely important to understand that a new stage has begun, full of challenges, provocations and complexity. The process of creating multipolarism, structuring civil blockades and dialogue between them is the main task of all intellectuals today. I invite all readers to think critically and question the news published by the Western media. Everything needs to be questioned. This is an important principle that allows us to maintain a sober attitude. In the society of the spectacle, propaganda and totalitarian nature of Western systems, doubt is a fundamental step to get out of the cave.
We are living through a world-historic moment. The neoliberal order is at it’s end, no question, but what comes next? If the proletariat do not find political leadership under Marxism-Leninism, the ruling class will oversee the inevitable transformation of society on their own terms, for example as laid out by the World Economic Forum’s strategy of “Stakeholder capitalism” and “The Great Reset.” In this moment, I cry out for any hope. If someone put’s forward a strategy to break out of the West’s political stagnancy, I will support it until it proves itself to be a failure. Those who cheer on losses and advocate against any unique attempts to build power are enemies. Remember, the left does not like to lose and will do anything to win. A win for them is a loss for workers. We Communists must stop them.
Reflections on #MAGACommunism
Thanks for the great post! This line in particular struck me:
"the left easily falls into the trap of misidentifying the primary enemy"
I think this is such an important point. From what I've observed, the greater one understands the primary enemy, the sharper and more coherent their political views will be--which is to say, the more they will align with real-word conditions. The more detailed and specific the better. That's why I think Michael Hudson is one of the best in the business (e.g., he doesn't refer only to the "ruling class" but rather to subgroups within it, like the FIRE sector and big oil).
For example...
Liberals (of the NYT/NPR ilk) have the least understanding of the primary enemy. They are so smug and self-righteous in their own correctness that they have zero interest in pursuing such a question. As such, they have the worst political analysis and end up defending positions that serve the primary enemy.
Compared to liberals, leftists, including nominal Marxist-Leninists groups, have a much better understanding of the primary enemy, which allows them to arrive at principled (if inconsistent) anti-imperialist positions. But their understanding of the primary enemy is superficial and dogmatic, and they too seem uninterested in the inquiry (perhaps a vestige of their latent liberalism). They call out "capitalists" and the "bourgeoise" but hardly ever mention the CIA, MI6, Soros, Gates, or the WEF. This is why so many of the left (again, even the faux ML) have taken the wrong position on hugely important issues like the C19 response and mandates, the trucker and farmer movements, Russia, the "climate crisis," to name a few. Any why they get so easily distracted by woke identity politics.
MAGA and certain libertarians seem to have a solid, almost intuitive understanding of the primary enemy (notwithstanding their often irrational views on China and communism). For the most part, they see who's pulling the strings and are interested in the pursuit of the truth.
Of all the groups in the US, I've found that those in the LaRouche movement have some of the sharpest and most impressive understanding of the primary enemy--which I think is why they have some of the best, most concrete policy proposals, and why they currently seem to make such good allies with American Communists.
Sorry for the rant. I could be off-base with this and am happy to be shown my errors. I just wanted to say I really agree with your quote above and think it could be a useful tool for political education and analysis.
I appreciate your thoughts on this topic immensely! My concerns with MAGA communism are less that it’s appealing to the “wrong” working class demographic, and more that it’s still falling into the culture war trap that makes leftist “marxists” so unpalatable and dogmatic. There are many people within the working class that find MAGA aesthetics repulsive, and their reason for feeling that way is largely driven by liberal propaganda, but not entirely so. I also think a marxist movement that downplays the importance of women’s liberation is going to be destined for failure. Women are half the population, and our relegation to the sidelines by both the cultural right and left leaves both movements open to mk-ultra style violent capitalist propaganda in the form of porn and prostitution. Patriarchy in the form of male chauvinism is a very useful way to exploit vulnerabilities within movements— to derail them with abuse scandals, alienate the women who have historically served as the backbone for national liberation struggles and union drives, and leverage extreme porn addiction as blackmail. I believe that’s why CPI imploded, and we’ll keep having problems like that until we as marxists reckon with the extensive damage porn has don’t to our psyches and ability to reconcile our differences as men and women.
That said, I still see this as a positive development in the movement away from liberal leftism. It’s good we’re seeing more marxists wake up to the fact that our job isn’t to be “further left than the democrats” and accept that leftists are often on the wrong side of the culture war. I’m hoping if this does ultimately fail it will lead to a synthesis between left and right and allow us to bridge the divisions within the working class. When we break out of the neverending culture war dichotomy that serves as the primary function of neoliberal democracy (ie, to paralyze the political system so we spend all our time fighting and never get anything substantial done), that’s when marxists will be able to start making some serious in-roads