These days, it seems like every top Democrat has to work the term “MAGA Republican” into their messages. It’s no coincidence.
Their party first deployed the term in mid-2022 as part of a midterm strategy that aimed to activate voters outraged about the Supreme Court’s abortion decision, among other issues.
“The terms ‘MAGA Republicans’ and ‘Extreme MAGA Republicans’ were created by the Democrats along with some never Trump Republicans in an attempt to isolate Trump supporters as being outside the mainstream of the American political process,” said Richard Manning, president of the Republican-aligned Americans for Limited Government, in an April 3 email to The Epoch Times.
Others argue that the talk of “MAGA Republicans” is, in actuality, unifying and necessary.
“The term ‘MAGA Republicans’—as used by President [Joe] Biden, Chuck Schumer, and other prominent politicians—does not aim to divide the country as many critics claim,” said David Carlucci, a Democratic strategist, in an April 4 email to The Epoch Times.
“Instead, it is meant to rally all Americans regardless of party affiliation against an ideology that has sought to dismantle our democratic institutions.”
Biden Leads and Some Republicans Follow
Biden helped to normalize, and step up, rhetoric aimed at “MAGA Republicans.”
As early as August 2022, the commander-in-chief took aim at Trump loyalists in the GOP using the memorable “MAGA Republicans” branding.
He didn’t stop there. He claimed that the “philosophy” behind support for former President Donald Trump amounted to a kind of “semi-fascism.”
That language met with plaudits from Never Trumper Bill Kristol. Kristol, an influential early advocate of the Iraq War, is the son of the late “godfather of neoconservatism,” the ex-Marxist Irving Kristol.
“You know what you call a movement that’s semi-OK with violence against its opponents? Semi-fascist,” Kristol wrote on Twitter in late October 2022, just before the midterm election.
In the judgment of one anonymous GOP strategist who spoke with The Epoch Times, that sort of labeling “adds fuel to the fire of partisan divisions in this country.”
Yet Democrats’ relatively strong performance last November may have convinced them the approach worked.
“If you want to see the effectiveness of ‘MAGA Republican’ rhetoric, look no further than the 2022 midterms where several ultra-vocal MAGA Republicans like Kari Lake, Dr. Oz, and Herschel Walker lost their elections,” said Carlucci, the Democratic strategist.
Carlucci cited December 2022 polling from Vanderbilt University showing that only 34 percent of Republicans “say they are ‘more of a supporter of the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement’ than they are a ‘supporter of the Republican Party.’”
The anonymous GOP strategist acknowledged that some of that language seeks to link a range of Republicans to “the most unpopular figures on the right.”
Andrew Cuff, communications director at the political agency Knight Takes Rook, thinks Democrats’ “MAGA Republicans” tactic succeeded thanks in part to the leadership of some top Republicans.
“Tiny minorities of establishment Republican leaders approved and encouraged these attacks, lending credence to the notion that feckless Republicans who have given up fighting are more ‘sane’ and ‘civil’ than the ‘extreme’ majority of their party.
“It’s abundantly clear that the GOP establishment prefers the role of controlled opposition under Democrat rule than to be dislodged from power in their own party,” he told The Epoch Times in an April 3 interview.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in February accused “MAGA Republicans” of contributing to a lack of GOP unity—an expression of concern that is difficult to take at face value, but one wholly in keeping with a wedge strategy.
For now, backing for Trump among Republicans seems to be on the rise, if recent polls on the upcoming 2024 contest are to be believed.
The upshot: Biden’s speeches still target “MAGA Republicans.” In one March 15 speech, he opined that “MAGA Republicans” are “different.”
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“This is not your father’s Republican Party,” Biden added.
MAGA and ‘Extremism’
Talk of MAGA Republicans’ “extremism” has also escalated.
The White House’s March 27 response to Republicans’ recent budget proposal asserts it is the product not merely of “MAGA Republicans” but of “extreme MAGA Congressional Republicans.”
In a March 24 press release, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) referenced “Extreme MAGA Republicans” no fewer than 13 times.
“Extreme MAGA Republicans want to ban books on the Holocaust. Ban books on the Holocaust. Extreme MAGA Republicans want to ban books on Martin Luther King Jr. Extreme MAGA Republicans want to ban books on the LGBTQ journey in the United States of America,” Jeffries said.
“Most folks don’t view all these Republicans as extremist,” the anonymous GOP strategist told The Epoch Times.
“This ideology should not speak for the entire party, but with all the noise caused by figures like Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and of course former President Trump, it is particularly concerning that MAGA extremism will become the overwhelming voice of the Republican Party,” said Democratic strategist Carlucci.
“The use of the word “extreme” continues to serve as an effective slur against Republican candidates,” said Cuff.
“Extremism,” he said, is a “national security trigger word.”
Cuff tied that rhetoric to Biden’s Sept. 1, 2022, “Dark Brandon” speech, which saw him deliver remarks against a blood-red backdrop while flanked by U.S. Marines.
“Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” Biden said in his remarks that day.
“He tied it [extremism] with the MAGA label in order to connect it with President Trump and his MAGA movement,” Cuff said.
He noted that it followed the administration’s actions on parent protesters at school boards and an FBI memo targeting “radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology.”
“The words are chosen very carefully,” Cuff said.
The neocon ex-Republican Kristol was, if anything, ahead of the curve when it came to alleged “extremism” among his opponents.
“If the term ‘MAGA Republicans’ works, fine. But wouldn’t it be easier just to call them extremists? Why the ‘MAGA’ complication?” he asked in a July 1, 2022 Tweet, responding to a Politico story on Democrats’ use of the “MAGA Republicans” label in their midterm messaging.
MAGA-Baiting Across Ticket
MAGA-baiting has takers at lower echelons of the Democratic Party too.
During her unsuccessful campaign for reelection as Chicago’s mayor, Lori Lightfoot accused opponent Paul Vallas of having “MAGA Republican ways.”
Even closer to the ground, members of the Chicago City Council’s Progressive Reform Caucus, which includes numerous open socialists, referred in scathing terms to Vallas’ backing from what they called “MAGA Republicans.”
Legacy media outlets—even those outside the United States—are also echoing the “extreme MAGA Republican” rhetoric that has been issued by leading Democrats.
A March 4 U.S. politics article in the Guardian, a UK paper, claimed that one of Trump’s speeches at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was aimed at “MAGA Republicans.”
A November 2022 analysis in the Washington Post asked, “Can MAGA Republicans learn to love democracy again?”
In January of this year, Jennifer Rubin—like Kristol, a Bush II-era neoconservatism who distanced herself from the right after Trump’s election—opined in the Washington Post that Republicans have embraced the ways of “extreme MAGA Republicans” in the months since their mediocre midterm performance.
Pushback Begins
House Republicans targeted by the language of “extremism,” “semi-fascism,” and more have pushed back.
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“We are addressed as MAGA extremists, extreme MAGA Republicans, and I would like to make just a clarification point—it’s Ultra MAGA. That’s what we prefer,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said in Congress several weeks ago.
Just days ago, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) accused Biden of having “functionally gaslit” Trump’s indictment by “saying Extreme MAGA Republicans were dangerous.”
“It’s Biden’s government that we are currently investigating for super-charging the notion of domestic violent extremism,” he said in an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News.
SpaceX founder and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has also questioned Biden’s rhetoric. In a March 27 Tweet, the president attributed opposition to one policy he supports to “extreme MAGA House Republicans.”
“Is it accurate to refer to those making the proposal as ‘extreme MAGA,’” Musk wrote in response.
He tagged the site’s “Community Notes” account, which often corrects and adds context to Twitter posts.
Carlucci thinks the apparent resonance of Democrats’ “extreme MAGA Republicans” rhetoric should serve as a wake-up call for Republicans.
“The midterms tell us that independent voters are fed up with MAGA ideology and that the Republican Party should reclaim its narrative from its extreme side,” said Carlucci.
Cuff believes the language hints at a broader campaign of repression from the Left.
“Ultimately, the goal is to treat the entire Republican base as domestic extremists, extralegally surveil and censor them, and instill the mass fear of arrest and repression [to which many prominent Republicans, including former President Trump, have already been subjected],” Cuff said.
One thing seems clear: extreme rhetoric, including accusations of extremism, triggers a reaction.
Article cross-posted from our premium news partners at The Epoch Times.
Five Things New “Preppers” Forget When Getting Ready for Bad Times Ahead
The preparedness community is growing faster than it has in decades. Even during peak times such as Y2K, the economic downturn of 2008, and Covid, the vast majority of Americans made sure they had plenty of toilet paper but didn’t really stockpile anything else.
Things have changed. There’s a growing anxiety in this presidential election year that has prompted more Americans to get prepared for crazy events in the future. Some of it is being driven by fearmongers, but there are valid concerns with the economy, food supply, pharmaceuticals, the energy grid, and mass rioting that have pushed average Americans into “prepper” mode.
There are degrees of preparedness. One does not have to be a full-blown “doomsday prepper” living off-grid in a secure Montana bunker in order to be ahead of the curve. In many ways, preparedness isn’t about being able to perfectly handle every conceivable situation. It’s about being less dependent on government for as long as possible. Those who have proper “preps” will not be waiting for FEMA to distribute emergency supplies to the desperate masses.
Below are five things people new to preparedness (and sometimes even those with experience) often forget as they get ready. All five are common sense notions that do not rely on doomsday in order to be useful. It may be nice to own a tank during the apocalypse but there’s not much you can do with it until things get really crazy. The recommendations below can have places in the lives of average Americans whether doomsday comes or not.
Note: The information provided by this publication or any related communications is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. We do not provide personalized investment, financial, or legal advice.
Secured Wealth
Whether in the bank or held in a retirement account, most Americans feel that their life’s savings is relatively secure. At least they did until the last couple of years when de-banking, geopolitical turmoil, and the threat of Central Bank Digital Currencies reared their ugly heads.
It behooves Americans to diversify their holdings. If there’s a triggering event or series of events that cripple the financial systems or devalue the U.S. Dollar, wealth can evaporate quickly. To hedge against potential turmoil, many Americans are looking in two directions: Crypto and physical precious metals.
There are huge advantages to cryptocurrencies, but there are also inherent risks because “virtual” money can become challenging to spend. Add in the push by central banks and governments to regulate or even replace cryptocurrencies with their own versions they control and the risks amplify. There’s nothing wrong with cryptocurrencies today but things can change rapidly.
As for physical precious metals, many Americans pay cash to keep plenty on hand in their safe. Rolling over or transferring retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs is also a popular option, but there are caveats. It can often take weeks or even months to get the gold and silver shipped if the owner chooses to close their account. This is why Genesis Gold Group stands out. Their relationship with the depositories allows for rapid closure and shipping, often in less than 10 days from the time the account holder makes their move. This can come in handy if things appear to be heading south.
Lots of Potable Water
One of the biggest shocks that hit new preppers is understanding how much potable water they need in order to survive. Experts claim one gallon of water per person per day is necessary. Even the most conservative estimates put it at over half-a-gallon. That means that for a family of four, they’ll need around 120 gallons of water to survive for a month if the taps turn off and the stores empty out.
Being near a fresh water source, whether it’s a river, lake, or well, is a best practice among experienced preppers. It’s necessary to have a water filter as well, even if the taps are still working. Many refuse to drink tap water even when there is no emergency. Berkey was our previous favorite but they’re under attack from regulators so the Alexapure systems are solid replacements.
For those in the city or away from fresh water sources, storage is the best option. This can be challenging because proper water storage containers take up a lot of room and are difficult to move if the need arises. For “bug in” situations, having a larger container that stores hundreds or even thousands of gallons is better than stacking 1-5 gallon containers. Unfortunately, they won’t be easily transportable and they can cost a lot to install.
Water is critical. If chaos erupts and water infrastructure is compromised, having a large backup supply can be lifesaving.
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies
There are multiple threats specific to the medical supply chain. With Chinese and Indian imports accounting for over 90% of pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States, deteriorating relations could make it impossible to get the medicines and antibiotics many of us need.
Stocking up many prescription medications can be hard. Doctors generally do not like to prescribe large batches of drugs even if they are shelf-stable for extended periods of time. It is a best practice to ask your doctor if they can prescribe a larger amount. Today, some are sympathetic to concerns about pharmacies running out or becoming inaccessible. Tell them your concerns. It’s worth a shot. The worst they can do is say no.
If your doctor is unwilling to help you stock up on medicines, then Jase Medical is a good alternative. Through telehealth, they can prescribe daily meds or antibiotics that are shipped to your door. As proponents of medical freedom, they empathize with those who want to have enough medical supplies on hand in case things go wrong.
Energy Sources
The vast majority of Americans are locked into the grid. This has proven to be a massive liability when the grid goes down. Unfortunately, there are no inexpensive remedies.
Those living off-grid had to either spend a lot of money or effort (or both) to get their alternative energy sources like solar set up. For those who do not want to go so far, it’s still a best practice to have backup power sources. Diesel generators and portable solar panels are the two most popular, and while they’re not inexpensive they are not out of reach of most Americans who are concerned about being without power for extended periods of time.
Natural gas is another necessity for many, but that’s far more challenging to replace. Having alternatives for heating and cooking that can be powered if gas and electric grids go down is important. Have a backup for items that require power such as manual can openers. If you’re stuck eating canned foods for a while and all you have is an electric opener, you’ll have problems.
Don’t Forget the Protein
When most think about “prepping,” they think about their food supply. More Americans are turning to gardening and homesteading as ways to produce their own food. Others are working with local farmers and ranchers to purchase directly from the sources. This is a good idea whether doomsday comes or not, but it’s particularly important if the food supply chain is broken.
Most grocery stores have about one to two weeks worth of food, as do most American households. Grocers rely heavily on truckers to receive their ongoing shipments. In a crisis, the current process can fail. It behooves Americans for multiple reasons to localize their food purchases as much as possible.
Long-term storage is another popular option. Canned foods, MREs, and freeze dried meals are selling out quickly even as prices rise. But one component that is conspicuously absent in shelf-stable food is high-quality protein. Most survival food companies offer low quality “protein buckets” or cans of meat, but they are often barely edible.
Prepper All-Naturals offers premium cuts of steak that have been cooked sous vide and freeze dried to give them a 25-year shelf life. They offer Ribeye, NY Strip, and Tenderloin among others.
Having buckets of beans and rice is a good start, but keeping a solid supply of high-quality protein isn’t just healthier. It can help a family maintain normalcy through crises.
Prepare Without Fear
With all the challenges we face as Americans today, it can be emotionally draining. Citizens are scared and there’s nothing irrational about their concerns. Being prepared and making lifestyle changes to secure necessities can go a long way toward overcoming the fears that plague us. We should hope and pray for the best but prepare for the worst. And if the worst does come, then knowing we did what we could to be ready for it will help us face those challenges with confidence.
