Liberty Briefs: If MAGA Is an Existential Threat, Act Like It

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I suspect I’m going to get some serious pushback on this, but we need to take a moment to address the circular firing squad that is forming within the pro‑democracy coalition right now.

Momentum is on our side. Trump’s numbers continue to plummet. The public is turning on him. Many Americans—through no particular fault of their own—are simply not that tuned into politics, and so they don’t yet grasp the danger Trump represents. Others have been conditioned, for years now, to be skeptical of criticism of him altogether. That does not mean they are unreachable, but it does mean we need a coherent message.

We cannot afford to squander this moment. We are not past the point where we can claw our way back electorally—but only if we do not fracture ourselves and miss the opportunity in front of us.

And yet, here we are.

There’s the moderate Democratic faction that wants to make condemning Graham Plattner and Hassan Piker the most important thing right now.

There’s another faction on the Democratic left going after people like Kyle Sweetser, who has a real chance in a tough Alabama race, for not being sufficiently inclusive.

And there’s the left‑populist faction that wants to go after Alyssa Slotkin like she’s the devil.

Of course I have preferences in all of these cases. But if you can look at what is happening in our politics and say, “The real problem right now isn’t corruption, ICE, or the war; the real problem is Alyssa Slotkin or Graham Plattner,” I can’t help but feel like you’ve lost the plot.

I think that reflects a fundamental misjudgment of the moment. I may not agree with every vote that Alyssa Slotkin or Graham Plattner would cast—but I do not believe either of them poses any threat to the Republic or to the future of this country. In fact, I believe they would help preserve our democracy at a moment when there is a very real risk we could lose it.

Because right now we have a disastrous presidency. A president who is trying to seize power, evade the law, jail his enemies, celebrate political violence, brutalize immigrants in detention facilities, crash the global economy without rationale, and drag the country toward a reckless war.

That is the thing to be mad about.

If you are more angry at another faction of the Democratic Party right now—if you are trying to score intraparty wins between now and 2028—I think that reflects profoundly bad judgment about the stakes we’re facing. If you say MAGA represents an existential threat, if you say you recognize these dangers, then it’s time to act like it—and speak like it. That means making peace with people who don’t agree with you on every issue, but who agree with you on the ones that matter most.

That’s how power is regained. That’s how this starts getting rolled back.

Winning the House and the Senate would make an enormous difference. It would be the single most important way to slow this down and limit the damage Trump could do in his final two years. And the Senate, in particular, matters enormously.

The Senate confirms cabinet officials, sub‑cabinet officials, and judges—Supreme Court justices and lower‑court judges alike. If Trump has 51 Republicans in the Senate, he will jam through every judge he can: judges who will uphold his policies, shield his abuses, bless extreme partisan gerrymanders, and help ratify an attempt to steal the 2028 election.

Republicans are already pursuing redistricting strategies designed to wipe out Black opportunity districts in states with large Black populations. They understand precisely how their policies affect these communities—and they are trying to ensure they never have to answer to those voters. Given the chance, they would lock in a Congress that bears little resemblance to the country it governs.

That is worth stopping—or at least stopping as much of it as we still can.

And that requires winning the House and, critically, winning the Senate.

And before you rush to reply with an explanation for why your condemnation of this person or that person is different, ask yourself whether you might be the exact person this piece is about. Is the condemnation actually helping? Is it building power, persuading new voters, or protecting democracy—or is it merely validating a sense of moral superiority at a moment when the stakes demand more than that?

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