Breaking the Blue MAGA Echo Chamber

If there isn’t room for self-reflection now, there never will be.

The Next Move has been around for six weeks. In that time, we’ve published over 20 op-eds and written pieces, hosted or joined 10 Substack Lives, and released a number of other videos. If you go back and review our content, you’ll see that when my colleagues and I have criticism for an American politician, Donald Trump is almost always the target. And even when he is not the central focus of a piece, our analysis is usually couched in terms of finding the best way to contain and ultimately reverse Trump’s authoritarianism.

I stand by this approach. Trump is the current president, and, as American presidents go, a uniquely harmful one. It makes sense that we will talk a lot about him.

But we will not only talk about him. Nothing can be off limits.

This is not a national election year. The already thin excuses about hiding the pro-democracy camp’s dirty laundry from the public eye hold no water today. If there isn’t room now for self-reflection in service of self-improvement, there never will be.

There’s been a spirited back-and-forth in the comments below my piece yesterday on the strategic opportunity presented by former President Joe Biden’s spate of bad news. Some responses are thoughtful, but many shine a light on toxic trends among the ostensibly pro-freedom side that go beyond any one headline or passing news story.

Let’s start with this response via JoJoFromJerz:

Continuing to focus on Biden instead of Trump is not the way forward. I would have thought you of all people knew better.

As I’ve already laid out, I don’t think anyone can honestly make the claim that we are focusing on Biden. One or two pieces do not a focus make. Frankly, I don’t think JoJo is trying to honestly claim anything. She is looking to shame us into silence, and she represents a phenomenon best described as “Blue MAGA.”

What do I mean by Blue MAGA?

I obviously don’t think JoJo or any Democratic partisan really harbor the ambitions of power and domination that the actual Trumpist MAGA movement does. Post-January 6, the Biden administration might have been justified in bringing down the hammer of state authority against their opponents as the Romanian constitutional court and German government have recently done to beat back far-right threats (this is war, after all). But even then, the Democrats declined to do so.

Rather, Blue MAGA reflects the Trumpish MAGA allergy to criticism and self-reflection. It has erected a parallel media echo chamber, which JoJo is a part of. Deviation from the party line over the handling of Biden’s decline—the most obvious of Democratic missteps—is sacrilegious. In short: Blue MAGA is Red MAGA minus the authoritarian ideology but with the media illiteracy and cult-like behavior.

The echo chamber works for the already convinced. It will not generate the critical mass required to turn the tide. We need a big tent. I know this from experience. Back in Russia, I created the United Civil Front. It brought together everyone from right-wing conservatives to former communists on the left under the banner of liberal democracy and free and fair elections. That would not have been possible if we insisted upon ideological purity tests.

Another unhealthy current manifesting in the comment thread below my piece on Biden is the imagined relationship some of you think we should have with elected officials.

Reader Keenan Kline told me to “leave [Biden] alone” because he is “a decent man.” Another commenter, Nick Hayes, reminded us that Biden “is a good man that tried his best.”

“A good man who tried his best”?

That’s an epitaph you might leave to a personal friend, not a reasonable standard for judging the president of the United States. Social media has cultivated parasocial fantasies about American leaders to the point that many people think those politicians are actually their friends. See this infamous tweet from a well-known author, which strikingly illustrates the problem at work here. My kids tell me this is what the young people call “cringe.”

Politicians don’t have to be our enemies if they do a good job. Still, they’re not your buddies either. You don’t need to daydream about them baking brownies or doing karaoke, and, with apologies to George W. Bush, you won’t be having a beer with them. Dispute my critiques of Biden’s performance on the merits, but you do not owe any politician anything. In a democracy, the people are in charge, and the elected representatives work for the voters. Biden owed you, his constituents, his best performance, and in that respect, he failed.

Politics is not an end in itself. Rather, it’s a vehicle to deliver results, and Biden contributed significantly to the unraveling of whatever results he achieved while in office. Violating his commitment to only serve one term made Trump’s return inevitable.

Now, to be fair to those who brought up Biden’s personality: It does matter to some extent. I met Biden briefly a number of times (including on the train, of course!). And I know a number of people who are closer with him, and everything I experienced and have heard from my friends confirms your praise for Biden’s decency, to say nothing of his kindness and generosity, which are also widely documented. We should seek those traits in our leaders.

But decency, kindness, and generosity are not the only attributes that matter for an effective commander-in-chief. Self-awareness is also essential. And Biden’s self-awareness was crowded out by his ego. With the help of some bad friends, this drove him to a catastrophic run for reelection and a fatally tardy withdrawal.

As for those bad friends: A number of you pointed out that my call to “exile” from public life those who enabled Biden’s ill-fated reelection bid was… imprecise, to put it kindly.

One reader, Tai, agreed with the general premise of my argument but saw my recommendation as too broad, writing:

After the debate last year, I was on the phone constantly with my senators and rep to ask them to get Biden off the ticket [...] Did I feel gaslighted, yes. But I arrived to the conclusion what Garry Gasparov suggested is too drastic and not productive. He is asking the party to purge the Biden cabinet, that will include possible candidates on the future presidential ticket such as Pete Buttigieg and Gina Raimondo.

My good friend, Professor Larry Tribe of Harvard Law School, adds:

I assisted Joe Biden from his days as a US Senator to his time as vice president through much of his presidency. I never hid from anyone the evidence of his gradual decline, but I certainly didn’t broadcast it widely, and I urged him to drop out of the race after his disastrous debate performance. Am I to be exiled from the resistance to fascism because I still call myself a Democrat and a friend of the ailing former president?

Point well taken.

In my opening piece for The Next Move, I promised that if we don’t get something completely right, we’d hold ourselves accountable. And I am sticking to that promise. Allow me to refine my recommendation based on your feedback.

And let me start by saying that, Larry, I am not talking about literal exile and I would never call for exiling you from anything. The pro-democracy camp would be poorer for it.

Simply by conceding that President Biden suffered a “gradual decline” you are being considerably more open than many other top Democrats. Tai called out Pete Buttigieg. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t say Buttigieg deserves to be cast out either, because he too has acknowledged Biden’s deterioration, albeit tepidly. Nevertheless, you are the exceptions, not the rule.

Yes, Democrats didn’t shout to the heavens about Biden’s state. In the political context, understandable, if deeply misguided in hindsight. I’m not talking about complacency or passivity. Senators, members of Congress, close friends, advisors, and political strategists actively encouraged him to run again when he clearly wasn’t up to the task. Those same public figures along with members of the media went on to shame anyone who called out the obvious. Some, like Hakeem Jeffries, even doubled down after that debate. Some are still digging in their heels.

These are the people who fit the profile of someone who should not run for office or advise a campaign. Certainly not in 2028, and if they show no contrition at all, then ideally never again. If any erstwhile Biden enablers want to demonstrate sincere transparency, then let them do the hard work of restoring trust, and the American people can decide whether to commute those politicians’ public timeouts.

That will ultimately be the voters’ call, not mine.

As always, I learn a lot from our exchanges.

If you interpreted my call for “exile” as too sweeping, does this clarification satisfy your concerns, or do you still disagree?

Have you seen Blue MAGA at work in your circles?

I look forward to joining you in the comment section and I am happy to debate when we don’t align. Disagreement is uncomfortable. Yet I believe most of us share the same values here, and strategic dialogue within our big tent is necessary to stop authoritarianism and give the forces of freedom a fighting chance.

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