What on Earth is #MAGACommunism?

An online short-term trend or the start of a revolution? — The hashtag that is as confusing as it sounds

The online political commentary world is a hot mess. There are a million bedroom analysts streaming their opinions, clipping videos, and posting clickbait mayhem with titles like ‘YouTuber DESTROYS x, y, and z.’ The quality is usually very poor, with personalities clearly doing last-minute introductory homework and then giving their ‘expert’ opinions. Much of the content is inside-baseball critiquing the commentary of others in the online community itself with everyone constantly ‘dunking on’ one another all the time.

That being said, there are some with astute observations and quality political analysis.

The New York Times did an investigative series and podcast a few years ago that documented how lefty YouTubers, commonly known as BreadTube after Kropotkin’s The Conquest of Bread, were able to de-radicalize young people who were being sucked down the algorithmic wormhole from Jordan Peterson to Ben Shapiro to Prager U to Steven Crowder to Stefan Molyneux to right-wing fanatical racist. That was a trend, and YouTubers pushing back on that ideology stopped many impressionable youths from radicalization. That’s clearly a public service.

But it can be hard to find the signal in the noise because the online political commentary space is a massive clusterf*ck of attention-grabbing, pointless debates, and drama. But it occasionally bleeds into real politics, as seen during the infamous Force the Vote campaign, initiated by the very polarizing comedian Jimmy Dore.

Another recent thing that popped was the hashtag #MAGACommunism, which is supposedly an attempt to create a coalition between Trump voters and American communists.

Yeah, it sounds bizarre and inevitably leads to questions.

Is there a large contingent of communists in America? Could such a union be even remotely possible? Will #MAGACommunism be anything more than an online flash in the pan, and what the hell does it exactly mean?

I don’t really have an answer to all of the questions that come to mind but have some thoughts on the trend.

…the online political commentary space is a massive clusterf*ck of attention-grabbing, pointless debates, and drama. But it occasionally bleeds into real politics…Another recent thing that popped was the hashtag #MAGACommunism

Donald Trump obviously had no coherent or consistent political compass. He said whatever string of words funneled from his watery Spaghetti-O-soup cerebrum and did anything for attention. He’d Tweet a bunch of ridiculousness, see what was getting likes, and then lean further in that direction, often taking a position and immediately switching to the opposite side of the argument.

But people forget — or don’t want to mention — that he ran to the left of Hillary Clinton on a variety of issues. He was anti-free trade and used the job losses from NAFTA to attack the Democratic Party from a pro-worker perspective. As a Republican, he criticized America’s interventionist foreign wars, trashing the Bush family in the process. And he even called for détente with Russia.

Again, it’s not like he actually believed anything, but the rhetoric resonated.

Millions of mostly white voters, many who’d seen their industrial towns decimated by American private equity and corporate raider greed, were receptive to the ‘America First’ messaging.

There’s also a growing populist vein in the Republican Party that is against big tech, bank bailouts, corporate consolidation, military aid to Ukraine, and even abolishing the FBI.

I don’t think the politicians necessarily believe any of it. I think they’re playing the political game, looking at polls and trends, and then speaking accordingly.

Either way, a lot of the rhetoric seems to strike a chord with many in the Trump base.

That has a few in the online left believing there’s an opportunity to harness that real anti-establishment anger and create a MAGA-Communist union.

…people forget — or don’t want to mention — that he (Trump) ran to the left of Hillary Clinton on a variety of issues.

It sounds ridiculous, and I think that’s one of the reasons the hashtag was trending for much of September. I’m not entirely sure of the goals or if there are any. Judging by the YouTubers leading the charge, I don’t think they’re trying to peel MAGA voters away from the Republican Party and push them into the Democratic camp. There’s no love for the Dems within the online left.

So are they trying to get MAGA voters to form a new political movement with communists outside of the American political party duopoly?

I think that’s unrealistic. MAGA isn’t a movement; it’s a political slogan.

There is no coherent ideology, let alone a policy platform, campaign offices, or volunteer organizers. It’s a mess of Trump fans from the QAnon crowd to the Proud Boys to the My Pillow guy to your uncle who works in heating, cooling, and refrigeration.

The things that mostly hold them together are social conservatism, anger at the institutions, and Donald Trump.

While in office, Trump ignored 99.9% of his promises and served the billionaire class as well as any DC insider. His biggest accomplishment was a trillion-dollar tax cut, jobs were still outsourced, and he increased tension with every nation on the freaking planet.

The Don did next to nothing for the working class. And yet, the crowds still gather and shout his name.

I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that conservative Republican voters are going to change their minds about communism or socialism. I think those labels have deep indoctrinated hatred in America from one hundred years of nonstop propaganda.

Forming a unified political movement with the Reds and the Red MAGA Hats is as unlikely and absurd as the hashtag.

So, maybe they’re trying to show Trump voters that they have objectives in common with the left? And then the MAGA crew could push for a worker-focused agenda within the Republican Party while the communists pushed the Democrats on the same thing?

I’m not exactly sure. Again, it’s all chaotic and confusing.

I’m from Trump country and often have productive political conversations on areas of overlap.

That being said, I support the idea of reaching out to disaffected workers and Trump voters — although many Trumpistas are wealthy. Anything is better than completely writing them off as beyond-the-pale ‘deplorables’ and ignoring their real material concerns.

Speaking to them on important issues of healthcare, workers’ rights, corporate consolidation, and corruption in government is a good thing and could move the political needle. I’m from Trump country and often have productive political conversations on areas of overlap.

One of these communist YouTubers recently went to a Trump rally to speak to attendees on #MAGACommunism, and the results are quite interesting.

Of course, it’s an edited video of a tiny subset of a crowd at a Trump rally, so it needs to be taken with a grain of salt. But all MAGA fans interviewed were very receptive and supportive of the railroad strike, one of them used the Occupy Wall Street/Bernie Sanders line, “we are the 99%,” and one called for getting the money out of politics with campaign finance reform and said healthcare should be provided to all citizens. He went on to say these wonderfully uber-lefty lines, “We need to take back our resources. We need to get away from big corporations owning what really belongs to we the people.”

The host kept pushing on the theme of ‘common prosperity, not big money.’ And the MAGA crowd was behind the idea.

I commend the effort. Dialogue is better than judgment and assumptions.

But do I think MAGACommunism will lead to anything? No. But it does show the overlapping objectives and that, with the right phrasing and approach, Trump voters may be receptive to more than the media gives them credit for.

But it wasn’t all high fives and hopeful vibes.

(a Trump supporter) went on to say these wonderfully uber-lefty lines, “We need to take back our resources. We need to get away from big corporations owning what really belongs to we the people.”

The online YouTube communists leading the charge seem to be leaning a bit too heavily into social conservatism in a way that is completely unnecessary and offputting. The host at the Trump rally continually bashed the Green New Deal, which with the Just Transition element would be great for working Americans and Trump voters alike, and global warming needs to be seriously addressed 35 years ago.

Another popular figure from the movement did an appearance on OAN and was constantly using conservative buzzwords like the ‘nuclear family’ and ‘green fascism.’

There are ways to speak to Trump voters without method acting your way into becoming one of them and inhabiting half of their ideals.

I’m all for the dialogue and showing the common objectives of working people. But if the goal is to push progressive politics, there are much more effective ways than focusing tons of energy on pandering and catering to socially conservative white voters.

…do I think MAGACommunism will lead to anything? No. But it does show the overlapping objectives and that, with the right phrasing and approach, Trump voters may be receptive to more than the media gives them credit for.

There’s a mistake we often make in political discourse in assuming the working class is white males working industrial jobs when it is increasingly women and people of color in the services industry.

Much of the Republican ‘working class’ politics, personified by the ridiculous Mike Rowe, has become a dog whistle. They’re speaking to white men and would never get out in front of a McDonald’s and fight for higher wages, parental leave, or healthcare for those ‘working class’ laborers.

I’m not sure if these streamers are communists or what that term even means today. But if they’re serious about sticking it to the Democrats and Republicans and achieving the policy objectives they lay out, like breaking up the banks, ending big tech, stopping foreign wars, etc, there are many other constituencies to target that would offer much more alignment that could then turn into a real political force.

Young people today are as anti-capitalist as our great grandfathers, and most of them don’t vote. And there are also millions of union members and Black voters that go out every two or four years and cast a ballot for the Democrats.

So, if achieving political wins for the working class is the aim, wouldn’t the move be to organize those types of workers into a voting block that can push the Democratic Party or have local and state third party wins? There’s no need to trash the Green New Deal, bash gender discourse, and virtue signal to conservative Christians.

But again, I’m not sure #MAGACommunism is about enacting political change.

Like the social media habitat it was born out of, I think it’s mostly about attention. And it’s now another source of infighting and drama on the online left. I’d be very surprised if it was a thing in six months.

I like the open dialogue aspect and not dismissing millions of Americans and at a minimum, the online communists showed some Trump voters are down with ‘taking back our resources and getting away from big corporations owning what really belongs to WE THE PEOPLE.’

It’s not a revolution, but it’s a tiny little something.