THE history of populist movements worldwide consists of unrecognised grievances being forced out into the open by ‘the governed’, followed by failure to convert those bottom-up, decentralised politics into sustainable long-term policy changes. Both MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) and MAGA (Make America Great Again) have accomplished political milestones almost unprecedented in American history.
One has to reach back to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson to find solid parallels to the Presidency of Donald J Trump: Jackson for his battle with the Second US Bank and eliminating the US Federal Debt, and Teddy Roosevelt for promoting a muscular expansionist US foreign policy and his commitment to health and exercise, in many ways foreshadowing a similar emphasis during the administration of John F Kennedy and now JFK’s nephew RFK, Jr.
Not to be negative, but the history of US populist political movements is littered with stories of unmet high expectations and subversion of those movements by established political power centres.
So what is populism, this pan-US and EU movement currently threatening to overwhelm and supplant the globalist ‘New World Order?’
The Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde says: ‘I define populism as an ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, “the pure people” versus “the corrupt elite”, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people. Populism, so defined, has two opposites: elitism and pluralism. Elitism is populism’s mirror-image: it shares its Manichean worldview, but wants politics to be an expression of the views of the moral elite, instead of the amoral people. Pluralism, on the other hand, rejects the homogeneity of both populism and elitism, seeing society as a heterogeneous collection of groups and individuals with often fundamentally different views and wishes.’
(For further reading on populism, consider my previously published essays here and here.)
There are fundamental fault lines between MAHA and MAGA, and in many ways they resolve into pro-regulatory big government initiatives versus promotion of deregulation/small government.
It is worth noting that the MAHA movement exists outside Kennedy and the government, and encompasses many societal issues outside the focus of the Trump administration. For instance, homesteading, medical and personal sovereignty, and personal responsibility for healthcare choices may all be outside the MAHA whole-of-government approach. For this article, I am writing of MAHA directives within the government. But MAHA is much bigger than that.
MAHA has emerged mainly from the left and, out of frustration due to the Democratic Party’s corruption and rejection, has embraced the centre-right. In turn, MAHA has been enthusiastically endorsed by MAGA and centre-right populists, including many formerly associated with the Tea Party movement.
The arc of the Presidential campaign of RFK Jr closely adheres to this narrative. Bobby started out seeking the Democratic party nomination as representing ‘Kennedy Democrats’ and announced a platform proposing a return to his legendary father and uncle’s pre-Carter, pre-Ronald Reagan ‘New Deal’ positions. But the Democratic party of today bears little resemblance to that of his father and uncle’s time, and the changes in national political thought on both left and right wreaked by Reagan, Carter, and then the succession of the military-industrial corporatist Bushes and Clinton(s)-Obama-Biden on the left.
To no one’s surprise, apparently other than Bobby and his team, today’s Democratic party made it abundantly clear that there was no room for this Kennedy in the tent. So he decided to make a run as an independent, and Nicole Shanahan stepped up to bankroll and prop up the drive to get Bobby on the ballot in all 50 states, which was amazingly successful, to the credit of all concerned. However, it was clear that, once again, an independent run would primarily function as a spoiler, in this case for the campaign of Donald J Trump.
Read More – How far should the great US health revolution go?