It is difficult these days to find clarity in the miasma rising out of the swamp of American politics and culture. And there is no guarantee that if you do find an argument that has explanatory power that the clarity will clarify. The lords of chaos seem to be driving the train, from Peter Thiel talking about the anti-Christ and capitalism to AI chatbots going psychotic to the scorched-earth spite of Prez 47. Envision Snowpiercer with 47 at the controls.

But there is a reason, that is, a traceable line of “why” what is happening today is happening, one that can be anchored in fact rather than fever dreams or punditry. It begins with an insight that Slavoj Žižek presents in First as Tragedy, Then as Farce (published in 2009 but still one of my go-to books when I’m befuddled). He notes that conservatism and the conservative politics it spawns is not the opposite of revolution but the disappointment left behind when an emancipatory struggle fails to transform the system to the benefit and betterment of the whole.

The failed emancipations in American history and the crises they have caused are many. As a result of these multiple disappointments, as Žižek points out, we have the rise of racist populism, further wars, increased poverty, and greater divisions between the rich and the poor within all societies filling in the gaps. The populism that comes out of this situation “is ultimately sustained by the frustrated exasperation of ordinary people, by the cry ‘I don't know what's going on, but I've just had enough of it! It cannot go on! It must stop!’” And whoever promises to get it to stop (whatever that means) gets to pull the levers of power.

What makes MAGA exceptional in some ways is how it has created a politics not interested in conservative political actions guided by conservative principles (think Goldwater, Reagan, Buckley, and their ilk) but in contorting conservatism to serve its more id-based desires for vengeance, snark, illusionary worlds, and meanness. MAGA is post-conservative, but in a very parasitic way, the way a zombie fungus takes over carpenter ants or Toxoplasma gondii makes rats unafraid of cats.

To take just one example, a conservative’s pride in American identity, history, and global leadership has been MAGA-fied into a nostalgic “Make America Great Again” with a heaping side-order of grievance, framing decline as caused by outsiders or internal betrayal, with a resulting political “program” (if it can be called that) of opposition to globalism, multiculturalism, immigrants, and perceived “woke” culture.

(A good article on this in Columbia Political Review, https://www.cpreview.org/articles/2025/4/is-maga-really-conservative-anymore).

It is an understandable question to ask if MAGA will outlast its founding demon and root itself into American culture, especially for Democrats, who need to figure out a way to survive.

But that is not the important question. MAGA may be strange in many ways, and the authoritarianism it has given rise up to may seem unprecedented in its speed and greed, but MAGA is not sui generis. Its seedlings have been gestating since the establishment of the colonies in America, and we’ve seen them sprout in multiple fashions over the past four centuries.

But the proper resistance to MAGA is not, as the Democrats think, to be found in finding the proper talking points while still holding on to the institutions that give them power because part of MAGA’s smash comes from defenestrating those institutions – holding on to them means holding on to nothing.

No, the only proper resistance is to complete the emancipation, to achieve the thing the failed revolution failed to revolutionize. Easy, right? (Cue AI-generated laugh track.) Of course it isn’t easy. But it is also not impossible. American history is ripe with examples of people trying to emancipate themselves – we have many, many programs to chose from and mix and match.

But – and this is an important “but” – the “ordinary Americans,” the 99% – whatever term one wants to use – need much more education about the efforts it will take to build a multi-generational movement to control capitalism and produce a common wealth while also not being a sucker for any glittering thing that comes along that offers a quick fix with no money down. (Yes, I know – cue the next laugh track.)

But there is no other path to follow if people want to unstuck themselves from the bourgeois ideologies that bog them down and blind them.

In the meantime, resist, resist, resist the MAGAverse in any way possible. (Be MAGA averse.)

Do not waste your time on trying to find common ground with those who do not want to share their ground.

Do not try to unconvince those who are convinced they are convinced.

Move past them to the barricades and fight to preserve our common inheritances. The government and its power do not belong to 47 – they are ours, and they are the only means we have of protecting ourselves from the rapacity of the market, from AI, from the broligarchs and private equity vampires and billionaire Squid Gamers.

But we won’t have them for long if we don’t start hitting the streets and saying, “No.”

And as we do, we will move from MAGA to MAGAAT – make American great again after Trump.