Will Hicock Low:
Pale Grew Her Immortality,
For Woe of All These Lovers (1885)

"It was already plenty great enough …"

One cannot exercise MAGA-style governance and retain a democracy because the two seem in fundamental opposition with each other. MAGA demands authoritarian leadership, someone, above all, willing to tell others what to do. It also presumes that the majority will passively follow, regardless of the questionable direction from the top. Democracy assumes almost the precise opposite: a populace willing to be actively involved in deciding direction and the gumption to follow properly determined decisions. Both MAGA and democracy follow their leader. The MAGA leader is a person, while the law leads democracies.

Once elected, MAGA faced a dilemma, for the country remained a democracy rather than an autocracy. This fact meant that they would have to try to govern a democracy by autocratic means. This posed no real difficulty to those already in the MAGA cult, but the rest of the citizens quickly took umbrage. They asked uncomfortable questions and filed innumerable lawsuits, easily winning the vast majority. The dilemma MAGA faced involved changing the democratic laws into more autocratic-friendly form. This could be done if their narrow majority in each house of Congress could be maintained. The proposed changes would have to appear not nearly as radical as they need to be to seal a long-term victory for the forces of evil.

Fortunately for our democracy, our form of government contains a DoubleBounding agent. When holding a majority, even a shockingly slim one, the majority can legislate whatever they damned well please, with one caveat. If the law proves to be wildly unpopular, in the following election, the majority of voters will likely vote against those who supported those changes, so the majority must be careful about who their legislation offends. Fortunately for democracy, the MAGA agenda seems wildly unpopular. It seems probable that the incumbent was only elected because he told more convincing lies than his opponent. He might have taken his election as permission to do whatever he wanted, but the DoubleBounding element of our form of governance cautions him against such radical action.

Voter disenfranchisement remains a critical element of the MAGA movement because even they understand that Americans are rather attached to our form of government and would quickly vote out anyone they view as undermining its most cherished traditions, like voting, for instance. So, the elected incumbent remains perfectly free to propose any legislation they please, within the constraints of the DoubleBounding element of our constitution. Implement half the crazy shit proposed in what our incumbent calls his Big, Beautiful Bill and he will fulfill his movement's destiny in the upcoming midterm elections. Not only will he lose his tenuous majority in both houses, but he will also get himself impeached in the process.

So, go ahead and implement whatever you want. Try to dismantle the sacred basis upon which this country was founded. You were never destined for more than a fuzzy footnote in our history, anyway. You will not be mourned or even remembered beyond the hash you made of your almost two terms in office. The future will thank you for reminding us all that we were always a nation of laws. The first felon to ever hold our highest elected office reminded us why felons belong in prison, not the White House, and that our Constitution, as written, was plenty powerful enough to ward off some Jahu insisting that only he could make it greater. It was already plenty great enough, thank you.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #CHope , #PureSchmaltz