The last few days witnessed a seismic event that shook the Make America Great Again movement and the Republican Party to the core.
Tucker Carlson, perhaps the most celebrated MAGA propagandist, and Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG for short), a former House member and one of the noisiest MAGA enthusiasts, both declared they no longer support the Grand Old Party (GOP) and that they will not advocate for its victory in the upcoming midterm elections.
They believe the party betrayed its roots and no longer represents the interests of the American people. They added, without much favor or conviction, that they are not planning to support the rival Democratic Party, but only after being asked.
Carlson and MTG are seasoned political figures, and it would be highly naive to assume their break with the GOP is an act of desperation on the spur of the moment. In a highly chaotic and opportunistic political environment, everyone has a plan. These two renegades are no exception.
To explain the strategy Carlson and MTG are pursuing, it is helpful, and perhaps a little entertaining, to provide a historical canvas. And thus we turn to the Holy Roman Empire of the 16th century and the Landsknechte – the mercenary, mostly German, military force of the time.
The Landsknechte were created by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I to be part of the imperial army. As the 16th century evolved into a constant bloody warfare, they frequently sold their services to different sides. The Holy Roman Emperor couldn’t always afford to keep them on a permanent payroll, which left thousands of highly trained, motivated, and well-equipped soldiers looking for work.
Rival European powers happily seized the opportunity to hire these skilled killers against the Emperor, their former master. When Landsknechte faced off against opposing Landsknechte, the fighting was exceptionally vicious because both sides knew the exact tactics, weaknesses, and strengths.
Much like Maximilian I created the Landsknechte of yesteryear, the “Emperor” of today, US President Donald Trump, has crafted Carlson and MTG. Both served Donald Trump and the MAGA movement well. They fought many battles, not missing a single fight.
They were always in the avant-garde for a political controversy de jour, always the loudest and most outrageous. They loyally followed Trump into his political “wilderness,” and they stuck by the president during his interim period. But the MAGA movement was never an ideological construct.
It was an impressive mix of emotions, grievances, and random ideas. It was an emotional outburst to what many believe was a disconnect by both parties from their respective bases and the people of the country in general. And MAGA captured that energy without ever trying to reconcile the at times contradictory and mutually exclusive positions.
Most of them were poorly defined and would come with a gust and then fade away. Yet some persisted and showed great promise.
Among those, two clearly stood out: the dislike of American foreign policy in general, and antisemitism veiled in the cloak of anti-Zionism. Trump, in his second term, failed miserably to uphold both. The war with Iran, when Israel became the closest military ally of the United States, was, for Carlson, MTG, and many of their followers, the crossing of the red line.
The war with Iran, and to a lesser extent the events since the Hamas attack on Israel, changed American politics forever. It showed there is a large group of people holding isolationist, anti-Western, anti-Israel views, not beholden to either the GOP or the Democratic Party.
They can, will, and many of them have in the past voted for both parties. Carlson and MTG realized that the group would decide the presidential elections of 2028 and perhaps the coming midterms as well.
A battlefield of many competing egos
There is another reason for Carlson’s and MTG’s departure right now: the era of Trump is coming to an end. His ego, will, and political genius have kept the MAGA movement together, making any apostasy a sure banishment from political life.
Trump, as he correctly claimed, is MAGA. Yet politics does not tolerate a vacuum, and with his last term nearly at an end, the huge space he occupied in MAGA and the GOP is to be filled by other people and forces.
Carlson and MTG are often mistaken for cheap political pundits, charlatans, or just attention-seeking idiots. They are not. They are political opportunists looking for masses to lead. And in that group, with anti-Western and anti-Israel fixations, they found their crowd.
It is no coincidence that Carlson and MTG are no longer discussing economics or education, the subjects that are actually important for the country’s future. They spend their entire political energy on criticizing the West, revising its history, presenting Iran, Russia, and Qatar as tragically misunderstood friends, and seeing Jewish conspiracy everywhere.
It is not by pure chance that both have been getting closer to the political figures on the progressive far Left, such as Ro Khanna. Nobody should be surprised if Carlson announces his support for Medicare for All or one of its variants.
They are building a third force in American politics. It does not have a name just yet, but “Woke International” is perhaps a good moniker. The political extremes often unite. They may not share every idea, but the common hatred will keep them together. The “Woke International” may not have its followers running for office, but it will be the force with which both parties have to reckon, compromise, and appease.
As the Landsknechte in the past, this new movement will be the most vicious against its former comrades. The GOP will suffer the most. But it will undermine both parties from within, making both less cohesive and more extreme.
Yet the nature of the movement, its negative worldview, and its disorganized structure will make it factionized and a battlefield of many competing egos.
In the near future, the “Woke International,” the modern-day Landsknechte, will fight every battle and make every political engagement a disastrous and destructive affair.
The author lives and works in Silicon Valley, California. He is a founding member of San Francisco Voice for Israel.