Dan Sanchez on the fracture at MAGA

The MAGA movement has fractured recently over the contentious issues of foreign military intervention and government spending, with each faction accusing their opponents of betraying MAGA.  This raises a question: What does it mean to be MAGA? 

Considering “MAGA” as a brand name for a political movement (which is how it is commonly used), there is no way to definitively answer that question.  But if we take the acronym literally and examine what it would mean to truly “Make America Great Again,” the matter is much clearer and more significant.

To know what would make America great again, we must understand what America is.  Obviously America is a nation, but one unlike any other. As Englishman G.K. Chesterton observed: 

“America is the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed.  That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence; perhaps the only piece of practical politics that is also theoretical politics and also great literature.” 

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America has never completely lived up to those ideals, but to the extent that it has, it has thrived.  America’s foundational values—its moral greatness—are the root cause of its rise to material and cultural greatness throughout most of its history.  “This,” as Read wrote, “is the rock upon which the whole ‘American miracle’ was founded.”

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In the recent MAGA disputes, it is the Iran doves and the fiscal hawks (whether that includes OBBB supporters or not) who stand for Americanism and thus for America. 

“Principle” derives from a Latin word meaning “first thing.”  For America to make a genuine comeback, Americans must put first things first: principle before any party, president, or foreign power.  “America First” means putting America’s founding principles first, and that is fundamentally at odds with “Israel First,” “Trust in Trump,” and “seize and hold power by any means necessary.”

The more that America betrays its founding ideals, the less it will be great as America.  A completely imperial and predatory “America” might be “great” in the sense of size; but such a bloated, voracious, and morbid monstrosity would no longer be America.  For what, to paraphrase the Gospel According to Matthew, is a nation profited, if it shall gain the whole world, and lose its own soul? 

America can only be great to the extent that it is true to itself.  To Make America Great Again, we must restore what Made America Great Before: the nation’s founding philosophy of liberty. 

~ Dan Sanchez, "President, Party, or Principle: What Should MAGA Stand For?," The Libertarian Institute, July 7, 2025