MAGA Maoism or the Jacksonian Tradition?

In early 19th century America, the emergent institution of wage-labor alongside the revolutionary industrialization of Northern manufacturing triggered tremendous anxiety and fear among white workers. The American dream had been deeply shaped by Jeffersonian democracy, which envisioned America as an idyllic nation of land owning farmer-citizens. Jefferson's dream was an America in which a man would possess his land, live independently, and work for himself, cultivating virtue in a republic of lush green fields stretching on forever. The factory system was a direct assault on the vision of Jeffersonian agrarian democracy, as was the system of chattel slavery. In this period, white American men who entered the wage-labor market as industrial workers were anxious about their social position being tied to work and wages, not land. If the republic was supposed to be built on the virtue of proud and equal citizens wrenching wealth from the earth, what virtue would be found in factory toil? Industrialization was a great displacement of pride and dignity under industrial capitalism.

The transition period between Jeffersonian democracy and the industrial system saw an era called Jacksonian democracy. Under Andrew Jackson—one of President Trump's great heroes—expansion Westward, industrial protectionism, and radical egalitarianism came to be the key political strategies by which the decline of Jeffersonian democracy was kept at bay. New land in the West allowed men to live out the Jeffersonian fantasy and brought wealth and power through expansion. Tariffs on foreign goods sought to uplift the factory system in the North, protecting it from competition abroad and cultivating industry. Jackson was brought to power in the first election wherein non-property-holding white males could vote in most states. Legal reforms opened professional work to all white men. Jacksonianism was an egalitarian revolution.

During the Jacksonian era, there was a broad assault on elite culture and professionalism. White men felt that power and money were corrupting government institutions and elite professions so they adopted radical anti-elite reforms. For example, in the Jacksonian era, many states dropped the requirements to become a lawyer or to practice medicine, opening the fields up to every white male of good standing.

…during the Jacksonian era (roughly the 1820s and 1830s), and continuing through the Civil War, standards for bar admission generally decreased and became far more erratic and whimsical. During the Jacksonian era, Americans grew increasingly distrustful of lawyers and felt that admissions practices were elitist and contrary to the ideals of democracy. The public saw the law as primarily an upper-class profession that exclusively controlled entry and favored applicants who were well-connected and who could easily secure apprenticeships. [1]

The bar exam and traditional apprenticeship system were radically reformed to become more accessible. "Accessible," as in, "optional." This was a revolt against aristocracy, as many perceived these professions to be captured by an elite that hated the Jeffersonian republic's common man and egalitarian nature. Growing patronage systems and emergent slaveholder interests furthered this public outrage against an aristocracy embodied by the Whigs. The Jacksonians had their own patronage systems, placing unqualified but loyal people into power to bring the common man to the center of political life. Elite corruption was fought with common corruption.

While many have compared MAGA's anti-elite impulses to Maoism, they're simply Jacksonian. Impulses like believing one can use Grok to become an expert attorney or doctor, because at least then you're not bought and paid for by the corrupt judiciary or Big Pharma, are not so different from the heyday of Jacksonian reform. This is the same logic of appointing podcasters like Dan Bongino and 19-year-olds like Nate Cavanaugh to positions of power and authority.[2] Egalitarianism is as historically informed by aspirations of a better life from the bottom as it is by resentment towards the top. In times of corruption, resentment towards the top becomes the dominant mood of egalitarianism. The lawyers, doctors, and Whigs who opposed Jackson and his supporters saw them as a ragged mob led by a populist, war-mongering general turned king.

The Jacksonian era also brought America into the Nullification Crisis. After Jackson passed the Tariff Act of 1828, which levied 25-50% tariffs on foreign goods imported into the United States to protect Northern factories, South Carolina passed an act nullifying these tariffs. They did so because their export of goods to Europe, especially cotton, was threatened by reciprocal European tariffs in response to American tariffs. Federal power, which at the time expressed the interests of Northern industry, thus came into conflict for the first time with Southern agricultural-export interests—the interests of the slaveholding aristocracy.

Egalitarianism during the Jacksonian era was surrounded by threats—a corrupt elite, a second-class labor force in the American South, radically changing standards of living, and new economic models—all with obvious modern parallels. The Jacksonian mood emerged from the decline of the Jeffersonian dream, just as Trump’s MAGA movement emerged from de-industrialized America. Male workers, who once found pride and dignity in factory work, revolted against workers’ new norms and expectations in a service-oriented economy, just as male workers once revolted against wage labor which had torn them from the land.

Most media do not take Trump seriously when he says he is like Jackson. If they do, they embrace a reductive pop culture liberal view that Jackson is just evil, like Trump is.

On the negative side, Jackson committed the two fundamental sins of American history – he was a racist who owned slaves and believed in white supremacy, and he exhibited intense prejudice against Native Americans, removing them by force from their lands, which resulted in thousands of deaths and much suffering.[4] 

They reduce Jackson to the Trail of Tears, but Jackson was much more. He reshaped national politics, expanded the nation, forced crises that clarified the divergent interests of the North and South, represented a white working class in turmoil, and embodied American egalitarianism's dark and bright spots. Later presidents, including Lincoln, would be compared to Jackson, with newspapers at the time begging for "One hour of Jackson" from Lincoln.[5]  Taking Trump seriously is not easy for some people. But we should do so, as the White House writes,

"As national politics polarized around Jackson and his opposition, two parties grew out of the old Republican Party–the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats, adhering to Jackson; and the National Republicans, or Whigs, opposing him." [3]

Trump has had a similar effect on contemporary politics, triggering the emergence of what I've called the Cratylian right. 

Jacksonian power looks like Maoist power because in both cases a leader forges a bond with working people and concentrates power to execute on popular demands, bringing chaos and confusion. Trump's aggressive marketing approach to forging that bond seems to inspire the parallel to Maoism—as well as the sycophantic nature of the communication around Trump. Yet, ignoring the real historical kinship between Trump and Jackson is a misunderstanding of the nature of MAGA. They are radical and traditional American egalitarians. They are responding to a crisis of corruption at the top and citizenship at the bottom. They are revolting because they feel the rights and dignity of citizens are under attack by corrupt elites and second-class non-citizen labor. Maoism bears a surface-level similarity to MAGA in that both sought industrialization, emphasized voluntarism, and were creatures of mass communication, but the parallels end there. There is no such thing as MAGA Maoism—there is just the ancient American Jacksonian tradition. By the time this is all over, Trump will have defined twelve years of American life. One should therefore learn how to understand the Jacksonian element of American politics because Donald Trump will define American politics for the next thirty years. Every Republican will be held up to Trump, and every Democrat against him.

To understand the present moment as one of fascism, authoritarianism, or Maoism is to ignore the history of the country and instead adopt the history of another nation as an ahistorical fantasy. What is more likely, that European fascism and Chinese Maoism came to dominate 21st century American politics, or an old American tradition which had originally emerged at a time of corruption, changing standards of life, and a new economy made a comeback?

It would be strategically fortunate for the Democrats if Trump were Mao and his followers were Maoists because, against that sort of irrational politics, one is powerless. If MAGA is Maoist, there is no stopping what is to come. But MAGA is not Maoist, and this is not a cultural revolution. That our culture is, eight years on, still incapable of grasping what is happening is a dark sign. To compare a wave of Jacksonian sentiment with the Cultural Revolution and Mao's rule of China, which resulted in the death of possibly two million people, public trials ending in brutal punishment, and industrial policy shaped by collectivism, is absurd, easy, and reductive.

There are better options. Understanding Jacksonianism can advance American political dialogue. The Jacksonian era was a bridge that brought America to the Antebellum years. The Jacksonian era was not defeated; the country moved on, as greater and greater challenges threatened to tear the Republic apart. If Trump is like Jackson, let's hope he's only captured the Jacksonian spirit, egalitarianism's double-edged sword, and not the Jacksonian Era's end: a slow fade to the Civil War.

Footnotes

[1]Hansen, D. R. (1995). Do we need the Bar Examination--A critical evaluation of the justifications for the bar examination and proposed alternatives. In Case Western Reserve Law Review (p. 1191). https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2155&context=caselrev

[2] Swenson, A. (2025, February 25). Dan Bongino made his name in podcasting, with plenty to say about the FBI | AP News. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/dan-bongino-podcasts-fbi-kash-patel-trump-6d47f60b59edb3dba45615104ed41a67

[3] Andrew Jackson – The White House. (n.d.). The White House. https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/andrew-jackson/

[4] Walsh, K. T. (2017, March 16). Trump pays homage to Andrew Jackson. US News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/news/ken-walshs-washington/articles/2017-03-16/president-donald-trump-pays-homage-to-andrew-jackson

[5] Desai, S. P. (2022). "Jackson Redivivus" in Lincoln's first inaugural. The Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, 43(1). https://doi.org/10.3998/jala.2751