The juggernaut that is MAGA continues to crash through the countryside destroying all that is Republican and much that is American in its wake. The latest casualty is FreedomWorks, described by Politico as the “once-swaggering conservative organization that helped turn tea party protesters into a national political force,” who voted unanimously this morning to go out of business, effective immediately. The reason: it can’t reconcile the war between the MAGA faction and the Never Trump/traditional conservative faction within its ranks. Ergo, collapsing in a heap is all that it knows how to do. Bookmark this piece, friends. This is the template for the rest of the death of the Republican party as Donald Trump and his minions take it over and destroy its last vestiges.
“We’re dissolved,” said the group’s president, Adam Brandon. “It’s effective immediately.”
FreedomWorks’ board of directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to dissolve the organization, Brandon said. Wednesday will be the last workday for the group’s roughly 25 employees, though staffers will continue to receive paychecks and health care benefits for the next few months.
The development brings to a close a period of turmoil for the organization. FreedomWorks laid off 40 percent of its staff in March of 2023, and as a result of a drop in fundraising, its total revenue has declined by roughly half, to about $8 million, since 2022, Brandon said.
This is Biblical prophecy right here. “A house divided amongst itself cannot stand.” Neither can a political party. Its president explained.
After Trump took control of the conservative movement, Brandon said, a “huge gap” opened up between the libertarian principles of FreedomWorks leadership and the MAGA-style populism of its members. FreedomWorks leaders, for example, still believed in free trade, small government and a robust merit-based immigration system. Increasingly, however, those positions clashed with a Trump-aligned membership who called for tariffs on imported goods and a wall to keep immigrants out but were willing, in Brandon’s view, to remain silent as Trump’s administration added $8 trillion to the national debt. […]
“Our staff became divided into MAGA and Never Trump factions,” Brandon said in an internal document reviewed by POLITICO Magazine. It also impacted fundraising.
“Now I think donors are saying, ‘What are you doing for Trump today?’” said Paul Beckner, a member of FreedomWorks’ board. “And we’re not for or against Trump. We’re for Trump if he’s doing what we agree with, and we’re against him if he’s not. And so I think we’ve seen an erosion of conservative donors.”
You’ve seen an erosion of conservative donors due to the erosion of conservative values. MAGA values are not conservative values. That’s the problem. MAGA has been at war with the GOP since Trump came on the scene. As Lindsey Graham prophesied, “If we nominate Trump he will destroy us and we will deserve it.” Agree and agree. And lo, verily, now it has come to pass.
In an interview with POLITICO Magazine last September, an ex-FreedomWorks employee claimed that the organization under Brandon’s leadership had turned its back on its values while Trump was in office; during this period, for example, the organization issued tweets spreading election conspiracies and deflecting criticism of the Florida legislation that came to be known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. “He let a bunch of right-wing nutjobs turn FreedomWorks into a MAGA mouthpiece,” the former FreedomWorks staffer said.
Brandon said he “did my best to balance the two competing ideologies.”
It’s impossible. It cannot be done. This has been the folly of the GOP since 2015, that somehow, this snake that they took to their collective bosom — and yes, they knew he was a snake when they took him in — was not going to poison the Republican party and eventually destroy it. Somehow the party thought it was bigger than Trump, that they could use him for their purposes and remain unsullied and intact. That’s insanity. But that’s what they believed, what they hoped, and what they depended upon. Now the mirage is evaporating and the ugly truth is there, that MAGA and Trump are destroying the last vestiges of the Republican party.
In the midst of this turmoil, FreedomWorks launched an effort last fall to rebrand itself as a more centrist organization, one that could target the independent voters that its leaders believe would be more receptive to libertarian ideals. But the effort failed to get traction, Brandon said, largely because the independent voters viewed FreedomWorks as a right-wing group. As a result, Brandon and the board began discussing the possibility of shutting down FreedomWorks altogether.
“This has been my life for so long and to turn the lights off, it’s a real emotional thing,” said Brandon, who joined FreedomWorks in 2005 and has been president for about a decade. “The problem is that it’s just not the best vehicle for our [libertarian] principles and values set.”
Keep your contacts list handy, Brandon. When Trump finally destroys the GOP, lock, stock and barrel, concerned Republicans will be sitting amongst the ruins. At that point, and evidently only at that point, can you people begin to rebuild. And clear your calendar for November 6. With any luck the election won’t be so close that it can’t be decided the night of the 5th (my dream, probably not the reality) and then with two-time loser Trump, set to go forward in three criminal trials, the Republican party will come face to face with the awful realization that it backed the Pale Horse all these years. The Pale Horse in Revelations represented Death. Trump is killing the party. This incident with FreedomWorks is just one more sign of the process of the last nine years and of the GOP’s inevitable doom.
Nothing constructive for the Republican party can take place until it is post-Trump. That’s the GOP’s problem, like a toxic marriage, it can’t seem to get a divorce. Somehow its going to work out. Somehow the abusing spouse will stop the domestic violence, will in fact wake up one day and “be presidential.” That’s been their dream. Remember how they used to grin at one another and say, “Today is the day that Trump became presidential.” Wrong. He merely was less obnoxious than usual on occasion.
It’s tragic that the GOP has to bloody itself like this. But they can’t quit Trump and so they’ll ride with him all the way to the end of the line — for them. Who knows what the end of the line is for him? Prison, maybe.
The problem with the libertarian wing of freedom works (and quite frankly libertarians themselves) is they have never been the standard bearers of libertarian-ism. It’s always been the “no government/interference” crap until or unless…No government regulations when we want to pollute but boy oh boy regulate a woman’s body. No spending any money until it’s our guys in congress and the w.h. then WHOOPEE-we want to spend trillions. Their hypocrisy has been the consistent thing throughout their existence-both freedumb works as well as the libertarians. Wonder if perhaps that is what turned off the donor spigot? Nah, probably not. The donors were at least as hypocritical as the board/pols.
Hell, I take this to be a good thing–these orgs falling by the wayside.
Libertarianism as the extremist form of conservatism is best exemplified and explained by the phrase, “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
John Kenneth Galbraith.
Love the Galbraith quotation, thanks. A fundraising request came in during the week from the Young America’s Foundation on behalf of the Reagan Ranch (OMG, could Uncle Ronnie’s spread be in fiscal duress???!!). I suspect the YAF indiscriminately bought mailing lists to start a new gift. NO F***ING WAY will I donate, but I AM going to spend a stamp to send them a printout of Mr. Galbraith’s image with the quote, a Harry Truman quote about Republicans, and one of Putin praising Repubs for aiding and abetting his project to destroy us. Just thinking about one of the Young America’s finding this material instead of a donation brings a smile to my face😁😁😁😁😁😁
What was that phrase from all those years ago?
Oh yeah.
Everything Trump touches, dies.