The late Ed Koch was a lifelong Democrat, but if he were alive today, he’d almost certainly be a diehard MAGA Republican. (After all, the ex-New York City mayor described himself as a “liberal with sanity” — an obvious dealbreaker in today’s Democratic Party.) During his reign in the Big Apple (1978 through 1989), he actually cut taxes and eliminated 7,000 employees from the New York City payroll.
By the standards of his time, Koch was just another Northeastern liberal. But because the DNC has drifted so dramatically to the left, Koch would be persona non grata in 2025.
The party of AOC would excommunicate him.
Doesn’t matter that he was a pro-choice Democrat and a member of the LGBTQ community. Doesn’t matter that he (memorably) butted heads with real estate developer Donald Trump in the 1980s. Koch’s views on Israel alone would’ve made him politically radioactive to the New Left. The ex-mayor was a man of convictions; when his own party was being pulled in a dangerous direction, he had the moral courage to call ‘em as he saw ‘em.
Can’t have that in today’s DNC. The finger-wagging Woke-ist scolds would tar and feather him.
Before he died in 2013, Ed Koch crossed the aisle to endorse numerous Republicans, including Rudy Giuliani’s mayoral bid in the 1993, Al D’Amato’s senate race in 1998 (against Chuck Schumer, no less), Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral campaign in 2001, George Pataki’s gubernatorial race in 2002, and George W. Bush’s reelection bid in 2004.
“If you agree with me on nine out of 12 issues, vote for me,” he famously told New Yorkers. “If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 issues, see a psychiatrist.”
And this brings us to the current debate raging in the MAGA movement, and y’all know exactly what I’m talking about. On one side are the hardcore isolationists and self-declared “peacemakers” like Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The real divide isn’t between people who support Israel and people who support Iran or the Palestinians. The real divide is between those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it — between warmongers and peacemakers. Who are the warmongers? They would…
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 13, 2025
On the other side are President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Ron DeSantis, and the overwhelming majority of Republicans in Congress and the MAGA base. Opinion polls are going to be misleading during the short-term fog of war because so much depends on the precise wording of the pollsters’ questions. “Do you support America declaring war on Iran, or do you prefer peace?” will get one result; “Should America stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons?” will get another.
Indeed, from Fox News yesterday:
Eighty-four percent of those questioned in a national survey released by the Ronald Reagan Institute said preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons matters to U.S. security and prosperity. The figures were shared first with Fox News on Tuesday.
Six-in-10 Republicans said they support the [Israeli] airstrikes [on Iran], but that backing dropped to 35% among independents and 32% among Democrats.
Twenty-seven percent of Republicans opposed the Israeli airstrikes, with a third of independents and just over half of Democrats opposed.
The MAGA consensus isn’t that tricky to divine; we don’t need to invest in tea leaves, Tarot cards, or professional pollsters. It’s pretty simple, folks: MAGA does NOT want American soldiers in Iran, and there’s ZERO appetite for another “Forever War” in the Middle East.
But that doesn’t mean we want Iran to acquire a nuclear WMD! Are you out of your frickin’ mind?!
As we discussed on Monday, “America First” isn’t just a name — it’s also a destination. Which is why the ultimate litmus test of “America First” policies is “America First” outcomes.
Therefore, the most “America First” policy is one that leads to an outcome that permanently eliminates the Iranian nuclear threat AND keeps America out of another “Forever War.”
Trump tried to negotiate. He really, truly tried. Yet Iran refused to cede an inch and instead breached its nonproliferation obligations per the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Negotiations alone were ineffective.
Let’s not pull any punches: The stupid, destructive Iraq War taught us many lessons. Some of ‘em are to be cautious of hubris, make pragmatic decisions, and stay skeptical of intelligence agencies. So, it’s absolutely understandable to side-eye intelligence reports about Iran’s WMD programs.
That’s fair and reasonable.
But the lesson of Iraq was NOT that WMDs don’t matter and every intelligence report is always wrong!
That would be really stupid.
And that’s the biggest problem with the Tucker Carlson wing of the MAGA movement; they’re simply indifferent to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. They’re unthreatened by Iran’s support for terrorist proxies. They’re unmoved by Iran’s lengthy history of slaughtering Americans.
They. Just. Don’t. Care.
Instead, they’re relying on a strawman argument: “We know you don’t want another ‘Forever War!’ That’s what those Neocon ‘warmongers’ are trying to do!”
But that’s not what Donald Trump is doing, nor is Trump a Neocon. Not even close! Only a dishonest mind would reinterpret the Middle East’s complexities in binary terms, because that’s a bull[feces] argument. Our options are multifaceted.
Nor is it a battle between “peacemakers” and “warmongers.”
Besides, the real “peacemakers” are the ones who want to stop the Iranian mullahs from acquiring a nuclear bomb, NOT the ones who want to give ‘em a clear path to stockpile nuclear WMDs!
And that’s the genius of Donald Trump’s approach so far. Right now, we’re getting the best of all worlds — the Iranian threat is being neutralized, Iran's nuclear ambitions are being thwarted, and its terrorist network is being eliminated — all because Israel was FINALLY given a free hand to get the job done.
And not one American soldier has died!
So yeah, I’ll continue to ride on the Trump Train. Jumping over to the Tucker Train is too damn dangerous for me and my family.
Related: Unmasking the REAL 'America First' Traitors, Backstabbers, and MAGA-Phonies
Healthy political movements require ideological malleability. Any movement that demands rigid unanimity cannot survive. Like Ed Koch said, if you agreed with him on nine out of 12 issues, he still wanted your vote. (And if you agreed with him on all 12 issues, go see a shrink!) MAGA grows by embracing Ed Koch’s worldview.
Demanding ideological purity would destroy MAGA as a national movement.
Elon Musk still agrees with President Trump on nine out of 12 issues. But because he disagreed about the Big Beautiful Bill, Musk threw a temper tantrum on X and made an arse of himself. It cost him vast amounts of influence and prestige.
It was counter to his own interests.
Tucker Carlson, I assume, still agrees with President Trump on nine out of 12 issues. Yet, this “peacemaker” has declared war on MAGA over this one issue. He’s attacking Fox News personalities, attacking Republican senators, attacking American allies, and blasting everyone who disagrees with him as a “warmonger.” He’s using all the tools at his disposal, including propaganda, to divide the MAGA base.
This is stupid, too.
Beware the single-issue MAGA ‘leaders’ who abandon ship so quickly. They don’t represent us, and they sure as hell don’t represent the best interests of our movement.
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