How do political movements die?

It’s a profound question — especially if you have skin in the game. MAGA, DSA, and more are all political movements. And eventually, they’ll die, too.

Because eventually, every movement does.

Remember the Tea Party movement? That was fun. For a few years, everyone pretended like they cared about the deficit.

Or the Greenbacks? Or the 7.5 million voters in the Share Our Wealth Society? How about the Dixiecrats, Copperheads, Whigs, and H. Ross Perot’s Reform Party?

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From political heavyweights to the ideological boneyard. No movement lasts forever.

Sometimes a movement is like the dog that catches the car: It dies because it succeeded — and since it didn’t have a binding identity beyond that mission, its members went their separate ways.

There are two ways a movement can win: Either legislatively (which is why we don’t see too many, say, abolitionists anymore) or by so completely hijacking a major party, its existence is superfluous. 

That’s what happened to the conservative movement: It was absorbed by the Republican Party. Conservatism went from ideological to institutional. (For better or worse.)

And sometimes the opposite is true: Some movements die because the war is over — and they didn’t win.

That’s the rule more than the exception. For every MAGA movement that culminates in a two-term presidency, there are thousands of Occupy Wall Streets. Victory is rare; failure is common.

And death is guaranteed.

So a movement dies when, for whatever reason, its members lose their will to continue. Something happens, and a consensus is reached: The juice ain’t worth the squeeze.

But success and failure aren’t the only things that can kill a movement. Those deaths are dramatic and make history’s highlight reel, but an awful lot of movements die from something more mundane — but infinitely more vicious.

The power of ridicule.

The Know-Nothing movement was a major political force in the 1850s. Vehemently anti-Catholic and anti-slavery, it had eight governors and up to 53 U.S. congressmen as members.

Then it collapsed — partly because it was associated with violent riots, and partly because it was laughed out of the room.

“When the Know-Nothings get control,” wrote Abraham Lincoln, “[the Declaration of Independence] will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.’ When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”

Know-Nothing’s secrecy was mocked and derided. “One might as well study optics in the pyramids of Egypt,” sneered Henry Ward Beecher.

From American Heritage:

Others poked fun at the Know-Nothings’ fantastic fears of a papal invasion or the transfer of the Vatican to the Mississippi Valley. Still more condemned the party for the rioting and bloodshed it inspired, a charge that gained meaning as each new election brought further clashes between nativists and immigrants. This combination of censure and ridicule proved effective; by the end of 1855 Know-Nothingism was on the wane.

It was a fatal one-two punch: First you’re linked to violence, then you’re publicly ridiculed. That’s more than a movement can survive.

Which brings us to the most jaw-dropping ad of the 2026 midterms:

It’s vastly more consequential than Vivek Ramaswamy’s “mom” commercial because that ad was specific to one family, one mother, and one daughter — and what it reveals about two candidates in an Ohio gubernatorial race. Whatever you may think of its propriety (or lack thereof), its scope was limited.

This is different. It blames Israel and Jews for the price of bananas (!) — and attempts to normalize a frothing hatred of Zionism. Its scope is international.

Spencer Pratt, who knows a thing or two about viral campaign ads, dissected the spot:

Aside from this being a grotesque ad, it's just bad, for several reasons. First off, it's not a realistic scenario. Some of those AI fan videos people made during my campaign resonated because they depicted realistic scenarios you could relate to, like liberal yoga moms sheepishly confessing they were voting republican because they didn't feel safe in LA anymore. 

But literally nobody is thinking about the Joooooos when they're buying bananas. Well, actually maybe Tucker Carlson or Abdul Elf Sayed is. I actually can kinda picture him dropping to his little knees in the middle of the aisle and screaming "NETANYAHUUUUUUUU" when he sees the price [for] eggs or his 3" heel risers.

It's also not helpful that the actress they hired looks like a melted fart.

[…]

Watching ugly white people bitch about bananas and Jews is not gonna win over any black voters in Detroit. Really atrocious backfire here.

So far, Abdul El-Sayed has only tepidly pushed back on the ad. That’s because he can’t really object to it because it accurately represents his beliefs:

It’s also a tipping point in American antisemitism: The Genocidiots just jumped the shark.

Because they already control the Democratic Party. Chuck Schumer is on his last legs; the future belongs to AOC, Zohran Mamdani, and anti-Israel candidates like El-Sayed. As the DSA goes, so goes the Democratic Party.

Gavin Newsom is a human barometer; if you ever want to know which way the political wind is blowing, look to the well-coiffed man from Sacramento. So it’s telling that Newsom is now heralding the DSA as a “mainstream Democratic movement” that is “going to be dominant.”

“I think we’re pretty aligned,” Newsom added.

And the DSA is stridently anti-Israel and anti-Zionism — so much so that it just voted to unendorse and expel Los Angeles socialist and mayoral candidate Nithya Ramen:

I mean, it’s not like the DSA is being coy:

DSA stands for the full freedoms and self determination of the Palestinian people including the end of Israel’s colonization and occupation of all Arab lands, equality, and the right of all refugees to return to their homes and properties. We affirm, in alignment with AlThawabit (the inviolable rights of Palestinians) and international law, upholding Palestinians’ rights to resist occupation in order to secure justice and dignity. The Israeli occupation continues now and will continue to violate each and every one of these internationally recognized and protected provisions.

Our role is to end U.S. complicity in Israel’s genocide and apartheid at every level—in our communities, our government, our workplaces—with every economic and political tool at our disposal.

But they already won. A supermajority (72%) of Democrats actually believe the blood libel lie of Israeli genocide. In today’s Democratic Party, a Zionist politician is a pariah — just ask John Fetterman. The base is rabidly pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel.

At this point, a Free Palestine movement, a DSA movement, and the Democratic Party are redundant.

Because their missions are redundant: All three groups are focusing on the same thing. 

Which is why consolidation is inevitable.

That’s the end of the line for many movements, but Michigan’s commercial has the PR potential to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery by making the Israel-bashers look — well, bananas.

Related: The El-Sayed Slayer: Republicans Have a Secret Weapon to Win Michigan — and His Name Is…

Those nitwits in the grocery store ad — dropping f-bombs and blaming Israel for the price of bananas — will be mocked, memed, ridiculed, and parodied until the end of time.

The Jews stole my bananas! Israel took my eggs! Curse you, Netanyahu, now my kids can’t eat lunch!

It sounds like the rantings of a psychopath — or the stream-of-consciousness of antisemitism. Either way, not a good look for a “mainstream” political movement. 

It’s deranged, unhinged, and utterly absurd.

In fact, it makes those 1850-era conspiracy theories of the Pope popping up in the Midwest to rule America seem sane. Even the Know-Nothing acolytes would shake their heads in disbelief.

Bananas?! You’re blaming Jews for bananas?!

You can trick Americans into believing there’s a Gaza genocide, because Gaza is far away. With sympathetic social media content, strategic misinformation, and harrowing images, you can fabricate reality. 

(It’s the backbone of many PR campaigns.)

But everyone in America — and everyone in Michigan — goes to the grocery store. We experience it firsthand.

And we’ve NEVER seen parents cursing Israel over the price of bananas!

Which is why it’s so laughable. So preposterous. So jumping-the-shark. 

Because if you’re going to blame Israel for bananas, what WON’T you blame it for?

Israel is why I’m fat! Israel is why my chair broke on national TV!

Well, yeah: Cenk Uygur, the uncle of Hasan Piker and one of the people pushing the banana ad, actually tried that excuse.

Next time a Genocidiot goes on a rant about Israel and Gaza, just nod your head and agree with them: “Yes, I know. The Jews stole your banana. Israel took your eggs. Tell me, is Benjamin Netanyahu in the room with us right now? Show me on the doll where he hurt you.”

By being ridiculous and acting ridiculous, the Genocidiots have made it acceptable to respond with ridicule.

And becoming a punchline is something no movement can survive.

“I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one,” wrote Voltaire, “‘O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.’ And God granted it.”

Lately, the Lord’s been generous.