Democrats rarely agree on messaging (it’s in our DNA), but a pleasantly surprising consensus sprung up around branding the GOP as “MAGA Republicans.” President Biden took up the mantle earlier this summer — even promoting them to “Ultra MAGA” in a few speeches. But after Biden called the MAGA movement “semi-fascist,” the pundits, press, and Republicans cried foul. How dare the President paint with such a broad brush? Did he just attack half the country? There were fatuous, overly simplistic comparisons to Hillary Clinton’s infamous “deplorables” comment from the 2016 campaign.

However, in his national address on the threat to democracy, he specifically and repeatedly drew a distinction between “MAGA Republicans” and “mainstream Republicans.” As he said in his remarks:

Now, I want to be very clear, very clear up front. Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. I know, because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.

Biden was referring to a specific segment of the Republican base. The President has always had an instinctual understanding of the importance of reaching out to Republican voters. He would have lost the Presidency without winning the support of rock-ribbed Republicans uncomfortable with Trump’s chaos and corruption. And he won’t be reelected without similar levels of support in 2024.

Not every Republican voter is a “MAGA Republican” extremist as defined by Biden and others. However, nearly every Republican on the ballot this fall is a MAGA Republican posing an existential threat to our country’s democracy and people’s freedom.

What is a MAGA Republican?

In his speech, Biden offered a specific definition of MAGA Republicanism:

Here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election, and they’re working right now as I speak in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post engaged in an exercise to see if he could determine how many people in the country were “MAGA Republicans” according to Biden’s definition. Per his findings:

Over and over, about 10 percent of the population (plus or minus a few percentage points) expresses the sort of view that Biden articulated: Republican or Republican-leaning and in favor of the positions he associated with “MAGA.”

If one agrees with Biden that this group poses a threat to American democracy, it is reassuring that it constitutes a tenth of the public — and not, as Biden’s detractors had it — half.

If you read his article, you can see that there is no precise way of calculating how many Americans support the extreme MAGA agenda. For sociological or historical purposes, ascertaining that number probably had value. However, in terms of political impact and the immediate threat to democracy, the number of MAGA Republican voters is inconsequential compared to the number of MAGA Republicans in elected office.

With apologies to blue state Republican governors like Charlie Baker and Larry Hogan, being a Republican in elected office means supporting the MAGA agenda. Few Republicans will announce that Biden won the election legitimately. None of them will stand up to Trump, reject his agenda, or even raise concerns about his ongoing crimes and corruption...