While the MAHA movement did not feel that the Democratic party had their interests at heart, it surprised many to see them so easily cross over and join a pro-industry, benefits-cutting Republican party with policies on agriculture, public health, education, free markets and social equity that should send shivers down the spine of any progressive Mommy Lobbyist now shopping for a second residence in Georgetown.
But even more surprising, the MAHA Moms movement may implode rather than swing back to the Democrats after two years of sleeping with the enemy.
Conservative MAHA Roots
RFK Jr and Del Bigtree, the self-proclaimed MAHA mastermind, knew well enough how deep the conservative roots ran throughout their campaigns for food purity, vaccine hesitancy and a distrust of regulators. They were tapping into opportunities within the US Pentecostal movement when most others were defining these anti-vax activists as conspiracy-merchants.
In 2019, I saw the Pentecostalism in their pre-MAHA dogma while watching a three-day Truth About Cancer Live conference. The event brought together the leading lights of the anti-vax lobby, the naturopath supplement grifters, the juicing cancer therapists and the golden gurus of the “don’t trust your doctor” cult. RFK Jr and Del Bigtree’s keynotes factored heavily in an event that almost seamlessly swung from Praise the Lord to Praise the Herb.
I wrote an article then that examined the narrative holding their stories together. What I saw was how Pentecostals and anti-vaxxers were:
- tightly woven around a fear of development and innovation and a desire to return to the purity and innocence of nature (one that was shattered by technology)
- the desire to return to some Eden, to find redemption and a purification from past behavior (with evangelical echoes of seeking personal salvation)
- Like the Pentecostals, the pre-MAHA anti-vaxxers were reacting to technological uncertainties they felt were an affront to our spiritual and emotional core.
- These snake-oil salesmen were filling a gaping hole in people’s lives with anxiety, ignorance and mistrust while appealing for funds or selling trinkets (like many of the PTL televangelists who had last rose to prominence during the Reagan administration).
The next section recaps how the seeds of MAHA grew out of the Christian conservative movement, drawn from the text written during that 2019 Truth About Cancer event.
The Prophets of Purity
Growing up at a time when 1970s late-night TV consisted of PTL Club preachers with their hands held out towards the screen, I recognized the same fire and brimstone tone of salvation and faith healing in most of these naturopath medicine men. The core underlying Ty Bollinger’s “star-studded” Truth About Cancer conference were these new barnstorming health Pentecostals.
But these new faith healers were preaching on behalf of a different archangel.
- The audience and the gurus have moved from seeking salvation from Satan to a deliverance from the evil of Big Pharma’s cancer and vaccine industries (through supplements … available online)
- The preachers have moved from selling snake oil to branding essential oils
- They’ve moved from the healing powers of Jesus to the healing powers of activated charcoal.
Their robes are now a different shade of white, but they still preach from superstition and fear, quoting from an expanded Bible on herbs, juices and lifestyles. These faith healers, with mail-order naturopathy diplomas and YouTube accounts, barely missed a step into the 21st century.
A certain Christian Fundamentalist residue remained in the Truth About Cancer sermons for those in the flock who may feel it is better to have as many spiritual sources of purity as possible sorting them out. What was more interesting to observe is how the preponderance of evil remains the same. Man (through technology, science and corporate greed) is threatening the spiritual well-being of humanity. The Promised Land, salvation, is found in being one with nature, preordained and without man’s intervention.
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Science is a fallen angel – the new Satan.
RFK Jr and Bigtree took this Pentecostal base to grow their resources within US conservatism. MAHA within Trump’s MAGA movement was not a sudden shift of crass opportunism. These are deep MAHA roots and values that will stay on the right of the political spectrum. So if the MAHA Mom Army doesn’t get what they came for, and don’t lower their expectations, will these new lobbyists be able to extort RFK Jr with their threatened swing to the Democrats?
Take me to the Promised Land
The Pentecostal flock is ready to fight the heathens of science, following their gurus as they barnstorm on this mission of mercy. They are certainly not going to switch over to the party of atheists. Conservative Christians are one voting block that can be trusted to turn out every election and they have proven to be the bedrock for MAHA campaigns.
As for the Moms groups who latched onto RFK Jr after his nomination, they will probably leave (with a handful of their followers). While opportunistic neophytes like Zen Honeycutt and Vani Hari measure values and principles by sales opportunities and will shift direction if they see their brand being put at risk, RFK Jr and Del Bigtree see the bigger picture. As Junior’s star is still rising, with a 2028 White House campaign in the cards, having the Pentecostal vote in his pocket makes him the true MAGA heir.
Dicamba is just one herbicide. RFK Jr needs to control the outrage within the supplement-selling section of his base while directing blame with his usual cries against the present state of incompetence and corruption in US regulatory agencies. Perhaps try to refocus the pitchforks on a MAHA staple assault on ultra-processed foods. Given the wily nature of the zealot Moms who have developed a taste for blood and red meat, this will be a serious political test.
There is, though, no way that MAHA will be able to deMAGA. They would be disintegrating into a fringe movement. A few grandstanding Moms might leave in a blaze and be welcomed back into the Democratic fold (some, dare I suggest, may run for Congress) but with more opportunists than true believers in the movement, new MAHA voices will quickly come in to fill the void. (Whatever happened to Calley Means?)
Like most political phenomena, how they start and where they end is rarely in a straight line.
David Zaruk is the Firebreak editor and also writes under the pen-name The Risk Monger. David is a retired professor, environmental-health risk analyst, science communicator, promoter of evidence-based policy, and philosophical theorist on activists and the media. Find David on X @Zaruk
A version of this article was originally posted at Firebreak and has been reposted here with permission. Any reposting should credit the original author and provide links to both the GLP and the original article. Find Firebreak on X @the_firebreak
