The Democratic Party was divided into two different wings over majority rule in the middle of the 19th century. The group led by Calhoun emphasized the need to protect minority rights (over slavery, of course) through nullification, Supreme Court decisions, and secession, if necessary; the Jacksonian wing, on the other hand, was populist, majoritarian, and nationalist. Do these two wildly different intellectual threads exist in MAGA, over 150 years later?
They do! MAGA is united in its belief that it is entitled to rule on the basis that white Christian men created America, but it is divided on the rationale for that belief. One faction, which was particularly prominent during the Biden years, argues that America is a “republic, not a democracy” and insists that Trump voters–mostly from rural areas, of course–are the only true Americans, and are therefore entitled to run the country regardless of the outcome of any particular election. Trump, on the other hand, identifies with Jackson and maintains that he represents the majority of Americans against a corrupt and self-serving elite; this claim had little empirical basis during his first term, but has more validity now as a result of the outcome of the last election. In practice, Trump is seeking to stack the deck through gerrymandering, attacks on the Voting Rights Act, and spurious executive orders demanding changes to state election laws, but his populist and nationalist rhetoric still puts him in the Jacksonian camp.