Interview: Auron MacIntyre Explains the Biden Coup and Political Power

Auron MacIntyre is a columnist, author, and host of “The Auron MacIntyre Show” on Blaze Media. His book “The Total State: How Liberal Democracies Become Tyrannies” can be found here. He is also on X. This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Ari: What is the biggest difference in your perception of politics now compared to before you read philosophy and theory?

Auron: I had many of the same approaches as those who consumed conservative and mainstream media for a long time. I understood that we had foundational ideas, and everyone believed in them.

It was important to push back against the erosion of our rights by the left, but I didn't understand the fundamental bedrock idea that power matters. I thought it was all ideas. I thought we made the argument, we won the argument, and we ruled.

On the right, we don't think much about power. That’s a huge problem because the left is less interested in winning in the ideas marketplace and more interested in owning it.

A shift in mentality meant I needed to do more than review a fact sheet. The political process involves far more important strategies than breaking out a 10-point plan on why we should pursue an economic policy.

It's not about correct policy proposal. It's about messaging, holding certain power levers and choke points, and understanding how rhetoric works. When you're doing politics, you're not just debating policy. A much deeper, more fundamental issue is at play — power. That was the biggest shift in mentality.

Ari: How would you explain to someone that the American concept of freedom is not antithetical to American leaders wielding power?

Auron: Many people believe that our Constitution facilitates a self-perpetuating government. We have rights, divisions of power, and checks and balances. Therefore, we are governed in perpetuity and will always have freedom because the system handles it.

With the system in charge, we don't have to consider a person in charge. We're not accountable to anybody or ruled by anybody because an impersonal system was designed for our freedom. But that's not what the founders created.

They understood that people needed to be involved in government. One side can't be ambitious while the other side says, “We're fine, you do whatever you want, and the Constitution will restrict you.”

Federalist No. 51, which is commonly quoted, addresses the restrictions of government and checks and balances of power. The founding fathers believed that people need counteracting powers to check each other’s ambitions.

Hamilton said ambition checks ambition. Pushing back against the left requires ambition. The right needs to secure power. The big shift for many people is realizing they must take an active role.

Institutions and government agencies are not neutral just because you don't participate. Instead, the left engages them. If you're hands-off, you will be ruled by people willing to make a difference.

Ari: What’s going on with the media wanting Biden replaced? They were supporting each other, and now they’re dueling.

Auron: We assume that the ruling progressive order is a monolith because it controls the power and the institutions, so we assume there’s agreement. That's not the case.

The point of a cathedral system is that it's a decentralized network with several nodes that each influence the others; there’s no top-down ordering mechanism. Under a monarchical-structured government, someone hands down an order, and everybody follows. But our government is not a monarchy; it’s a decentralized, oligarchical structure.

This managerial structure comes with lag time, factions, and disagreements. It has many upsides, but the downside is that there is no muscle to force everyone into lockstep. When factions radically disagree like the left does today, it gets ugly fast.

Biden’s faction believed it was put in charge to occupy the presidency (with Biden as a placeholder), and it got too big for its britches. The media and the rest of the cathedral decided, “No, that's not how this works.” The systems are clashing because different factions on the left are telling the Biden faction to know its place.

Ari: Is this an opportunity to educate people about how different factions interact?

Auron: I hit on that topic as soon as Biden started getting pushback from the media. The immediate discussion was about who would replace him — Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer?

That was an incredible leap over the big question. The president was installed under questionable circumstances. Are we supposed to believe this man won the most votes in American history? On top of that, he's been senile for years. The media is finally admitting what everybody knew all along.

The real issue that should enrage everyone is the fact that we don't have a president. The Office of the President has never been piloted by Joe Biden, the elected executive. What does that mean for our country?

None of this is addressed in Article II. If we're not governed by Article II of the Constitution, what does govern us? That’s the relevant question. But people are very scared of asking that question, even conservative commentators who should be asking it relentlessly.

They're still focused on who gets the nod instead of Biden, and they do not recognize the profound meaning here about how the country is governed.

Ari: Biden can’t communicate with the media because he has dementia. Would the media prefer a President who can and will?

Auron: There's a weird pushback from many media outlets, especially Axios. Suddenly, it’s a betrayal of the American people, as though we'd been duped this whole time — the White House hid all this from us. Obviously, that’s not true.

The media is very aware that Joe Biden has been senile for a long time — completely unable to listen to them or to give orders. The White House did not successfully hide Biden’s senility from the media for years. They aren’t suddenly aware.

Now, the left needs to oust him; they need someone easier to manipulate after the experiment failed. Our distributed oligarchy doesn't want accountability, and Joe Biden was the perfect puppet for no accountability because he has literally been deemed unfit to stand trial due to his senility.

We have open borders, terrible inflation, terrible crime, and no one knows who to blame. That’s exactly what the ruling elite wants. They're in charge, causing all these problems without culpability. The people blame Joe Biden, who can't figure out what flavor of ice cream he's eating. There's no actual accountability.

The left is slowly realizing that this situation is very bad for the country. We are a laughingstock at this point. Everyone is soured on the experiment of governing by proxy, and the Biden faction can’t continue propping up the old idiot without being a complete embarrassment to the entire world. When you're a global empire, that's a bad position.

Ari: What is your goal for this book? What message do you want to convey?

Auron: I used to have a very mainstream conservative understanding of politics. What happened in 2020 shook my understanding. The book outlines the intellectual journey of how I got where I am. Hopefully, the book will take readers on the same journey.

I laid out what most people believe, what actually governs us behind the scenes, and how we can create change. We are not governed by the Constitution or the system of democratic governance we think we have.