Why is the left so against MAGA?

By Mike Weland
Publisher

“Why is the left so against MAGA? It literally means ‘make America great again,'” a reader wrote recently. “What American doesn’t want that?”

A fair question deserving a full and reasoned answer. I provided him a brief answer on Facebook, but I don’t think I answered well. I’ll attempt to do better here, and I welcome your thoughts.

The good con men know the power of words and how to use them to their own ends, and Trump is an excellent con man.

Let’s look at those four simple words; “Make America Great Again.”

They sound good at first hearing — patriotic even. But they don’t define when it was great, what made it great, who thought it was great or what needs be done to make it great again.

You’ve likely heard of the loaded question. “Have you quit beating your wife?” is the classic. Regardless of how one answers, “gotcha!”

“Make America Great Again” is a loaded statement … it means something different to everyone who hears it, and so it means nothing at all. That simple fact will dawn on very few, and that works in the conman’s favor.

“He speaks my language!” “Yeah, he speaks his mind!” “Nothing wishy-washy here!” “He means what he says and says what he means!”

No, friends, he does not.

The words “Make America great again” assume America was once great but is no longer and that it will take effort and intervention to bring it back to greatness.

Ask those who were here first and I’m sure they’d tell you this place was great any time before October 12, 1492. Ask the Blacks when it was great and I’m sure they’d ask you if you are crazy … it’s never been great.

In a land of immigrants, ask any group of citizens the questions in paragraph five and you’re going to get wildly divergent answers. Every one of them valid, every one of them useless.

Trump never answered the questions in the fifth paragraph, but by his policies and actions it’s pretty clear he thought America was great when rich white folk paid no taxes and were above the law.

The Evangelicals, though, hear him say America was great and recall an imaginary time when she was a Godly nation that smote the sinners and cast down the infidels, protecting it’s most vulnerable from murderous abortion but arming them with the latest amusements that they might protect themselves and their families from the tyrants and liberal Democrats who would pass laws and take away the rights God gave them.

Mixed in among the Evangelicals are those of that group convinced that it’s not deeds or actions that define good or evil, but that there are distinct differences between the races such that they can be ranked, that there is but one superior race deserving of all rights and privileges and all others line up in their proper layers like a pousse cafe, not meant to be shaken or stirred. They hear Trump affirm their rank in the top tier and, like him, long to return to those days when their superiority was unquestioned, when them others knew their place and said “yes sir” when they stepped off the sidewalk into the mud to let their betters pass by clean and dry.

And then there are those of the lower two thirds of the top tier, closer to those in the top tier of the rank below than they are to the top of their tier in the hierarchy to which they belong. They’re the ones sounding the alarm upwards, “Climb faster, boss! They be gaining on us … they gon’ replace us an’ take whats our’n!

They hear Trump say, “never,” and they know he is their shepherd, they his ever faithful flock. They trust him to know when America was great and they stand back and stand by, ready to heed their master’s call.

America is an idea, not a fiefdom. America isn’t a promise, it’s an opportunity. It’s not a place to aspire to, it’s a place wherein we can be inspired, a place where each of us can be equal if we continue to set ourselves to the task of perfecting the accord that defines our form of government; that we elect to offices of public trust those willing to take the lead in that effort, not those who would raze the edifice and return us to rule by autocrats and tyrants.

How about we just Keep America Great? Embrace, uphold, protect and defend the ideals upon which she was founded, her constitution, that we as citizens may ever continue the work necessary to perfect our union. It’s the only way to retain to her citizens their freedom, their liberty, their rights.

Reaffirm the wisdom of our founders, rededicate ourselves to their insights — their vision:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Preamble, Declaration of Independence

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America”

Preamble, U.S. Constitution

Yes, there are shortcomings to remedy. They lie not in our form of government, but in our application of it, in our own nonchalance. We, the governed, are not mere citizens of our nation. With our vote, we are the pillar of our government, vetting and employing our fellow citizens to offices of public trust. Not as rulers, but as public servants.

It is we, the voters, who have been derelict.