Make America Grotesque Again

MAGA Nation's grievance politics is past its expiration date and needs to be retired

What does Vladimir Putin have on Donald J. Diaperload??

Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind.

• Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

There are only two kinds of people in this world; those who have a conscience and those who do not.

• P. A. Speers, Type 1 Sociopath - When Difficult People Are More Than Just Difficult People

At this point, reasonable and rational Americans know who Donald Trump is. We’ve already seen him in action as President for four years. We know his ineptitude and incompetence. We’ve seen his willingness to betray the country he swore to protect and defend. And, yes, we know of his infatuation with strongmen like Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

The man’s a moron and a menace. He should no more have access to America’s nuclear codes than he should be allow to manage a Dairy Queen.

We know how much he chafed under the strictures of democracy and how badly he wanted to rule by fiat. Those of us who’ve been paying attention are aware that if he’s elected in November, it will almost certainly be our last Presidential election. He and his merry band of moral and intellectual reprobates may well turn American democracy into a kleptocracy that no longer answers to the American sheeple.

And MAGA Nation will be cheering and stamping their feet in raucous celebration of their disenfranchisement.

Millions will vote for a Trump-led autocracy because, well, “Of course, the leopards would NEVER eat MY face….”

Because MAGA Nation will overlook anything their hero does, no matter how illegal, inept, stupid, or combinations of the above because they KNOW God ordained him to lead America. Right…and he’ll put an F-150 and an AR-15 in the garage of every Trump voter.

‘MeriKKKa, FUCK YEAH!!!

When an American President stands alongside a murderous dictator and declares to trust that man more than American Intelligence, more than our public servants across the aisle, more than our nation’s Press, he’s stepped out into the stark light of day and revealed himself.

When he is more willing to collaborate with one of our greatest adversaries; a man guilty of poisonings and murders for hire and war crimes—than with American troops on the ground or Democrats in the House or shooting victims here at home he’s declared who he is.

And when American citizens and politicians refuse to name it all as treasonous, when they choose to remain silent, when they pretend you don’t see it—they declare who they are.

We see it. The world sees it.

At least the rational world sees it. There are still millions of AmeriKKKans firmly in the grip of the Dunning-Kruger Effect and who believe that WE’RE the ones who are the unpatriotic fucking morons.

What’s sad is that, for the past nine years, MAGA Nation has tolerated- nay, celebrated- Donald Trump’s ignorance, racism, homophobia, admiration of dictators, and lack of compassion. They’ve passed off his self-serving self-dealing as part of his personality, not something that precludes him from leading.

They’ve tolerated his misogyny and willingness to countenance those who’d treat women as property…because that’s what they wanted from their leader.

In short, they love Trump because he hates the same people they do, and he’s pledged to make their hatred and prejudice his own. That he’s done precisely that only makes him more god-like in the eyes of MAGA Nation. The man can do no wrong.

We thought it was just racism and nationalism.
We figured it was Islamophobia and misogyny.
We suspected it was weaponized religion.
We imagined it was homophobia and privilege.
We knew it was blind hatred of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
That was all bad enough.

We never dreamed that in their lust for Supreme Court seats, women’s rights rollbacks, NRA contributions, and for some feeling of retribution against the world or the Libs—that they’d do this.

We never thought our neighbors and church friends and family members would ratify sedition and defend insurrection and support a dictator in a brutal war. Honestly, that’s been a shock.

But it’s clear now. We know what we’re dealing with. When you side with the Kremlin, you’ve sorta said all you have to say, haven’t you? There’s no gray area there, no red, white and blue veneer of patriotism that can make this right, no star-spangled distraction to parade in front of it all.

Despite any claims to the contrary, this isn’t about patriotism. It has nothing to do with love of country. It has everything to do with who MAGA Nation hates and making sure they don’t get what White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals have. It’s about ensuring that no matter what, White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals sit at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid.

Millions of our fellow Americans have died to protect us from the very sickness that’s now infected MAGA Nation- the idea that America is the property and playground of White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals. America doesn’t “belong” to any one person or group; it’s the “property” of ALL Americans insofar as that’s possible. We all have a stake in this country and what it is…as well as what it becomes.

Despite this, millions of White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals believe themselves to be the sole rightful keepers of and heirs to what America IS and must be. They see themselves as the “owners” of America and that, because this is a Christian nation (and Jesus was White, don’tchaknow??), America is rightfully theirs.

In a nation of more than 341,129,084 (as of 2/14/24), no one person or group can rightfully claim ownership. America is an amalgamation of myriad cultural, ethnic, social, and religious groups. No one particular interest group gets to claim it as their own…yet that’s precisely what MAGA Nation has done.

If MAGAs are okay with what’s with been unearthed over the last few years and what’s unfolding right now, they may as well swap those Stars and Stripes for a hammer and sickle because that’s where we are now. Trade that MAGA hat for an ushanka because it’s a more fitting covering.

MAGA Republicans may as well come clean now.
They may as well just tell us they just want the power grab.
Tell us they want Roe V Wade overturned.
Tell us they want a white Evangelical theocracy.
Tell us they just wanted to win at any cost. 
Tell us they want LGBTQ and immigrants eradicated.
Tell us they just really don’t like brown and black people.
We’ll believe them.

They just had better not say that they love both Donald Trump and America anymore.

They’re making it perfectly clear:

One of those things simply isn’t true.

Sadly, we know which one.

It’s true. It’s become clear that one can love Donald Trump or America, but there’s no credible way to love both. They not only stand for radically different things, but Trump is actuvely working to destroy America. How do you love something when someone you idolize is working to destroy the very thing you love? There’s no logical way to reconcile that.

We have over eight months until Election Day, and in my six-plus decades on this rock, I don’t know that I’ve ever been so nervous about America’s future. Sure, America has faced crises before and come out stronger for it, but until we see that other side, there’s always that “What if…?” uncertainty.

What makes this period in time so unsettling is the millions of Americans willing to create a Trumpian autocracy. Do they not believe they will be adversely impacted by the end of American democracy? Are they convinced the leopards won’t eat their faces? Could they possibly be that arrogant and dense?

The fact that I’m asking the question should be taken to imply that we already know the answer.

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