Make America Great Again

MAGA  (slogan,  activists)
Tim Walz is dead-on accurate: MAGA is weird

"Make America Great Again" (MAGA) is an American political slogan and movement popularised by Donald Trump during his successful 2016 presidential campaign, and has featured in his 2024 United States presidential election campaign.

"MAGA" is also used to refer to Trump's political base, or to an individual or group of individuals from within that base.

The slogan became a pop culture phenomenon, seeing widespread use and spawning numerous variants in the arts, entertainment and politics, being used by both supporters and opponents of Trump's presidency.

Reagan's slogan

Originally used by Ronald Reagan as a campaign slogan in his 1980 presidential campaign (Let's Make America Great Again), it has since been described as a loaded phrase. Multiple scholars, journalists, and commentators have called the slogan racist, regarding it as dog-whistle politics and coded language.

Yes, MAGA is weird

MAGA men in the Capitol, 6 January 2021

On 6 August 2024, Josh Moon wrote in the Alabama Political Reporter:

Tim Walz only said what everyone was thinking.

The second-term governor of Minnesota cut through the noise, knocked off the sugar coating and said out loud what had been whispered among regular Americans for a while now: Republicans have turned weird. Especially the MAGA brand of Republicans.

This is not a point up for debate. And deep down, underneath that red MAGA hat, you know it’s true. You know that this whole thing has gotten really, really weird.

From ramblings about sharks and batteries to praising the “great Hannibal Lecter,” to telling people they won’t have to worry about voting anymore to praising dictators while simultaneously bashing Americans to people wearing fake bandages on their ears to a guy dressed like a shaman storming the Capitol along with thousands of other faeces-smearing felons to just looking the other way on that whole paying off a porn star thing to belittling women who don’t have children … it’s weird. You’re weird. It’s all so weird.

What I’m saying here is that I know weird. And Walz has correctly identified it within this MAGA movement.

Every single day, it’s something more weird or strange than the last. Particularly on the days in which Trump holds a rally and ends up speaking for what feels like six hours, and then all of the Trump surrogates (which is essentially everyone in the Republican Party at this point) has to spend the next three days trying to convince everyone that Trump was either, A. Just joking about being a dictator or never voting again, B. That you didn’t really hear what you definitely heard, or C. That false thing Trump said is absolutely true because we believe it.

Last Sunday, for example, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds spent several minutes being chopped into tiny pieces by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos because Donalds, like Trump, is apparently unaware that a person can be both Black and Indian.

And that gets us to perhaps the weirdest, most depressing aspect of this very weird MAGA movement – the cruelty.

For my entire life, I have been taught – and I know for a fact that others have been taught – to honour the Golden Rule. To treat others in a way in which you would want to be treated. To not belittle people. To not make fun of others.

And then along came MAGA.

Suddenly, it is OK to hate. It is OK to refer to large groups of people, especially immigrants, in derogatory terms. It is OK to say vile, disgusting things to anyone who holds a different opinion.

That’s weird. And it’s not OK.

It’s also weird that you think women shouldn’t be allowed to make medical decisions about their own bodies. It’s weird that you think equality and diversity and inclusion are threatening to you. It’s weird that you believe immigrants are hurting the country, since you are almost certainly a descendent of an immigrant. It’s weird that you think vaccinations are some sort of a government conspiracy. It’s weird that you keep believing that someone cheated Trump each time he loses. And it’s really, really weird that you’re all just OK with the felonies, the fake electors, the coup attempt, the Russian relationships, the stealing of documents and the porn star.

Basically, what I’m saying here, as a certified expert in political weirdness, MAGA is without a doubt the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. And it’s getting weirder every day.

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:JD Vance has some weird influences	Article	17 July 2024	Gavin Haynes	"I think Trump is going to run again in 2024", JD Vance once said. "I think that what Trump should do, if I was giving him one piece of advice: Fire every single midlevel bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people."

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References

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