If we've (Humans) learned anything over the millennia, it should be that when we work together, stuff seems to get better.
Our saintly forefathers and to be politically if not factually correct; foremothers, even came up with the motto "E Pluribus Unum" "Out of Many, One". Loosely represented as "United We Stand". They knew that as a loose collection of 13 states, we stood zero chance of gaining freedom from the Brits. As it was, we still couldn't have gotten anywhere if Great Britain wasn't already at war with France, who saw the value in joining with the nascent United States to defeat the British.
When the Russians finally got sick of letting the Czarists get away with their lifestyles and overturned them and their government, then used the concept of communism to unite the people and form a new order, people in neighboring states couldn't wait to join the new USSR! And for a time, it was great. "From each to his abilities, to each to his needs". Of course, after Marx and Lenin came Stalin. Who believed he knew better than anyone what the people wanted. Quick aside; we've been told that the commies were anti-Christian, etc. As far as Stalin was concerned, he considered the church a rival! If anyone was going to be a god, it had better be Josef Bloody Stalin!
It was so bad that when he died, he likely might have been revived, but nobody on his staff was willing to burst into his rooms for fear of provoking his wrath!
But I digress greatly.
Back to my subject, Europe has never been so successful as it has since the signing of the treaties beginning the European Union. Even with all the internal squabbles, the EU is an incredible success! If one ever thinks otherwise, all one needs to do is to look at how badly Britain has been since ratification of Brexit. For some reason, the foremost proponents of Brexit disappeared immediately after it was signed into law. Boris Johnson couldn't stay out of the spotlights and managed to pull off a run for Prime Minister. But it wasn't long before his antics got him ousted again. (Why is it that so many wannabe dictator types sport weird hair?) But look up some of the others like Nigel Farage post Brexit. I really believe that they never thought they'd win in the first place. They sure as hell had no idea what to do when they did!
And then comes Trump.
Like the Brexiteers who thought the majority of the voting public would never vote to leave the E.U. I don't believe that he thought he would win either. Once he did however, he was hooked. There was now no possible way that he could allow himself to give back that most intoxicating of beverages: the pure superheated draught of Power! I bring up His Marmalade Majesty only because of the similar tactics to those of the Brexit crowd. Even though if you really paid attention, you could clearly see that things were actually pretty good! By comparison, taxes were pretty low, duties within the E.U. were non-existent. Heck, as a British citizen, you could retire to the coast of Spain or Southern France if you were even moderately well-off! All gone now, of course. Free trade went away, duties are back, and Brit ex-pats are getting kicked out of their sunny retreats and having to return to the fog and rain of their native land. *heh* Hard to feel bad for the silly buggers. From what I've been able to read, the semi-affluent who were most likely to have those retreats in the South of Spain, etc. were the largest sector of the voting public to want Brexit!
And then comes Trump.
After generations of struggle, we had started to recognize the need for immigrants in our factories, fields and construction sites. Held back by the Right-winger's use of the low-hanging fruit of xenophobia for an easy re-election tactic, the U.S.A. had slowly clawed its way to the realization that acknowledging others as being equals actually seemed to make our situation better! In fact, looking at examples around the world it actually seemed like it worked among nations as well. At least among the few that were trying to make it work.
Then comes Trump.
We'd trained our children that the way to success was through the doors of a university, and as a result had bred a generation to whom the very idea of any sort of manual labor was abhorrent! But that was OK. As Bush2 said: "Immigrants are doing the jobs that Americans won't do!"
Then comes Trump.
So, what does he do? Fires up the never far from the surface racism and hatred of anyone that doesn't look or speak like we do! Being as it is never buried very deep in the American psyche, he makes it acceptable to voice that hatred again! Evangelical Christians and their like, ever on the lookout for anyone willing to assist with their persecution fantasies dived in with full-throated endorsement of his political ambitions. For them, Trump was a dream come true. The Right had been searching for decades for someone they could manipulate and mold into a leader sent from Jehovah! The Christian Right is a group representing, by all estimates, around one-third of the voting public. A huge portion if you realize that they get a pass from most other Christian sects on the grounds that even if one did not agree with them, they were, after all: "Doing the work of the Lord." It's a problem with believers. Once you've signed on to these precepts, it's not a stretch to accept just a little more, after all. Once you've realized that The Rapture is a real thing, it would be a small thing to help it happen. For example, if someone like your Pastor told you that a certain politician was sent by God to cause more conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and as such possibly bringing on the Apocalypse! You might make the effort to vote for him, even if you thought in your heart that said politician was a buffoon. Assuming of course, that your church hadn't signed on as One Hundred percent Trump is the Second Coming! Any time you think that there's no way on earth Trump could win the election, just remember the influence of the churches, and how little it might take.
And then comes Trump.
Even after all the evidence about how much better things can be otherwise, it is so incredibly easy to make people want to clan up, to fall back into tribalism, to circle the wagons around some make-believe "We" to fight off the "Other". How often do we hear politicians rail against the evils of "Globalism" or the old favorite boogeyman, Socialism. It is so ridiculously easy to rally already fearful people around these banners. It's nearly impossible to find any of them who can give you an explanation of what those terms mean, let alone why they should be afraid of them. But afraid they still are. Terrified even.
And then comes Trump.
He tells his cultists that only he has what it takes to resist the Globalist forces coming to take us back to some terrible existence that nobody seems to be able to describe. So bad was it that only with his unique set of skills can we return to some mythological place when America was "Great" and so convincingly that his cult identifies with the acronym.
MAGA? When exactly was this?
Great post, as usual! I don't think MAGA ever existed, which is why I think it needs to happen in the first place, and that has nothing at all to do with Trump. He doesn't know what the word "great" means.
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