IGNORANCE, JUDGEMENT AND THE MAGA BASE’S NUCLEAR OPTION

PHOTO: Change.org

Thoughtful Americans have been trying for a decade 
or more to understand the mindset of those of our compatriots responsible for bringing this noble nation—admired by the world for nearly two-and-a-half centuries for its vision, values and leadership—to its knees. 

I’m still baffled at how such betrayal is possible, but I’ve come up with new angle to consider.

VENGEANCE AT ANY PRICE
Oh I know, we’ve heard this song and dance about Donald Trump’s poor base feeling unheard and un-
appreciated by us conceited “liberal elites.” About their fear of immigrants’ and the poor’s snatching what they see as their entitlement to the American Dream. And about how their perceived suffering merits as much credibility as our own aspirations.

PHOTO: Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call

I don’t buy it. It gives way too much credit to people who somehow managed to turn off both 
their brains and hearts and hire the con man of our age to avenge their grievances for them. 
A charlatan who figures they won’t notice that he’s destroying their country in their name—while not just impoverishing them, but enriching himself and his family to the tune of more than $1,000,000,000—and that's in just the past year.* 

GRAPHIC: AmericanProgress.org

For me, a better answer—perhaps the easiest one—would be that these Trump groupies are simply thoughtless, self-obsessed, philistine, chest-beating assholes. Idiots who’ll pay any price to stick it to people not like them. But the more I think about it, the more certain I am that that’s not the whole story either. 

     Trump literally tells them what they know and don’t know.

COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE
What makes more sense is that these Trump groupies are just so ashamed of their own ignorance that they're in denial, demonizing anyone honest enough to hold their noses to it. How dare you judge, they feel. Judge not just us, but anything at all! Beauty, kindness, sophistication, style, merit. It's all "woke," not because those attributes are invalid, but because they provide a reflection of their own soullessness. 

Judgment—the process of weighing and comparing the truth of stuff—lies at the very heart of intelligence. Along with curiosity and creativity, critical judgment is a key component of acquiring and applying knowledge. And that, to folks with little education and short attention spans, poses a huge threat, because all it does is remind them just how stupid they really are.

This is why their Dear Leader’s tack has been to systematically discredit judgement—and along with it truth. Because he knows his MAGAts not only can’t judge what’s true or not, but wouldn’t buy the truth anyway if it challenged their simplistic, fear- and anger-stoked beliefs.

Playing on those beliefs, their anger, their fears—and their latent shame in their ignorance—Trump literally tells them what they know and don’t know. (Listen for those slick little inter-
jections in his unhinged ravings: “Everyone’s saying…,” “Everybody agrees…,” “People know…” and “You know that, right?” )

ALTERNATE TRUTH
The response Trump has incited in his MAGA cult is the cultural equivalent of the nuclear option: I don’t get it…so I’ll be damned if anyone’s going to get it. Instead of elevating our own aspirations, we'll drag down yours. So, yes, let’s yank the U.S. government’s investment from any program, any institution, that stands, even remotely, for intelligence, refinement…or even basic human kindness. 

PHOTO: Dave Killen/the Oregonian

Add to the bogeymen hit list anyone purporting to honor the truth. Hey, after being forced to stomach these pompous educators,' researchers,’ scientists,’ doctors’ and journalists’ fancy-pants proclamations all these years, Dear Leader has finally given me permission to claim my own, “alternative” truth…about everything.

The blindness to reality is so complete that these suckers can look right at this master manipu-
lator, this draft-dodging sexual predator who espouses not one of Jesus Christ’s teachings, and believe he’s their model of patriotism, their personal gift from God. 

    A charismatic leader steps up and shows Americans…that 
    there’s a better, healthier vision for our country than Trump’s 
    deeply negative one.

A HEALTHIER VISION
So, that’s my half-assed theory. What of it? What’s to be done? Is there hope for our faltering “shining city upon a hill” Democracy?

I still believe a spark of love and kindness glows at the core of every human being. Like so many of our best qualities, though, it’s gotten buried under layer after layer of concerns and emotions that are very good at pretending to be important. Like fear, anger, conceit…and, yes, shame.

One answer might be for an extraordinarily charismatic leader to step up and show Americans—even those of us who’ve been exploited by Trump—that there’s a better, healthier vision for our country than his deeply negative one. (I think most folks yearn deeply to reclaim hope and joy from the hate fest Tiny Hands has promoted.)

And this figurehead must do more than out-Trump Trump with charisma; she/he must, with guidance from the Democratic National Committee, craft a message that’s more appealing to folks than the simple, disciplined—and highly effective—one of grievance and vengeance that’s driven the MAGA movement. 

SNEEZIN’ ON THE HOUSE OF CARDS
Another possibility is that Trump eventually miscalculates himself right off the precipice. Takes just one too many liberties with his power. Makes one too many assumptions about his supporters’ depravity. 

We’ve already seen a few Congressional Republicans dare risk their careers for integrity. With cause, more might join. Some editorial boards in the mainstream media will draw the line. The trickle builds to a tide, and then to a tsunami of love, generosity and hope that inundates even the most willful ignorance.

And Donald Trump's fools-gold empire, wobbling on its foundation of hubris, collapses, swept away by a smarter, nobler, more joyous vision.

IMAGE: Adobe Stock

But none of this will happen without ever-more-massive public displays of defiance. We must continue to assert our hopes, raise our voices and apply our talents to The Resistance. 

We must continue to live our truth, honor our values. Call and write our representatives in Congress. Write opinion pieces. Support thoughtful, principled candidates. Stick our necks out on social media. And, finally, we must display our sheer numbers, joining with other true patriots to take our resolve to the streets.

Don’t lose sight of the vision of a kinder, gentler, renewed America. Do not lose hope.

* Trumps Take-Counter, AmericanProgress.org

STOLEN GLORY – When Sacred Symbols Become Sacred Cows

Don’t get me wrong. I love this flag. I respect it as one symbol—perhaps the most emblematic—
of our country, the United States of America.

To me the flag stands for all that’s tried and true, old and new about this great nation. First of all, the idea, that bold original vision, of a government whose structure and values would stand the test of time and become the envy of the rest of the world.

But, like any symbol, a flag starts out as a nearly empty vessel that gets filled with associations, with its enduring meaning, only over time. The US flag—the one with a circle of stars that the Continental Congress mandated in the first Flag Act of June 14, 1777—was at first little more than an exercise in graphic identity: stripes for the original 13 colonies; stars for each subsequent state, colors connoting the country’s aspirational values.

Since then it has acquired countless reinforcements of that image, the vast majority of them involving decent, even noble, policies and actions. There have also been blotches of shame.

I honor Old Glory, despite those blemishes, for representing our country’s sincere efforts to follow its citizens' best instincts. For global leadership. For well-considered change and growth. For the sacrifices citizens have made to defend those precious bedrock values: “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

CARE AND FEEDING
Symbols, whether those representing nations or corporations or movements, need constant attention to make sure the values they represent do not lose their power or become tainted. Some, like the hammer and sickle, while they surely have positive associations for those invested in them, conjure nothing but repression, cruelty and fear for others around the world.

The swastika, which for centuries had enjoyed mostly positive artistic and spiritual associations, got twisted into the very embodiment of evil when appropriated by Nazi Germany. [Sadly, the full extent of such monstrous mutations often becomes evident only in hindsight.]

       Make no mistake, the hijacking of symbols
       is one of the very hallmarks of tyranny.

Fortunately, symbols of my country have been stewarded wisely, managing, despite some great failings, to retain their time-honored respect and admiration for generations.

Until now.

THE TRAITOR TEST
Witness what is happening to our great USA flag during our country’s current convulsion of aggrieved, me-first nationalism. A newly-empowered minority, emboldened by their hero, a reckless, morally bankrupt, aggressively insecure president, would like to hijack the star-spangled banner to represent not America’s characteristic leadership, generosity and optimism—values all Americans can share—but their own misguided beliefs.

Here’s what that looks like: I have Facebook friends—Trump supporters—who’ve apparently gotten sick and tired of getting called out for their fear-based, anti-tolerance posts. Having lost all credibility for their continuing praise of the most dubious president in U.S. history, they’ve turned to symbols they see as unassailable.

They’re the same kinds of sacred cows that oppressive regimes around the world always lionize: the flag, the “office” of the supreme leader, the military heroes. Oh, and, in evangelical America, let’s not forget God.

        “We’re watching you, just waiting for
          another sign that the reason you abhor
          the current degenerate administration in
          Washington is that you hate America.”

It’s one thing to put out there an image of the U.S. flag or of some poor combat vet who’s lost his or her legs to an IED. I’m happy to “like” or “sad-face” that. But it’s another thing entirely when they challenge you to either accept their view of patriotism—saturated with their own warped interpretation of national values—or be labeled somehow traitorous.

                              

“We’ll just see who’s patriotic enough”—read redneck reactionary enough—“to share this.” Of course, the implication is “We’re watching you, just waiting for another sign that the reason you abhor the current degenerate administration in Washington is that you just plain hate America.”


SMALL STEPS BUT PERILOUS
Make no mistake, the hijacking of symbols is one of the very hallmarks of tyranny. One need only look to history (like science, something these nationalist zealots despise for its honesty) to know that mindless flag worship is a favorite device for rendering truth dangerous.

      They are very small steps, indeed, from a
      symbol used in inspire, to one used to incite,
      to one used because it becomes mandated
      by those who have usurped power.

A collapsing country’s emblems, even those once standing for visionary ideas, begin taking on new meanings, defended with new fervor. At first, the tainting may be subtle—like who would care if people wave their little American flags at a Trump rally. But then folks are seen waving them at white nationalist rallies and in other expressions of intolerance which, in kinder, gentler times, we would have thought beneath us as citizens of this land of freedom and equality.

Before long, you can’t run for office without an Old Glory flag pin, or conduct a meeting without reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

They are very small steps, indeed, from a symbol used to inspire, to one used to incite, to one used, alas, because it becomes mandated by those who have usurped power.

In the words of American abolitionist Wendell Phillips:

 “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty;
   power is ever stealing from the many to the few.”

Well, you alt-right lemmings, I’m here to tell you that neither Old Glory—nor the Pledge, nor the White House, nor the wounded vet, nor the American eagle (nor any symbol of our good ol’ USA)—is yours for the taking.

So go ahead and wear your little Make America Great caps. Recite your pledge. Salute all you want. But Old Glory is the flag of every American, not just those who look like you, think like you, love like you or pray like you. In fact, I would remind my Trumpist friends that what our star-spangled banner represents also belongs, in ways your fear has apparently obscured, to those who aspire to become Americans. Like your ancestors.