MAGA, aka Make America Great Again, was originally a buzzphrase. No more, no less. It was a hook line for publicity, tapping into the conservative market, much like FOX News. It’s since become the replacement for QAnon, and a force or farce in American politics.
Whether you want the force or farce to be with you, you’re stuck with it. It’s a chaotic collection of people who became suddenly hyper-conservative in 2016. It’s a lot of noises in media. It’s a directionless mess, lugging Trump around like a decaying teddy bear.
The headlines about MAGA speak for themselves. MAGA hasn’t made anything great again. A very small percentage of people have parlayed themselves into positions of public ridicule, but that’s about all.
MAGA’s predecessors, the Tea Party, now pared down and enshrined as the Freedom Caucus in practical terms, didn’t achieve much, either, in 20 years. They simply glued themselves onto the conservative edifice and eke out a living being are right-wing as possible.
Being right-wing is pretty easy. Everyone else is a communist, and you’re required to hate your fellow Americans on a word-by-word basis for that reason. You have no options.
MAGA, however, seems to have issues with issues. One of those issues is Trump. This guy will be traipsing from courtroom to courtroom for the rest of his life. MAGA continues to support Trump regardless of his issues. Trump said he’s “being indicted for you”, and nobody argued.
…So, he’s being indicted for decades of fraud in New York for you. Pretty nice of him. Who knew that valuing your own property assets any old way you feel like it was a form of political martyrdom? What a revelation. On that basis, the entire US property market is a training ground for sainthood. Nobody knew that.
What does MAGA do? It follows the headlines. It does very little else. It has no real clout at any level, and never will, but it’s the “support” for whatever the right wing says or does.
This is not to say that MAGA is just a pack of simple-minded low-paid idiots trying to make more money for people higher up the food chain on the right-wing gravy train. There are connections to be made. There are people you need to know. There are sources of dollars.
It’s exactly the sort of dynamic you can’t avoid at any level of politics. To be someone, you have to know someone, or support someone. Hence MAGA’s all-over-the-shop behavior. Some things are issues, some mysteriously aren’t issues.
The shifting quicksand of Republican politics kicks sand in the face of various public profiles daily. You’re a hero today, a pariah tomorrow. MAGA tends to reflect that. It’s just a question of which Ren or Stimpy character you’re selling for at any given time.
…Which leads me back to the original question. What’s happening in MAGA? Does anyone really want to know? The swamp seems to have simply bred a lot more mosquitoes.
Maybe you don’t want to know.
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.
