It seems that every day in MAGA world begins with asking the question, “Who shall we vilify and hate today?” It’s a tricky question to answer these days. There are so many choices. It now resembles a menu at the Cheesecake Factory. When I was growing up, although racism and bigotry were around, it wasn’t so in your face all the time. The LGBTQ community were pretty much all still in their closets. People still more or less believed in the Rule of Law and the sanctity of universities. But that was during the Cold War, and everyone knew the primary ‘bad guy’ was the USSR. It was a lot easier to figure out who to hate and vilify back then. In today’s America, it seems like it’s difficult some days to figure out who to hate. It’s even more confusing now that Russia seems to have become Trump’s new bestie whereas relatively recently, he was still viewed as an enemy.
Today there is the war on transgender people. There is the war on the entire LGBTQ community. There is the war on law firms who bring lawsuits against Trump or defend clients he disapproves of. There is the war against any judge who rules against Trump or any of his toadies. There is the escalating war on universities who in Trump’s opinion are too ‘woke’ and/or don’t do enough to stifle anti-Semiticism or worse yet, allegedly indoctrinate students in radical leftist ideas. There is the war on anything deemed D.E.I. which seems to be defined as anything that does not reference white, Christian males. There is the trade war Trump has launched against our best allies. There is the threat of wars to retake the Panama Canal and annex Greenland. There is the war against immigrants – legal or illegal. There is the war against birth right citizenship. There is the war against the media which in Trump world means any outlet or reporter who publishes a story critical of anything having to do with his administration. In military parlance this would be called a target rich environment. There are just so many people and groups to vilify and hate today.
The problem with having so many choices of people and organizations to hate and blame is that it is difficult to give each cause the proper amount of hate they deserve. There is only so much hate to go around and these days it seems like it’s getting spread pretty thin. Perhaps that will be Trump’s downfall, he is just trying to hate too many things at the same time. Since Elon Musk oversees Government Efficiency, he should also be tasked with ensuring all the hate emanating from this administration is equally and efficiently distributed.
Many people voted for Trump because they thought his plan to Make American Great Again involved economic policies. Some might have resonated with his ‘America First’ rhetoric. But it has become clear over the last couple of months that the key to Making America Great Again is hate. The more hate that can be generated and the more people and groups that can be vilified, the greater America will be, at least according to Trump and his sycophantic circus.
The newest survey ranking countries by ‘happiness’ just came out. The United States dropped down another notch from 23rd to 24th. Finland took the top spot for the 8th year running. It will be most interesting (and probably depressing) to see where we end up next year. However, I’m sure if the organization that conducts the Happiness survey were to do a survey on ‘Hatefulness,’ the United States would be rocketing towards the top spot. We are clearly bulging at the seams with hate (at least the Trump administration is!).
So, while much of the world wakes up everyday and asks, “What can we do to make us and those around us happy? MAGA America has become a country where they get up in the morning and ask, “Who shall we hate and vilify today?” Lady Liberty in New York Harbor is probably sobbing uncontrollably as the torch she so proudly held aloft all these decades is rapidly being extinguished by a storm of MAGA hate and vilification.
