MAGA – The Party of Legitimized Cruelty

   

MAGA – The Party of Legitimized Cruelty

Where Intolerance, Bigotry, Domination, Forced Religious Values, Ignorance & Cruelty are Revered

Funny how there is a leading indicator of autocracy evolving to replace democracy: disempower the judiciary. It can be done by making the judiciary subservient to another branch of government – like the Netanyahu model for Israel or the Russian or Chinese “justice” system – by appointing judges who tow the party (or religious) line or by simply allowing autocrats to imprison, torture or execute without an intervening bona fide judiciary. And then there is the “pretend” accepted basis for judicial interpretation against a democratic constitutional structure, one where the plain meaning of a constitutional mandate is distorted to enable an irrational or autocratic result.

We see that today in the rightwing in our own Supreme Court (the dramatically and unabashedly biased Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, etc.), creating a novel yet horrific application of “originalism” – requiring judicial interpretation to be based on some historical cultural practice around the time the constitutional provision was enacted. In short, research into historical “whatever” replaces real world logic and fairness, a tact that can justify just about anything. You only have to look at what MAGA-governed jurisdictions have mandated to rid themselves of the ”vermin” (Trump’s exact description) who dare oppose their authority, marginalizing the “vermin’s” voting power, subjecting them to physical misery and reconstructing the past to be devoid of inconvenient but immutable truths. Remember, the Constitution was enacted in an era of slavery, flintlocks, and keeping women away from ballot boxes.

The cruelty can stem from enabling the tormentors to have fairly open access to military grade firearms combined with statutes (e.g., “stand your ground”) enabling their use against such “vermin” or subjecting minorities to a justice system designed against them to banning abortion (causing doctors to allow all sorts of women’s suffering rather than risk arrest) or a strange and simple cruelty: depriving local communities from offering water where there are long lines in hot weather at polling stations… or even to pass worker protections against the rising levels of intolerable heat in the workplace. After all, it is MAGA doctrine that climate change either does not exist or is exaggerated.

“California is poised to pass the state’s first regulations to protect indoor workers from extreme heat — a policy that could be implemented later this summer… Once those rules are in effect, California will join Oregon and Minnesota as the only states with policies protecting indoor workers from heat exposure. California in 2006 passed heat standards for outdoor workers, including those in agriculture and construction… Meanwhile, in [MAGA-run] Texas and Florida, recent state laws have eroded workplace protections against extreme heat by barring cities and counties from issuing local regulations to protect outdoor workers, such as requirements for mandatory water breaks or time in the shade.” NBC News, June 21st.

As Louisiana enacts legislation, based on an increasing tide of evangelical-friendly Supreme Court decisions, to mandate that the Ten Commandments be prominently posted in every single classroom of any educational institution (from toddler to grad student) that receives any funding from the state, and as Oklahoma mandates a Bible and an accompanying lesson in all of its public school classrooms, who are we as a nation. These two states are inviting legal challenge with the belief that this Trump reconfigured Supreme Court will “interpret” the First Amendment to allow state religion. The problem with faith-based legislation is the powerful belief that “God wants me to do this,” enabling a means justifies a radical extreme end. Just like the terrorists who flew into the Twin Towers.

The invention and adoption of a shared mythology – often justified under “nice”-sounding names like “parental rights,” “preserving cultural heritage,” or “ensuring election integrity” – is often crucial to autocratic unity… truth is irrelevant. “In the wake of the Capitol riot and on the eve of former President Trump’s second impeachment trial, new data from the University of Washington reveals the attitudes and beliefs that are growing within the Republican Party.

“Surveys of hundreds of fervent Trump voters, whom researchers refer to as Make American Great Again (MAGA) supporters, reveal strong beliefs that the election was stolen; that COVID-19 is a bioweapon from China; and that the riot was the work of antifa. The data, collected just before and after the Capitol riot, is believed to be the only information of its kind, shedding light on MAGA supporters’ opinions about race, gender, the pandemic and the 2020 election… ‘Right now, these people feel like they’re losing their country and their identity. They feel like they’re being displaced by communities of color, by feminists and by immigrants. These people are motivated by what they see as an existential threat to their way of life,’ said Christopher Sebastian Parker, professor of political science at the UW and co-author of the research.” University of Washington News, February 5, 2021.

What all of this has produced is a wall of irreconcilable differences among major segments of American society. Faith-based zealotry, completely antithetical to the constitutional democracy under which our nation was created, against truth and treating people as individuals entitled to equality, dignity and divergent beliefs. And the Democratic Party’s nominee against autocracy provided a clear example what a seriously aging candidate without a teleprompter looks like in a presidential debate. Most of the rest of the democratic world is having their share of “if it can happen in the United States, it could happen here” as autocracy rises all over Europe. Red alert: it is happening here! HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

I’m Peter Dekom, and as a wealthy, powerful… and until recently a blend of diversity… nation, l wonder why are we at each other’s throats with brutality and domination rising?