MAGA: "An aging movement longs for an America that never was"

[Septua]

I think we all know what mindset drives the MAGA bunch but I for one, can't fathom how such a large number of fanatics can exist in the 21st century so I keep Googling in hope of finding new insights to resolve my perplexity.

This article more or less confirms what I figured out quite a while back. But it's an interesting read with some different perspectives.

https://www.salon.com/2022/10/05/what-does-maga-mean-in-2022-an-aging-movement-longs-for-an-america-that-never-was/

Trump's relationship to his followers is that of a god-king - fascist cult leader, based upon collective narcissism, fantasies of violence, cruelty and an entire set of shared delusions. When Trump began his presidential campaign In 2015, he attracted large crowds. Then he gave them a collective identity by embracing "Make America Great Again" as his slogan. The MAGA movement was born.

Seven or so years on, what does MAGA mean now? And what have Trump and his movement accomplished? By any humane, reasonable or moral standards, nothing worth doing, or in any way "great." They pushed American democracy to the brink of chaos. They normalized right-wing political violence, culminating (for now) in the Jan 6 coup attempt and attack on the Capitol. They strove to reverse the civil rights and human rights progress of the 20th and 21st centuries in America.

They elevated conspiracism, anti-intellectualism, a rejection of empirical reality and science, Christian nationalism, white supremacy, misogyny and hostile sexism, and a total disregard for the rule of law. America's global reputation as an "indispensable nation" and the world's greatest democracy (which was already damaged) was permanently stained by the Age of Trump. At least a million people died in America because of how the Trump regime and the Republican Party willfully sabotaged public health and relief efforts in response to the COVID pandemic.

"It's a kind of toxic nostalgia. Make America Great Again — calling back to the past is certainly a big part of the appeal of that slogan. It means rolling back the clock on everything from Roe v. Wade and the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act to [some time they imagine] when America was great. But it's become so much more than that. MAGA is now a kind of expression of identity. It's an expression of loyalty to Donald Trump and it's a commitment to a particular political style, a kind of own-the-libs politics that has become so prevalent on the right. ... Anything is possible, and then you can continue to push the envelope, particularly when it comes to rolling back democratic institutions and processes. If you're MAGA, you believe that what happened at the Capitol wasn't an insurrection, and in fact that the people who precipitated that attack are being held as political prisoners. There is a whole set of beliefs about politics about democracy, American history and Donald Trump that are loaded into MAGA as a label."

Ultimately, MAGA is an identity, a belief system, a lifestyle and a form of religious politics and cult behavior. It manifests a particular type of white racial logic based upon distortions, outright lies and fantasies of a perfect, nearly all-white and profoundly Christian America, virtually free of social and political discord. Of course no such America ever existed.

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. I'm 70. I've always thought that these were stupid people.

All the way back in the 70's. They never figured out reality.

[appalachiablue]

2. K/R A well done description, thanks.

[Blue Owl]

3. America was great when we helped defeat Hitler in WWII

America has never been a Nazi-supporting fascist nation like tRump’s GOP wants it to be….

[Archae]

6. Some of America was great back then.

Racism and bigotry was still the norm in many areas.

[Blue Owl]

10. Sadly true

[Fiendish Thingy]

8. And yet there were millions of Americans who supported Hitler throughout the war

Some were even sitting members of congress.

(See Rachel Maddow’s podcast “Ultra”)

[Blue Owl]

9. Sadly true

[yankee87]

15. Ultra

Have to watch the series

[uponit7771]

18. +1,

[Thunderbeast]

4. The emotions behind "Make America Great Again"

are the conflated memories of a fictional time past.

I think what many of these emotionally crippled people really mean is:

"Make my Own Youth Come Back Again".

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

5. Trump's relationship to his followers is that of a god-king - fascist cult leader, based upon collec

Trump's relationship to his followers is that of a god-king - fascist cult leader, based upon collective narcissism, fantasies of violence, cruelty and an entire set of shared delusions

[littlemissmartypants]

7. Welcome to DU, BlueWaveNeverEnd. ❤️

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

11. .

[I_UndergroundPanther]

16. 1/3rd

Of this country have features of narcissism. Some are full blown sociopaths . That is the population the republicans have always appealed to.

Wgy because democrats have empathy and care about other people.

[Elessar Zappa]

17. Luckily, only about 3-5%

are sociopaths or psychopaths. Still a big enough number to cause lots of trouble, especially since so many are concentrated in the Republican Party.

[Genki Hikari]

12. They want the America

Of Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver, Donna Reed, and all of those old 50s sitcoms.

The only episode of thirtysomething that I actually wasn't bored with was the one when the lead female was debating what to do when her baby was born--keep working or stay home. She realized that what had her in a dilemma was cultural impressions she got from her own mother, but even more from the imprint from 50s TV. That's when a bunch of the actual actresses who played those moms came on and reminded her: While you were watching those shows. the women playing those stay-at-home moms WERE IN REALITY WORKING MOMS THEMSELVES.

The point is that those TV shows were escapism, not reality. The all-white America with working male head of the household, stay at home wife, and three clean-cut kids who barely talked back at all were a FANTASY, not reality. The MAGA traitors are so stupid that they think a fantasy is not only how things always were, but also how they always should be.

When you live in a world of fantasy and have zero clue that it's fantasy, you're either 4 years old. Or insane. Since most 4-year-olds outgrow living in a world of make-believe, that leaves insanity as the only explanation for MAGA thugs.

[Wounded Bear]

13. Yeah, this...nt

[Initech]

14. MAGA: minds warped by propaganda to drive their inner most hateful desires.