"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best...They're sending people that have lots of problems...They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists..."
Those were the words that made an obscenely ignorant and immoral reality TV actor President of the United States. To deny that fact is such an insult to the collective intelligence that it does not merit discussion. These words unleashed a latent energy in the American electorate powerful enough to fuel one of the greatest miscarriages of citizenship in the annals of democracy. They motivated millions of voters to give the nomination once held by Abraham Lincoln to a man who combined the intellect and competence of Homer Simpson with the high ideals of Bugsy Siegel.
Just as it is a waste of time to argue about whether these words began the rise of MAGA, it is pointless to debate their ultimate significance. They define MAGA as a racist movement, purely and simply. All arguments to the contrary are laughable. Was this an inarticulate attempt by an "ordinary man" to talk about the "problem" of immigration? No. An infinite number of chimpanzees typing on an infinite number of typewriters would not produce a statement as simplistically bigoted as this about "the problem of immigration" more than once in a millennium.
The appeal of the statement that launched MAGA was that it gave voice to anger and hatred of "them" (whoever "they" are, from the perspective of the listener). Once that license was issued, the worse demons of human nature were off to the races. MAGA has from the beginning been a politics of hatred and division: "They" are not our compatriots. "They" are not people with whom "we" are compelled to share power. "They" are criminals. "They" are rapists. "They" must not merely be beaten, "they" must be destroyed, if only in political terms (in other words, "they" must be denied protections of any basic rights, "they" must be disenfranchised).
The aftermath of the 2016 election has shown us exactly the kind of world that the words that birthed MAGA will create. Children stolen from their families. Young girls denied care after being raped. Mobs attacking the Capitol to overturn a free and fair election. A leader who lets thousands die during the greatest public health crisis in a century, because he is worried about the profitability of his hotels and resorts. A politics of hatred can never be compatible with democracy. Setting one part of the nation at war with another is the tactic of corrupt demagogues and fascists.
The most recent scandal at Fox News reaffirms all these truths about MAGA. The text that evidently "broke the camel’s back" for Tucker Carlson's tenure at Fox contained a line perfectly synonymous with the words that first generated the MAGA movement. Carlson, in describing an attack by three Trump supporters on one Antifa partisan, wrote: "It's not how white men fight." The lazy racism of the comment requires little analysis. What is significant is that, eight years after the ride down the gilded escalator, the beating heart of the MAGA movement remains the same: "We" are better than "them."
My point in rehashing all of this tawdry obscenity is not to indulge in virtue signalling or lament the state of the world. Rather, we should simply recognize the MAGA movement for what it is and act accordingly. Democrats should by all means propose plans to confront issues such as immigration, budget deficits, crime. But we should not pretend to engage debates with MAGA fascists over these questions.
For MAGA fascists, any question always boils down to how "they" are to blame and must be punished. Arguing with that kind of nonsense is a fool's errand. Develop plans. Propose solutions. If the opposition will debate issues, debate. But if the MAGA fascists simply want to haggle about "them," let them twist in the wind. Get the message out to those who are not deranged by hatred, and get them to go to the polls and vote.
