The Face of MAGA

It's a puppet show, again. Still.

Thanks to "Diverse Themes” for letting me borrow this photo. A sea of many flags at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. A day made famous as the violent insurrection ultimately brought loss of life to some, shame along with prison to many of those present. Trials are still ongoing.

The first glimpse of “Stop the Steal” is a weird picture in my mind. On a residential street in a moderately upscale neighborhood, a woman who barely saw over her steering wheel glanced from a side street as I drove by her. This sedan had “Stop the Steal” written across the top portion of her windshield. White letters across the sun shaded deep gray area. No clue from me as to what it meant yet, but it was clear the words were unlikely written by this gray haired hand.

MAGA, the base. Don’t want to upset the base, talk to the base. Red meat for the base. These rag tag losers that show up for hate rally after hate rally. Defrauded, giving millions to the former president to prop up his confidence game. Flags, bling and empty talking points abound. More like the wagon train of Grateful Dead followers rather than a political masterminds loyal cadre.

Fringe, cult, Q followers, Trumpests have injected rhetoric and ideas into our lives and these often ridiculous ideas have demanded attention from the media as legit. So down the rabbit hole we go with infuriating rebuttal instead of dismissiveness. This willingness to dialogue has torn down the level of discussion and interjected dangerous ideas and demands have become law as we are watching an authoritarian grip encircle our schools and elections, medicine and threaten more rights every day.

Wow manufactures certainly got all those blue line flags and stop the steal flags on the shelves in record time ready to hoist in US neighborhoods from sea to shining sea. A real grass roots movement (she wrote, with the mantle of sarcasm firmly on her shoulders).

Seems we are closing in a the end of a chapter in the book of US history. Closing in on the “who” of the Jan 6 insurrection. Just thinking of the end of the influence of the 46th presidential administration could get you giddy. But in talking about control of the more right leaning side of political life, who actually acquired who when is an uncomfortable question as we look to end the crazy. With the rise of “Christian Nationalism” and the gun culture taken to Christmas cards the end has been poorly calculated. These are not new to our landscape, just looming larger in our lives. Very much larger out of the shadows into the mainstream.

Charlie McCarthy and the voice behind him, Edgar Bergen. We all knew then. We know now.

Clown culture may fade. The men and women behind the melting masks look surprisingly like you and me. And twined into the rhetoric will be new phraseology that are old ideas and much like the ideas from the 1930’s Germany.

Vote.