Repeat After Me: 'MAGA People Are Nasty and Indecent'

Let's stop deluding ourselves that these 'good folks were somehow left behind'

Photo by Zachary Kadolph on Unsplash

I am still under the influence of a Trump rally I recently watched. The following day, I read about one attended by a journalist from The Atlantic. Much of what was written could be seen on the video of the event. For every grotesque and un-Christian comment made by Trump, much of the crowd cheered, clapped, and laughed on cue, almost as if they were spectators at The Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

After Trump surprisingly won the election in 2016, the experts who had warned of a possible upset with Hillary Clinton were out on the circuit explaining to the rest of us just who the MAGA Americans were. The explanation that they were all “ignorant racists” was no longer accepted. Ignorant racists have always been a part of our national quilt, but there had never been enough of them to elect a person so clearly unfit for the presidency — a buffoon like Trump. 

Michael Moore talked about the millions of “forgotten working-class voters” who used to religiously vote blue but now felt betrayed by Democrats, who they believed had shifted too much attention to issues revolving around LGBTQ, immigrants, and minorities. The predominantly white MAGA voters were angry, and as Moore told us, Trump was giving them a voice again. He would be their president and focus his energy on them, not the “others.” As Trump was wont to let everyone know: If you weren’t for him, you were against him and would be sidelined. 

It didn’t take long before many of these MAGA folks realized they had been duped. Trump’s obsession with himself and his talent for being utterly uncivilized while working overtime to destroy all that formerly made our nation great wore out a lot of people. Realizing that the man they voted for in 2016 was not intellectually capable of leading the nation back to greatness because of his narcissism, many Trump supporters bailed on him by 2020. Some voted for Joe Biden, and others didn’t vote.

Others, the ones I am writing about now, joined him on January 6th and, to this day, believe that the Democrats, along with the “deep state,” deceived Trump and stole the election from him. These are the people who think that everything Trump says is spot on; these are the people who laugh the loudest when he mocks people with disabilities; these are the people who nod their heads the most aggressively when he talks about raping immigrants, perverted non-traditional families. 

Nothing is redeeming about these people. They weren’t left behind by some great systemic Genie called “rising income inequality.” They were left behind because they were mean, prejudiced, and systemically voted against their own economic interests generation after generation. Donald Trump understands as much of their world as they do if they do about an Emily Post proper place setting (bread plate & butter knife, dessert fork, dessert spoon, water glass, wine glass, napkin, salad & appetizer fork, entree fork, Charger/place plate, entree knife, salad & appetizer knife, soup spoon). 

The MAGA of 2024 can safely be called MAGidiots, MAG-tards, MAGanimals, MAG-holes, etc. They are nasty and indecent, and they hate our country. Despite their relevance today in our electoral system, they are irrelevant in the big evolutionary picture. Time will have its way with them and history will be so, so unkind.