MAGA MAGA MAGA Jihad
The MAGA Jihad continues to threaten the United States as a free, democratic nation. Although not born immediately of the same religious zealotry, MAGA demonstrates the very same extremism, intolerance, and violence as its religious terrorist brethren. The more deeply I compare MAGA to Al Qaeda, et al, the more stark and accurate the comparison. Both strive to destroy democracy and modern civilization from within. Many Americans foolishly banked on the idea that MAGA, at least as a political force and existential threat to our nation’s future, would wither after former President Trump was defeated for reelection. Unfortunately, that was not to be, nor should we have been so complacent as to ignore its current and more likely future. This is a virus and viruses do not simply go away – ask Herpes…
The Trump/MAGA “big lie” about the 2020 Election continues to harm innocent public servants, interfere in democratic institutions and elections, and foments a cult personality based on grievance and violence plaguing our politics. The fact that MAGA can continue to push this baseless narrative, that they know is without merit, especially after losing all 60 court cases in state and federal courts across the country, and after extreme violence is evidence of the nature of the group and the danger it poses. The fact that these people continue to push a known, demonstrably dangerous falsity is astonishing and should be met with criminal action. The only threat to our elections comes from MAGA, who want to suppress and intimidate voters, subvert valid, proper elections, and deny bona fide results. MAGA claims every election they lose is somehow a rigged election, but the very same systems used in elections where they like the results are fine.
The MAGA authoritarian jihad continues to subvert and denigrate the judicial and law enforcement systems. Once again, not a single claim has an ounce of merit, yet that does not dissuade them. That is not the point. The purpose behind this effort is to pre-empt the ability of law enforcement to properly investigate criminality and the courts to properly adjudicate the cases. They know Trump, et al, has engaged in serious criminal conduct (Trump has done so his entire life) and they have no legal or factual defense. Therefore, they seek to prevent the cases from being brought and to plant the far-fetched, ridiculous notion among Americans that they system is biased and corrupt. Mind you these claims are based entirely on the fact that they do not want Trump and his minions to stand trial or face justice no matter how serious their wrongdoing.
No matter how strong the evidence may be against Trump, et al, and no matter how appropriate and necessary a trial may be, the very fact that someone dares to question their “dear leader” makes such an inquiry rooted in bias and “fake” news. This is the authoritarian playbook, to force society to lose confidence in the justice system and other democratic institutions so that after the jihad when they come to power, they can completely dismantle the courts, the free press, elections, and other institutions. Watch Erdogan in Turkey, Orban in Hungary, Putin in Russia and some of the most disgusting, oppressive regimes in the world. This is their model and their goal. Similarly, to Trump, Florida Governor DeSantis, under his fallacious “Free State of Florida” mantra, has been steadily dismantling the state’s democracy and the ability of the people to engage in government. Other states, including Governor Abbott and Texas, are doing the same. The jihad threatening our existence is not limited to Trump and the federal government.
Law enforcement must investigate criminal allegations and once a case is solved, the prosecution determines disposition. There is nothing whatsoever corrupt about properly investigating allegations of criminality made by multiple parties, each with a sufficient factual and legal basis, and determining which charges, if any, are warranted. The MAGA House members have been actively, shamefully, and baselessly attacking the FBI, DoJ, and various state agencies solely because they investigated serious, bona fide criminal allegations against Donald Trump. They would have been wrong not to investigate.
These House members disgrace their office and violate their oaths. They are intentionally following the authoritarian plot to weaken, perhaps overthrow, our democracy in favorite of MAGA absolute rule, most likely in the form of Trump. They know all to well that the allegations have merit. They understand the likelihood of conviction if Trump stands trial. They will do whatever it takes to prevent that. They are actively plotting another January 6 style insurrection to prevent any and all charges against Trump and minions from going forward. The blatant use of political violence and denigration of democratic institutions is how authoritarians achieve power.
If Trump did nothing wrong, he will be exonerated at trial. Even if he committed offenses, he could be found not guilty because proving offenses beyond a reasonable doubt is never easy. It will be much more difficult with Trump because he has his staff destroying evidence, eliminating communications, and obstructing justice. If your guy did nothing wrong, why are you so afraid of a trial? Why would you threaten, perhaps even kill, officials just doing their jobs to intimidate them and prevent the cases from moving forward? If you did nothing wrong, take advantage of the opportunity to show that to the world.
The House MAGAts have gone even further, creating the so-called “weaponization of government committee.” First, it was Trump and his administration that weaponized government and the courts. Trump significantly weakened these institutions and ran out career professionals, replacing them with sycophants and loyalists, some of whom are providing false testimony to House Republicans. These loyalists were there to support the attempted coup on January 6, not serve the interests of the American people and certainly not to support democracy. Trump believed that the FBI and DoJ were there to do his personal bidding, to protect him, and to go after his opponents. Remember the Trump appointed judge in Florida who improperly and without a legal basis interfered in the Mar-a-Lago classified and stolen documents case. She ignored the law and took unfounded action to help Trump. The extremely conservative Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously and unceremoniously reversed her actions. The Biden team has restored normalcy, respecting the independence of the FBI, DoJ, and the courts. However, this is not relevant to the MAGA jihadists doing Trump’s bidding.
Watch this committee in action. Jim Jordan chairs the committee incompetently and with extreme bias. Even his fellow Republicans have been critical of his work. Jordan regularly presents false information in his official remarks, uses the committee to launch baseless, harassing attacks on dedicated professional men and women in the FBI, DoJ, etc. He prevents the committee from investigating actual evidence of weaponization, all of which occurred by members of Trump’s administration. This is all just a charade to preemptively convince Americans that Trump is a victim rather than a perpetrator, causing them to distrust the process and the ultimate convictions. The truth is that Trump is no martyr, no messiah, just a common criminal and old-fashioned authoritarian seeking to seize power.
The goal of this committee is not to uncover weaponization, as they know it stopped after Trump left office, but rather to generate a fictitious, incredibly dangerous “report” providing a false confirmation of baseless accusations. This report will attempt to cause their supporters, as well as other uninformed Americans, to lose confidence in government, labor under the false belief the government is intentionally seeking to silence or harm them, result in violence, and allow the authoritarian coup of our nation believing the nation has failed.
The MAGA Jihad is focused on Trump’s list of personal grievances and the most negatively tainted, dark view of the United States and American people. Trump’s inaugural address spoke about the age of carnage and carnage and chaos is what MAGAts crave. To listen to Trump speeches, you would think the U.S. has lost World War III, succumbed to authoritarian rule, is suffering another Great Depression, etc. Trump and MAGA push the disgusting, absolutely baseless white supremacist “Replacement Theory.” They promote dangerous xenophobia with false claims about immigration and immigrants. They promote overt racism in changing school curricula, subverting school boards, dismantling diversity and inclusion programs, and re-writing history. They risk total economic calamity with unprecedented runaway debt. They risk environmental disaster by weaponizing science, driving wedges in society rather than uniting people behind what should be a common cause for survival and our future generations. This is the MAGA vision and how they use divisiveness to manipulate people and achieve power.
Trump continuously asserts he is the only thing standing between the American people and devastation. He claims he is martyring himself to protect everyone else’s freedom. Total horse manure. Career criminal and liar Trump has been caught several times over by federal and multiple state authorities. He stands not between us and devastation, but rather he stands between us and the ability to clean up government. Normalcy must be restored wherein government is staffed by dedicated career professionals who serve regardless of ideology and regardless of who wins Congress and the White House. We must end the Trump era of replacing competence in government with blind loyalty and incompetence.
We have challenges. We always have challenges. We must better address those challenges. However, the U.S. remains the city on the hill that Reagan spoke of in his inauguration, not Trump’s carnage. Democracy, as imperfect as it can be at times, remains the only option for any free people. The U.S. must reject all attempts to portray a false level of misery to lay the predicate to “try something else” such as the era of authoritarian rule MAGA seeks to impose.
For authoritarians to come to power, they need to rile up a phony populist base willing to believe a series of lies and lose confidence in governmental institutions. Those blind followers will resort to violence, believing in the false messianic cause of their leader. They will have eliminated the independent judiciary or at least packed it with cronies committed to the cause above the law. While the courts held in 2020, denying all of Trump’s bogus election claims, we cannot count on this again. As MAGA perfects the playbook, gains power in state governments, etc., it makes it harder to protect democracy against them.
The American people and everyone committed to democracy must band together to stop the MAGA coup. Those who foment, commit, or advocate for violence must be prosecuted without exception. We must recognize that not all “political” speech is really political or protected. Advocating the overthrow of the government is a crime. Ardently, knowingly spreading misinformation designed to cause citizens to lose confidence in the government and institutions is a crime. Crime or not, those who employ such vile tactics should never be reelected. If we fail to act, we will most definitely lose our democracy and freedom. The true patriots in this country are those willing to stand up to MAGA, to fight to preserve democracy, and willing to do their jobs despite tremendous illegal coercion and threats of violence against them. Patriots will stand up against the MAGA jihad and in favor of truth. Do not allow the MAGA jihad in America.