03.02.25
Just got done hearing the talking heads blathering on about how the nation’s moral compass has been reset. Really? Since WWII, the US has been guilty of a half-century string of government meddling in commercial and political interests abroad which has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands. One hundred years before that, half of us started a war with the other half that ultimately killed 600,000 all so their rich neighbors could own people. After that, we all joined hands and chased the Indians off their lands, mowing down 15,000 who resisted.
This country was founded on greed, occasionally ruthless. It has been a world leader in laissez-faire that has allowed the amassing of wealth that vastly outweighs that accumulated in any other country. Those profits also come with costs often borne by the public. Think cigarettes, global warming, and places like Love Canal.
Which might help explain why the US has been more generous than any other nation when it comes to foreign aid and forging and funding alliances. Now, rather than attempt to atone for our free-market excesses, the MAGA movement doesn’t even ignore or regret them. It exalts them, and I guess that’s the reset the talking heads are bemoaning.
I make the point because it helps me and the many millions who are like-minded to understand the resilience of the MAGA movement , despite the increasingly menacing way it’s running the country. The US was built by those profiting on resources not their own. And as we all know all too well, the acquisition of those profitable resources was done, at times, through measures most of us would be less inclined to take pride in, regardless of what compass you rely on.
Nonetheless, such profiteering has become ingrained in our cultural DNA. We so admire those who profit wildly at one adventure or another that we often turn a blind eye, or at least a wink-and-a-nod, when their methods might not swell a parent’s heart with pride. Let’s face it, we love our Tony Sopranos and Don Corleones. And it’s why so many of us love Trump. We love tough-guys. Might makes right.
I was personally repulsed by the Oval Office ambush of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Thursday. Talking about who is “holding all the cards” to a man presiding over the daily deaths of his countrymen at the hands of a much larger attacker is, to me, an inexplicable display of cruelty. To MAGA world, it’s simply straight talk. Its author is to be admired all the more for using it, even as we understand the hardships for all the straight talk and ruthlessness has never, nor will ever, befall those exercising it.
The question, about to be answered, is the public’s response when the all-too-real human costs start befalling our friends and family. Cheering at sporting events can get violent when passions run high, despite the relative unimportance of the game. What will happen when lives are lost instead of post-season opportunities as MAGA take full license of the trust they’ve been given under the pretext that it’s the American way.
I’m betting this country will come to its senses and the MAGA movement will be recognized for the morally bankrupt and likely lethal exercise in American laissez-faire that it has become. Such unparalleled greed is unsustainable. It’s why we have this massive government bureaucracy in the first place. One thing for sure, the people in power right now are doing all in their power to delay that awakening, as they profit wildly with every minute it’s averted.