Outrage Us
It appears that the MAGOP brand today is about being...“outraged!!!!” Mind you, it doesn't matter what that is, since (happily for them) wherever they look, surrounding them from every possible corner, there is something that MAGOP party leaders can find that's "outrageous!!!!" in their efforts to "outrage!!!" everyone else just as much. It's not new, this goes back for years, but Trump's first term turned being "outraged!!!!" into an art form. They were "outraged!!!" -- and wanted us all just as faux-"outraged!!!" -- at most everything, from Dr. Jill Biden using "Dr." in her name, to putting Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head in the same box, to taking some out-of-date and now-offensive cartoon material with Pepe Le Pew out of circulation, down even to the colors of M&M's. And so much more.
It's "outrage!!!" about almost anything handy to be "outraged!!!" over at any given moment. "Outrage!!!" for the sake of being "outraged!!!" It shows that there's something you stand for...or rather, against. Which turns out to be most everything that isn't you. Sort of a code between fellow MAGAs -- friend or "faux"?
The “outrage!!!!” over Bad Bunny – one of the most popular singers today in the world and in the U.S. -- at the Super Bowl is only the most recent and most notable. As I was watching the halftime show at the Super Bowl Party I was at, it was hard not to think of all the MAGA heads that were exploding at that moment. And I mentioned to a friend there, “For all this massive outrage that has been spewed for weeks, it’s all about a halftime entertainment show that lasted 12 minutes.”
Just an ongoing mass of “outrage!!!!” from MAGOPs running up to the Super Bowl. Far too many to include in an encyclopedia, but we’ll let two stand in for them. There was an “outraged!!!” tweet the day after for self-professed racist and Trump adviser Laura Loomer who said the NFL should apologize for flooding the Super Bowl with foreign flags – adding that there was nothing American about any of it.
I replied that, well… Bad Bunny is American, for starters. And there was an American flag in the group of flags – leading the pack. And the show celebrated the multi-culturalism that's helped build America. So, it was actually full of America in it. It just didn’t have anything American in her America of hate, racism and division. Moreover, as I said I can only imagine how her head will explode during all the World Cup games starting in a few months, and the Olympics in L.A. in 2028 when the venues are all full of foreign flags. And foreign anthems!!
And Megyn Kelly went on another of her racist rants, saying (among other things) on Piers Morgan’s TV show, “Who gives a damn that we have 40 million Spanish speakers?!!” But then, her racism has been on full display since she whined of black Santa Clauses.
The halftime show in Spanish shows openness and America's strength because of its multi-cultures. And if someone doesn’t like watching it – fine, switch to something else for 12 minutes.
But more than the “outrage!!!!” over a halftime entertainment show, I was more taken by the “outrage!!!” by politicians and others who spewed furious vehemence at U.S. athletes at the Olympics who said that they didn’t support some of the things that were happening in America, including attacks on citizens.
So many MAGOPs that, at this point, I don’t remember most of them. But Trump was, of course, high on the list. As was Sen. Rick Scott, Rep. Byron Donalds, press secretary Karoline Leavitt, and (of course) Megyn Kelly. The “outrage!!!” they and other in authority or with big microphones spewed was full-throated fury, demanding (among other things) that these athletes not dare criticize the country they are representing, and hating America, and that if they couldn’t honor the U.S. they should have their uniforms stripped from them. (That last was from Rick Scott – whose sense of honor includes having been CEO of a company that was hit by the biggest fine for health-care fraud in U.S. corporate history, $1.7 billion!!! – though others said things similar.)
To start with, these athletes were selected for their teams because of their athletic skills, not for their political views.
Moreover, they weren’t making speeches (though had every right to), but were at press conferences and asked questions. They should not be required to offer support – or protect things by staying silent – for actions that they find abhorrent.
Furthermore, criticizing American is not even remotely the same as hating America. It is not only possible, but common to criticize something because you want it to improve…specifically because you love it. Not just is it common, but that’s how good parenting works. Parents criticize their children all the time when they’ve done something wrong…because they love them.
In addition, every elected official slamming these athletes swore an oath to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution – yet during the Biden Administration (and Obama Administration and beyond) were among the most vocal criticizing what they saw was wrong with the country. For goodness sake, Trump ran for president the first time, and spent the past four years between terms, slamming America, wherever he was, home or abroad. And still does today. After all, the whole point of the very name "MAGA" -- make America great again -- is a criticism of America today, that it's terrible. To them.
And of course, at the heart of it all that makes these slams by MAGOPs at these athletes so repugnant to democracy is that at the top of Americans’ list of cherished rights is the First Amendment. Which not only protects citizens when criticizing their government but is at the core of what America is and how the country was literally created.
The MAGOP criticism of these athletes – who have trained their whole lives for this moment is disgraceful. And especially when Trump and MAGOP officials smear them, it puts them at risk from retaliation. It’s awful for Bad Bunny, but he at least is a major public figure, expects praise and criticism, and has a security team to protect him. These are athletes, most of whom no one in America would know who they are, even when watching them briefly compete. And most Americans wouldn’t even see the responses in the press conferences unless Trump and the others singled them out. The athletes did nothing wrong. They answered a question asked them, and said they didn’t support actions that almost two-thirds of Americans don’t approve of.
One of the athletes did her best to be diplomatic in her response, and didn’t even criticize the Trump actions. She just spoke of her own values being about love and compassion and caring for others, and that she could only live be her own values. And she was attacked for that.
For saying her values were love and compassion and caring for others.
If anything defines today’s MAGOP, it’s that. It’s being “outraged!!!!” and slamming a world class athlete representing the United States and answering a question by saying that her values are love and compassion and caring for others.
Polls show dramatically that the public is finally figuring out that that is not the values of Trump and his protectors in his White House circle, and his enablers in Congress, and among those cultists whose hatred, racism and cruelty towards others different from them are the defenders of it all. And that explains why Trump’s approval is at 37% after only one year into his term.
It’s the “outrage!!!!” – almost non-stop and growing “outrage!!!”, hatred, disdain -- against everything that isn’t them.
Which turns out, much to their uncomprehending fury, to be most of America.
To quote an actually fictional president, "We have serious problems to solve. And we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things, and two things only -- making you afraid of it, and telling you who to blame for it."
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