Nicolas Toussaint Charlet:
Metselaar bij een muur [Mason at a wall] (1821)

"They despise themselves most."

With the MAGA crowd, I sense that I could never belong. Though I cannot delineate their selection criteria, they run a more exclusive operation than most country clubs. It seems backward and upside-down from more established segregations, though a few selection criteria seem obvious. They stand in apparent deliberate opposition to more traditional segmentations as if formulated to thumb their nose at an establishment. However, they seem every bit as exclusive as any old-school gentleman's club. Those granted entrance can seemingly do no wrong until they do. They remain blessed regardless of their sins, former or ongoing, much as their leader enjoys blind forgiveness from his followers. They do not perceive themselves as members but as loyal and devoted followers. They insist they're Christian, though apparently only in name. They also claim conservatism as a central organizing principle, which seems unlike any conservatism the good old days knew. It seems secret, though, as if its members were plotting the overthrow of something. Those not allowed into their club believe they represent a malign influence on our politics and treat them with the same respect they traditionally extended to the Klu Klux Klan.

The apparent obsession with status, though, baffles me. They seem to maintain a constant score of innies and outies, with nobody but their leader ever excluded from potential exclusion should they commit some sin. The sin of committing truth seems near the top of their infractions list. Committing a truth guarantees excommunication, at least for a little while. Reinclusion sometimes seems possible, but only after experiencing a period of public humiliation, often forced and from your own hand. Piling a fresh emphatic misrepresentation serves two purposes, then. It demonstrates that the truth-teller is a coward and that there's probably nothing they won't agree to do to stay in good graces with the movement. In this way, what was once a movement before taking over the Republican party now most closely resembles a cult. Step out of line, and you will most certainly be pecked to death or back into compliance. The leader never seems to care which.

The rules governing inclusion constantly shift and were never written down. MAGA has no written charter other than stated belief in BIG lies. Formally, they stand for precisely nothing but misrepresentation. Their position at any given moment seems entirely governed by the whim of their leader, and their leader seems exclusively governed by whim. He seems to eventually contradict everything he insists on. Today's sacrament will most certainly become some next day's sin. The faithful seem to need to sacrifice every ounce of their self-respect to belong. They must contribute any sense that their experience might better inform the whole. Their contribution seems exclusively accounted for by their absolute acquiescence. They nod in agreement, or they don't exist. Their status exists only as a part of the collective. The organization most closely resembles a primitive Communist cell, and this confuses many because the MAGA meme extorts fierce opposition to socialism, which it doesn't seem to understand, and communism, which it seems to define as anti-capitalism. They present as old-school capitalists, which, of course, they are not. They seem more like terrified authoritarians, petrified of not having power.

They seem to perceive power as an absolute. The concept of sharing power, as outlined in our constitution, seems counter to their central tenets as practiced. They seem to believe that only absolute power holds any real value and that absolute power absolves the powerful from whatever they might inflict. Might makes right. Therefore, principles do not matter and must be the stuff of losers. The ends, which are unquestionably noble to their believers, justify any means. They mean any! They mediate their mediocrity with cruelty to some less powerful class. It doesn't seem to matter which. Immigrants seem to be their most frequent target, but they seem anxious to humiliate any group they perceive as less powerful. They specialize in humiliating the most powerless like bullies tormenting cripples. The most innocent and easily offended seem to be their favorite enemies. They have more enemies than friends. They imagine conspiracies of the powerless harassing the gates when they're the ones utterly unwilling to defend against democracy's actual enemies.

MAGAs maintain a club I would never willingly join, even in the unlikely event that I might be invited. The members damned themselves and only ever belong pending some comeuppance. They gather for a fall that might well destroy them all. History will not fondly recall their malign influence upon society and polity. I wonder what explanation might emerge in the future to explain how this cancer managed to metastasize in our country. Many, I suspect, were hoodwinked into joining the throng. They might have been denied entry to whatever society they once tried to belong to, took their grudge, and fled into a group of like-minded unwanted toys. Others probably melded more malign intentions. They had it with minorities and other uppities—the general second or third-class racist who was always looking for confirmation. The gun nuts never questioned where they belonged, for wronging rights was always their agenda. Misogynists seem well-represented, people intent on keeping women "in their place." And the most baffling demographic in these United States, the so-called Christian Nationalists, those who steadfastly support some of our constitution but not the separation of church and state part. This seems a curious consideration. Without that separation, we could not have ever founded this great nation.

The principles that hold together the MAGA's Statusing seem paradoxical enough that they do not seem like principles. They seem the opposite of principled, as if fundamentally dishonest. They are incoherent and substantially contradictory. As I suggested above, they seem to sum to whatever the leader says they sum to at any particular moment. When that's different than anyone earlier understood, members' sole responsibility for the movement's longevity must be to agree to the shift without question. Theirs is never to reason or question why but to merely do and ultimately die. It seems so Old Testament insistent that it just seems insane in these more enlightened times. They rail against Woke because they oppose the Enlightenment. Because our country, constitution, laws, and governance are all products of the Enlightenment they deem to despise, they despise themselves.

The one fact I think I can attest to is this: The MAGA Statusing seems centered around hating instead of loving. The thing about hating is that it always eventually turns into hating self, the hater. Enforcing any all-men-are-not-created-equal outlook undermines the whole purpose of self-governance. This perspective cannot be maintained for long. Indeed, evidence of its suicidal demise runs rampant through the preparations for the upcoming inauguration. They don't just hate you. They despise themselves most.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #NextWorld, #PureSchmaltz