I could never understand how a Stalin, Pinochet, Pol Pot or Hitler could sway enough people to win control of their government; how anyone could turn their back on even the most basic precepts of humanity in hopes of lowering the price of eggs or making the trains run on time. I used to wonder how so many could be so heartless and vile.
I wonder no more.
It is common among the punditry to overly optimistically opine that the American people generally are good-hearted and intelligent, and so won’t let the country sink into a racist dictatorship. There are lots of Americans worthy of that assessment, but there also are way more hateful, black-hearted racists than I ever imagined. For instance, those who find it humorous to put a cartoon alligator in a MAGA hat on a T-shirt with the words “Alligator Alcatraz,†and find joy in sending innocent humans to mosquito- and alligator-infested cages in a sweltering swamp in the middle of summer.
They claim their goal is to save taxpayer money spent on immigrants. This is a lie. Cruelty is the point. They’re happy to spend more on Immigration and Customs Enforcement than the entire military of many countries. They're just fine with the $450 million in initial cost, plus ongoing expenses, on a concentration camp in the Everglades to inter migrants who otherwise pay billions of dollars in taxes upon which they receive no return.
These immigrants paid almost $100 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2023 alone, but receive zero federal Medicaid funds or SNAP benefits. Neither do they receive any Social Security or Medicare benefits when they retire.
They claim it’s about ridding the country of violent criminals. This also is a lie. A recent study found that 93% of the immigrants swept up in this current pogrom have had zero interactions with law enforcement in the past, and many of the others have been minor traffic violations and the like. Many are awaiting asylum hearings, as per U.S. and international law, but are being detained at courthouses while complying with documentation requirements. Those people were here legally until their status was revoked by this vindictive administration. Even so, crossing the border illegally is a civil offense, not worthy of such harsh imprisonment.
To say this is not about race is a transparent lie. MAGA didn’t make a peep when Trump imported a boatload of white Afrikaaners, including some with violent and anti-Semitic histories, and resettled them here on the taxpayers’ dime.
This is all about hate. MAGA hates multiculturalism. They hate more than half of the citizenry. They hate brown immigrants. They hate Black people. They hate gay and trans people. They hate the freedom of and freedom from any religion other than their own perverted version of white evangelicalism. They hate anyone who does not bow down to Donald Trump.Â
That means they hate the free press. They hate judicial oversight. They hate the rule of law. They hate freedom of any speech that does not comport 100% with their beliefs. They hate the Constitution of the United States (other than the Second Amendment). They hate environmental protection. They hate our scientific and medical experts. They hate the accurate teaching of our history. They hate free artistic expression. They hate women's rights over their own bodies. They hate much of what makes the U.S. the U.S., and I’m pretty confident from social media attacks that many of them viscerally hate me.
They are perpetually angry and constantly play the victim despite their systemic advantages since our founding. Many are just mean, ignorant, miserable people who are hell-bent on making life terrible for the rest of us.
When I noted on social media that the Dachau concentration camp started as just a detention center for Germans who had been stripped of their citizenship because they were deemed undesirable by the Nazi regime, a MAGA apologist replied with “Reductio ad Hitlerumâ€, meaning that once you’ve played the Nazi card, you’ve lost the argument.
That might have been true in the recent past, but it is clear from Trump’s repeated suggestions that certain Americans should be stripped of their citizenship, incarcerated in concentration camps in Florida, Louisiana, Texas and others yet to be built, and eventually deported, that the Hitler card is no longer such a stretch. To those who still maintain than “it can’t happen here,†it already is. You’re just not paying attention.
