By SUSAN K. SMITH
Crazy Faith Ministries
The country is in turmoil. The ex-president seems to support the thought of a civil war, according to Newsweek, there have not as of yet been any arrests of top Republicans who seem to have been integral voices in the planning of the Jan. 6 insurrection, and the threat of the abrogation of women’s reproductive rights if and when Roe v. Wade is overturned is encouraging Republican lawmakers to introduce and support laws against women that can only be called draconian.
The Republicans, meanwhile, are holding their annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Hungary, learning how to establish and hold onto an authoritarian government, getting instructions from none other than the Hungarian dictator, Viktor Orban.
Shows like Tucker Carlson’s should be on 24/7, Orban said to the group. The key to getting and holding onto power is control of the media, The Guardian reported.
All of this is part of the plan to “make America great again,” but as we watch it all unfold, will anyone in the mainstream media say out loud what that will look like? Or will they at least conduct interviews to get people who believe in MAGA to share what they are after?
Do the MAGA proponents want enslavement of certain people to be reinstated? Do they want women to lose the right to vote?
Is the reason they are so euphoric over the prospect of Roe v. Wade being overturned is because they want to make sure enough White women have babies to protect the majority White population in this country? Do they want – or does a “great” America mean that maternal health and deaths of Black mothers should not be a consideration for observation or protection?
What was it about America fifty, one hundred, two hundred or four hundred years ago that was so great? Do they want the freedom to lynch Black people – and probably Brown people and Muslims and people from the trans and LGBTQIA community – at will? Do they want the states to determine what they do with their residents, and have the federal government stay out of it?
It seems that what MAGA means is precisely that – that the federal government should have no power to protect and defend the citizens of this country. It seems that a “great” America to them means that the states can treat their citizens any way they want – even if that means they pass policies that result in more suffering for the underserved – and that the people of the state will have no voice.
If the MAGA disciples spur a civil war, who exactly would they be fighting? White people who do not adhere to their beliefs? Would it be a White-on-White war like the first Civil War was, or would it be different? The War Between the States broke out because of the resentment of the southern states over the federal government’s opposition to slavery. Are the white supremacists still trying to settle that score? Do they believe that their “right” to enslave Black people was violated by the federal government? And do they further believe that their belief in the supremacy not only of White people in general, but of White men in particular, was violated as well?
Even as these questions swirl, it seems that not enough non-MAGA people are aware of what is at stake. It feels like a large swath of people are living in a make-believe world where evil cannot puncture American complacency and arrogance that says this country can and will never stoop so low.
What they fail to realize is that America was always a cracked, divided country whose founders wanted a place to grow their wealth and power – no matter the human, emotional or economic cost.
The MAGA group is the American version of Naziism. Nobody wants to say it, but it is true, and if we don’t wake up, we are in for a hard landing where a lot of people – many of whom think they are immune – will be very badly affected.
Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith is the founder and director of Crazy Faith Ministries. She is available for speaking. And she is an award-winning author for her latest book, “With Liberty and Justice for Some: The Bible, the Constitution, and Racism in America,” available through all booksellers. Contact her at revsuekim@sbcgloba.net.