There is a cottage industry dedicated to discerning the just grievances that gave rise to the MAGA  movement, the justified anger its proponents feel toward a government that failed them and why we “liberal elitist” snobs are to blame for their outrage because we are “out of touch” with their suffering. We need to stop our judging, criticizing and ridiculing. MAGA folk are just simple, sincere and patriotic Americans for whom the elusive American Dream has evaporated.

At the risk of being crude, I say bovine excrement. The MAGA folk are not simply misunderstood, and they are not all that hard to read. Everything you need to know about them was on display a decade ago when Donald Trump mocked and mimicked a disabled New York Times reporter at a rally in South Carolina-and the crowd howled with laughter. MAGA folk are bullies. They are stimulated, entertained and gratified by cruelty toward those weaker, smaller and more vulnerable than them. That’s it. There is nothing else to understand.

I have known these folks all my life. I met them when I was in school. They are the guys who got their jollies by dunking the head of a mentally impaired boy in the toilet. They are the mean girls who stuck the “wide load” sticker on the back of their plump school mate and giggled as she walked down the hall with no clue as to why everyone was laughing and pointing at her. I have always known there were people like these who are altogether lacking in empathy and gain their self esteem and sense of power by hurting and humiliating others weaker than themselves. The only thing that surprised me in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2016 victory was the sheer number of them. I honestly believed that sociopathic bullies were an abhorrent, but small “basket of deplorables.”[1] I was wrong.

Donald Trump’s antics in South Carolina, which many of us thought would surely tank his campaign, proved to be its principal draw and a harbinger of all that has transpired over the last decade. Most recently Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Navy to rename the ship that honors Harvey Milk, a former sailor who later became the first openly gay man elected to office in California. Such a move cannot be explained in terms of national security or any other military objective. The only explanation is Hegseth’s hatred for LGBTQ+ people and his desire to outrage and humiliate gay men. To let them know that their sacrifices for their country are not worth recognizing and that they have no place in our country’s history. The guys I remember from high school, whose biggest entertainment was beating up boys merely suspected of being gay, must be getting a hoot out of that. Then there is Senator Joni Ernst who, when her constituents voiced their fears about losing life sustaining treatment for themselves and their loved ones, replied with typical mean girl snark, “well, everybody dies.” She subsequently doubled down on her remarks blithely suggesting that if sick people are worried about dying, just accept Jesus as savior. Problem solved.

These two recent examples, like many more I could cite, sufficiently illustrate my point. MAGA is not about patriotism, reducing government spending, stopping the flow of fentanyl into our communities, bringing jobs back to the United States or any coherent political policy agenda. It is about the need of insecure men to put assertive and intelligent women who threaten their illusion of dominance back in their place so they can feel like real men again. It is about cutting down to size all those PhD’s, highbrow Ivy League professors and medical experts who think they are so damn smart. It’s about beating the crap out of fags, dykes and guys who wear dresses to show what real manhood looks like. It’s about changing Mt. Denali back to Mt. McKinley to remind those redskins that this is a white man’s country and that is how it is going to stay. It’s about reminding Black men and women of their second class status in this country by restoring the names of confederate leaders to American military installations and restoring confederate monuments. MAGA is all about sick and twisted souls who desperately need to bring people down to build themselves up. Don’t waste your time looking for more. There are no pearls at the bottom of this cesspool.

Bullies are dangerous. Yesterday morning Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed and Minnesota Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were wounded by a politically motivated shooter. Both lawmakers are members of the Democratic Party. Dozens of Minnesota Democrats were on a target list recovered by police. The list included Governor Tim Walz, United States Representative Ilhan Omar, United States Senator Tina Smith and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. As horrifying as this crime surely is, it is hardly surprising. As soon as he took office, President Trump issued a blanket pardon for thousands of insurrectionists who stormed the United States Capital injuring several police officers and threatening violence against then vice president Pence and members of the United States Congress. Pardons are evidently being considered for a group of men who planned the failed kidnapping and murder of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. The message is clear. There will be no accountability for violent MAGA rage. The Minnesota assassin got that message and acted on it. It is now open season on anyone the MAGA lynch mob deems an enemy, starting with the most vulnerable among us.

“But you can’t paint all Trump supporters with such a broad brush…” Yes, I can. Because I am feeling particularly generous today, I will grant a mulligan to folks who voted for Trump in 2016 thinking that, however flawed he might be, he will at least shake up an ineffective and unresponsive government in a good way. But for 2024 Trump voters, nothing doing. They saw how he instigated a riot in which our Capital was vandalized, our police officers were injured and the lives of our legislators were threatened. They saw Donald Trump turn federal forces on peaceful protesters in our capital with tear gas and batons. They heard him regularly use racist and vulgar insults against his political opponents throughout his 2020 campaign. They saw that he was criminally convicted for falsifying business records to save his campaign from scandal. They knew that a jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. They knew that he promised to (and did) pardon the insurrectionists he incited to attack our Capital. They heard him characterize his opponents as “vermin” and “scum.” They heard him threaten violent retribution against everyone he regards his enemy. Their vote for him tells me that, at the very least, they were OK with all of that. I strongly suspect they were more than just OK with it. Is there anybody out there who can show me another way to look at this? Please, bring it on! I’ve been waiting to hear from you for over a decade.

Trump, his administration and the people who put him in power and continue to support him are bullies. But here is the thing you need to keep in mind when dealing with bullies. Bullies are cowards. All of those January 6^th insurrectionists who were so loud, so proud and so brave as part of the mob were, with very few exceptions, quite different people when brought before a court of law. There, without the support of their herd, they sobbed, made excuses and pleaded for mercy. Bullies always back down when they find themselves alone and among people unafraid to stand up to them.

Yesterday, millions of people all over the country took to the streets to stand up to Trump and his gang of thugs. That is a good start, but only a start. We need to keep the pressure on. We need to keep speaking out in whatever forum we have. We need to keep confronting the bullies wherever they appear, in our family gatherings, churches, barbershops, nail salons, locker rooms, book clubs and wherever else people come together. Our communities need to be relentless in exposing, opposing and publicly denouncing the brutal and lawless deportation of our neighbors. We need to condemn in the strongest terms the ruthless persecution of the LGBTQ+ community and especially its war against trans children. Neutrality is no longer an option. We either stand together with the most vulnerable members of our society resisting the MAGA bullies, or we keep our heads low, cower in fear and wait for our turn to experience their aggression. And make no mistake, if we wait for it, our turn will come.   

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[1] Some commentators believe that this remark by Hillary Clinton cost her the election. I don’t know whether that is true or not. But politics aside, I think Ms. Clinton was being far too kind.