A MAGA Defense, and a Reply

INTRODUCTION: At the end of last year a conservative friend, Tim Smith, posted on Facebook a thoughtful defense of MAGA. I disagree with much of it, but as with many disagreements there is also room for common cause.

We go back to the early 2000s, when we served on the Board of Directors at our golf club. That may sound trivial, but even in an office of such light consequence you get to know someone, and I know Tim to be an honorable friend whose company is always a pleasure. Tim gave me a go-ahead to respond to his post, but it's taken me this long to craft a reply.

NOTE: I'm publishing my full reply here on Fact Based Media because of the word count limitation on Facebook, but you can view Tim's original post here.

Here's the start of Tim's post:

TIM: Just to clear the air: I’m a MAGA conservative, but that doesn’t mean what a lot of you apparently think it does. Let’s break it down, because I’m tired of being told what I believe and what I stand for. Spoiler: not every conservative is the same, but most of us I know share these same principles.

FRANK: To begin with, Tim rightly points out that MAGA is a spectrum, with (let’s call it) “deep MAGA” on its fringe, and perhaps a more practical MAGA at the other end (not always obvious but let's stipulate it exists).

I have a lot of issues with the premise of MAGA, Make America Great Again, but especially deep MAGA, which seems hard-fastened to a kind of endless anger, an anxiety that somehow we are spinning out of control. We’re not, or at least we weren’t.

But for our purposes, let’s agree that MAGA is at least these five ideas:

First, that the far left keeps shoving a silly and obnoxious social agenda down everyone’s throat, such as DEI, defund the police, trans-athletes and campus speech codes. For MAGA, these are more than offensive side shows, they are serious threats to our freedom.

Second, that our borders are (were) out of control.

Third, that our allies take advantage of us through unfair trade, lopsided security arrangements and foreign aid.

Forth, that Donald Trump, even given his faults, is the right person to walk us back to a more commonsense time, when true American values, especially the values of personal responsibility, faith and patriotism, were paramount.

And fifth, that the threat is so grave that it may be necessary to suspend the normal rules, including ignoring Congress, the courts, and the limits of a President’s powers enumerated in the Constitution.

I’ll respond in greater detail below, but here is my reaction, generally: a) Yes, the most left-leaning liberals can be silly and lacking in common sense; b) Yes, our borders were out of control; c) No, we are not being fleeced by our allies. In fact, it’s just the opposite; and d) the real threat is Donald Trump, himself, his false beliefs, quixotic actions, thirst for attention, obvious bigotry, corruption both moral and financial, and utter disregard for the law. We are in real trouble, and he is its expression as well as its cause.

TIM: I believe America must put itself first. We cannot pour from an empty cup. Our country should prioritize our own people before trying to save the world. I believe America should stay out of endless foreign conflicts. We are not the world’s sugar daddy, and we shouldn’t act like it.

FRANK: We don’t have an empty cup. We’re the richest nation ever. But if it’s foreign aid or lopsided defense arrangements you’re talking about, we are not being hustled. You may think this is charity, when in fact it’s an investment. At the end of WWII, a group of very wise men (not being sexist … they were all men at that time) invented the modern world, the world that has kept the peace by and large for 80 years. And because of the institutions they created, like NATO, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, the West is wealthier than any generation, ever.

If MAGA’s theory was correct, you would expect the rest of the world’s economies to grow faster than our own. Not true. Everyone in our orbit, playing mostly by our rules, has become wealthy since WWII, but very few more than ourselves. A democratic world is a safer world, and a safer world is a more prosperous world, and we have prospered by it.

We are also the only nation that can make the needed and credible security agreements. It’s the cost of leadership, but it pays back, and it doesn’t make our allies parasites.

TIM: I believe no foreign aid should be given until every veteran at home is taken care of.

FRANK: It’s not either-or. You can and should do both. The first is a strategy for keeping the peace and growing everyone’s economies, including our own. The second is a solemn obligation to take care of the people who served and sacrificed. There is such a thing as the G.I. Bill, which pays for tuition, and the V.A. for health care. Is it enough? Not, I suppose, for those with lingering psychological scars, especially severe PTSD, which can be debilitating and dangerous. I hope everyone gets the help they need, but it’s hard to say how, exactly, that would be accomplished beyond our current efforts. I note, also, that while the current administration has dismembered U.S. Aid, it has not chosen to reallocate its funding to veterans.

TIM: I believe immigrants make America stronger — when they come legally. If your first act in this country is breaking the law, you aren’t an upstanding citizen.

FRANK: I have agreed with Donald Trump only once: if you don’t have a border, you don’t have a country. I’m OK with closing the border until we can straighten out immigration policy. Presidents of both parties have attempted immigration reform, but the Congress won’t cooperate. To be more specific, Republicans in Congress won’t cooperate. Just ask George W. Bush. Maybe with the heightened tensions over ICE, the Congress will take it up as a serious issue, but I don’t hold my breath. Until then, people from all over will continue to come, some legally, some not. To set expectations, most of those who come will not look like us. The Norwegians are happy where they are, now.

TIM: You can marry who you want. I may not agree with your lifestyle, but your life is not mine to judge, I leave that to God Almighty. That being said, I am a Christian and suggest everyone read and follow God's word.

FRANK: We’ve all come a long way on this issue, haven’t we? Liberals would go farther and say it’s not a lifestyle, which implies choice, but just a life. Born this way, as Lady Gaga wrote. If so, then there’s nothing to judge. Made in God’s image, as much as you or me. As I read it, God’s word has very little to say about the matter. There is nothing in the New Testament, at all. The Old Testament tells us in Leviticus that homosexuality is an “abomination” punishable by death (Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13). Fortunately most Christians ignore Leviticus, which also proscribes eating shellfish and wearing blended fabrics. (My gay friends say they prefer natural Pima cotton, so they’re safe there.)

In general, religion should not be a litmus test for judging civic virtue. Jews, Hindus Muslims and atheists live here, too. You don’t need to be a Christian or even a believer to be a good American, and all are equal before the law. I belong to a very large Christian church based in Rome, and although I’m not a poster child Catholic, I did learn this: cruelty is not an option.

TIM: I believe schools are for education, not indoctrination. Kids should learn math, history, reading, and science - not political propaganda. They should not be taught they were “born in the wrong body” or pushed into gender delusion.

FRANK: Agree for the most part. The Education Department has been around since Carter, yet test scores are lower than ever. Education standards seemed to work best when set by the states and executed with some latitude by local school boards.

Foolishly, some will ban books. Some will teach that the Civil War was not about slavery. Some will erase our less admirable moments in our history. Some will try to insinuate their personal religious doctrines into the curriculum. But most will focus on math, history, English and science (real science, please). That worked before.

As for indoctrination, Civics is a kind of indoctrination, a good one. A major problem today seems to be that vast numbers of people don’t know how our government works and why. Civics goes beyond the Pledge, and is far more important.

TIM: I believe America is in a mental health crisis. Mental health care is real, it matters, and it desperately needs to be addressed.

FRANK: Not sure exactly what you mean, here, but possibly more than mere depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, to name three conditions for which there are ample mental health resources.

You may be thinking about the staggering fact that boys shooting and killing their classmates is old news. Or that young men are said to be in a deep funk, still living with their parents into their mid-twenties, preferring video gaming to dating, quite possibly because there is a dearth of good paying jobs that would give them both confidence and eligibility. Or that millions of people have joined an anti-vax movement despite decades of safety and success in preventing illness. (Actually longer when you consider smallpox inoculations helped George Washington win our independence.)

Hmm, maybe you’re convincing me. And I don’t have answers.

TIM: I believe guns aren’t the problem - people are. Gun control only infringes on constitutional rights. But I also believe in common sense: background checks are necessary to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill.

FRANK: We're not far apart on your common sense comment, but I would go a bit farther. There’s a clever slogan, “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” I suppose that’s partly true, but it’s more accurate to say, “People with guns kill people,” in far greater numbers than any other form of homicide. If murderers didn’t have easy access to guns, there would be fewer murders. That’s just math. Same for robberies, which are often committed at the point of a gun.

Growing up in Minnesota, you could get a gun permit if your county’s sheriff approved it. It was mostly a formality, but far fewer people applied for one. And yet, weren’t we as free then as now?

I, personally, don’t see the need for one, but for better or worse the Supreme Court has ruled that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right, and so we must live with it. But clearly some people should not own guns, like ex-convicts, anyone with a history of domestic abuse, anyone who has been hospitalized with a mental illness, or children. Open carry is ludicrous. A person might feel safe and powerful walking into a Walmart with a pistol or rifle, but it scares everyone else. Don't the rest of us also have the right to feel safe?

TIM: I’m a conservative because I believe in faith, family, freedom, and personal responsibility.

FRANK: It’s entirely possible to be liberal and also value these things.

TIM: I don’t want a government that controls every aspect of our lives.

FRANK: Who does?

TIM: I want a government that protects our rights …

FRANK: Yes, including the rights to free speech, religion, and protest (1st Amendment); protection from unreasonable searches (4th), and due process of law (14th).

TIM: …secures our borders …

FRANK: Yes, no problem. Ignoring the border was Joe Biden’s big mistake. I don’t know what he was thinking. It was very bad politics and may have cost Harris the election. It was also the wrong thing to do.

TIM: … defends our freedoms, and then gets out of the way …

FRANK: What does that mean, gets out of the way? It’s an abstraction. Government gets in the way all the time, through taxation, for one thing. It makes me buy auto insurance, for another. There are zoning laws and codes for electrical wiring and plumbing. Throughout the south states get in the way of women seeking abortions, an obstacle you may approve of. Getting in the way is rampant, and often necessary.

TIM: … when families are supported …

FRANK: You might start with affordable health care.

TIM: … our veterans are honored …

FRANK: We all honor veterans. It’s not a conservative private domain, and we don’t take a back seat to MAGA when it comes to patriotism.

TIM: … and when our children are given truth, not propaganda.

FRANK: Yes, children should know about the many ways the United States has made the world a much better place. We are a good as well as great country. The founders were extraordinary people who built a nation on the highest ideals, even as some of them thought it acceptable to own other human beings. Our history is not spotless. It includes a gigantic mistake called Vietnam, which cost fifty-eight thousand American lives, two million Vietnamese, and a generation of “walking wounded.” It includes slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Jim Crow South. It includes the internment of thousands of loyal Americans based on their ethnicity. You can’t sweep it under a rug, nor should you. A great nation doesn’t run away from its mistakes. It learns from them.

TIM: We are strongest when Americans take care of America first.

FRANK: America First, in MAGA’s interpretation, is a lousy idea. You could ask Charles Lindberg, among others. You might also look up Arthur Vandenberg, a great Michigander, Republican and pre-war isolationist. After Pearl Harbor he came to support Roosevelt’s and Truman’s every effort at creating international institutions. He coined the phrase, “Politics ends at the water’s edge,” an idea Republicans threw away decades ago. America First rapidly degenerates into America Alone. FDR said, "The only way to have a friend is to be one," something our current administration is learning in its quest to find help in the Straight of Hormuz. Were they still with us, you could also ask Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George H.W. Bush, all Republicans, to explain the value of our foreign aid and our alliances. They were all around for the first America First. I don’t think they’d be happy.