After Trump became the improbable 45th President of the United States (2016), I tried hard to fathom the enigma that is MAGA. Six years later, I’m still mystified how millions of Americans fell under Donald Trump’s spell. There isn’t one overarching variable that can explain the MAGA phenomenon. However, there are variables worth contemplating that helped create MAGA.
Michael T. Nietzel wrote in a Forbes article on Sept. 9, 2020, “According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of U.S. adults 16 – 74 years old — about 130 million people — lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a six-grade level.” How difficult would it be to manipulate someone who can’t read at a middle school level? Not all Trump supporters fall into this category but many do. And those who do are more susceptible to manipulation by unscrupulous individuals.
Racism, bigotry, sexism, etc., are variables that envelop MAGA. Sociologists David N. Smith and Eric Hanley (University of Kansas) reviewed the 2016 American National Election Survey and produced a research study with this assessment; “If you look at white people who voted for Trump — both those with college degrees and those without — and identified everybody with a high level of resentment toward minorities, women, and Muslims, as well as those who want an arrogant, assertive leader … the vast majority of Trump voters share those sentiments.”
The Fox News variable: Trump supporters have made Fox the most watched news network on TV. But how accurate is the information that Fox broadcasts everyday? A defamation lawsuit against Tucker Carlson can answer that question.
Karen McDougal, former Playboy Bunny, had a 10-month affair with Donald Trump (2006). McDougal was paid $150,000 dollars by David Pecker (National Enquirer publisher and Trump friend) for her salacious story. Pecker deliberately buried McDougal’s story to prevent further damage to Trump’s already beleaguered 2016 presidential run (see Billy Bush video). McDougal sued Fox’s “poster boy,” Tucker Carlson, after he claimed that she was trying to extort Trump.
On Sept. 24, 2020, federal Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil (Trump appointee), dismissed the lawsuit against Carlson writing, “As defendant notes …”this general tenor” of the show should then inform a viewer that he is not “stating actual facts” about topics he discusses and is instead engaging in “exaggerations” and “non-literal commentary.” What does this mean for Fox viewers? You can’t believe a word coming out of Fox News.
The “stolen election” variable: In 2016, Donald Trump made the same bogus assertions about a rigged election as he did in 2020. Trump claimed in 2016 that the “Deep State,” “Fake News,” and rampant voter fraud had rigged the presidential election against him. Notwithstanding these forces supposedly allied against him, Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States. So much for Trump’s rigged election proclamation.
Despite overwhelming evidence that the 2020 presidential election wasn’t stolen, Trump backers refuse to accept this reality. Consider these facts: Attorney General Bill Barr told Trump that, “the president’s theories about a stolen election were BS.” The Department of Justice investigated every credible charge of voter fraud and found none. Chris Krebs, Under Secretary of Homeland Security said, “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.” Sixty-one times courts ruled against Trump’s voter fraud claims. All 50 Secretary of States ruled that the elections were valid. In “Battleground” States where Joe Biden won by small vote margins, recounts and audits were initiated. These reviews confirmed that Biden won.
Prior to the presidential election of 2020, Trump and his sycophants were already conspiring to declare Trump the winner. Steve Bannon said on Oct. 31, 2020, “And what Trump’s going to do is just declare victory … But that doesn’t mean he’s the winner, he’s just gonna say he’s the winner.” On Nov. 4, 2020, Trump stated on cue, “We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”
This Abraham Lincoln quote sums up the conspiracy theories of MAGA: “I believe that it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is true or false, is guilty of falsehood.” It’s high time the MAGA crowd stopped the masquerade about a “stolen election.” Biden won, fair and square.
Paul Guimond lives in Royalston.