MAGA Jesus

Republican Jesus is old news. He’s been replaced by the more hateful, more violent MAGA Jesus.

by Justin Rosario

A decade ago, I wrote one of my first articles, “Republican Jesus”, for the now-defunct website Addicting Info. It was, by far, my most popular piece, not because it was well-written (I cringe when I read my saved copy now) but because it articulated exactly how broken the Republican Party was.

Republican Jesus was the twisted version of Christ the right worshipped. He loved greed, White people, guns, and the Confederacy. He also hated the poor, minorities, liberals, and science. He was a snapshot of where the GOP’s base was back then.

For a lot of people who had only recently discovered social media and been exposed to information sources outside traditional media outlets, the existence of Republican Jesus was something of a (pun intended) revelation. Until then, they had only known “bothsiderism.” Congress was to blame. Washington was gridlocked. Both sides, both sides, both sides.

They could tell something wasn’t right with that analysis because while Democrats are not saints (and no one ever claimed they were), they were clearly not the equivalent of the raving lunatics on the right. I was far from the first to point out that Republicans were vile but that article was read over three million times and I got more than one death threat. Clearly, it hit a nerve. 

Here we are, a decade later, and while my “Republican Jesus” has more or less vanished from the internet, very little of it is disputed by mainstream journalists. It’s now widely accepted that the GOP is the party of racism and greed and anti-science. 

But Republican Jesus is old news. He’s been replaced by MAGA Jesus.

MAGA Jesus Take The Wheel...

After taking five weeks off from social media and the news, I was pleasantly surprised (OK, I was kind of shocked) to discover that we, as a country, are still talking about the January 6th terrorist attack on the Capitol. By way of comparison, we moved on from the Sandy Hook massacre in about a month. Look it up on Google Trends. It’s depressing.

But not 1/6. Not only are Democrats still, justifiably, making a huge stink about it, but people are still being arrested and Republicans are almost certainly under investigation for aiding the terrorists. Amazingly, the press hasn’t started screaming that this is boring and why can’t Democrats talk about something else?! Even more stunning is that the press is still onboard with talking about the attack as terrorism instead of pretending it was just exuberant White people getting carried away. 

But despite what I can only assume to be an excruciating concession on the part of the media, they’re still not really talking about MAGA Jesus. 

MAGA Jesus is not Trump although you’d be forgiven for thinking so. Trump certainly thinks that and so do many of his most ardent followers. But Trump is simply the Moses of MAGA Jesus and when he keels over some time in the near future from his diet of grease and salt and rage, the cult will quickly realize that Trump is easy to replace. Hate always is.

No, MAGA Jesus has been waiting for a long time to consume the Republican Party. He used to infect the Democratic Party and was disappointed the Civil War didn’t go his way. He tried again with the rise of the KKK but couldn’t maintain the momentum. 

But then the GOP gave him an opening that was too good to resist. A wedding of corporate greed to white nationalism with an added dose of religious fanaticism? That’s how that nice fellow in Germany got things done. MAGA Jesus had found his new home and he was welcomed with open arms. 

Thou Shalt Kill In My Name

Fascists have been trying to overthrow America almost since fascism was first invented in the 1920s. A group of industrialists and bankers got together in the 1930s to plot a military coup against FDR. It failed before it started because they picked the wrong retired general to lead it. The 1/6 attack is just their latest attempt and it will certainly not be the last. MAGA Jesus and his disciples have plans for America.

The nonsense about Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss is just smoke and mirrors. The base needs to be kept in a state of constant blind rage but the rest of the country needs to be kept distracted from paying attention to MAGA Jesus. 1/6 was a dress rehearsal. A dry run. It was proof of concept that a (relatively) small group of untrained imbeciles could be used as a weapon to almost topple the government of the most powerful nation on the planet.

Now imagine those same imbeciles but organized and trained. MAGA Jesus is imagining it right now and has been for years. We call it the “militia movement” which is a nice euphemism for “domestic terrorist network.” We know this because militias like the Three Percenters and the Oathkeepers swore on the graves of their mothers and their honor as American soldiers that they were only arming themselves and training to prevent tyranny in the United States. Yet, the second an actual tyrant abused the power of the government, they cheered the prospect of a fascist regime.

Over a dozen of these self-proclaimed super patriots were among the wealthy rioters attacking the Capitol. And unlike the idiots around them, they were trained and organized. Not organized enough to keep their communications secure so we know for a fact they were planning this assault, but enough that they presented a very real and very lethal threat to the future of the country.

There are hundreds of violent terrorist groups just like the Oathkeepers and Three Percenters with hundreds to thousands of members and even more devoted fans.

So, yes, MAGA Jesus has an army of violent terrorists ready to do his bidding. They are not interested in compromise or meeting us halfway. We are either tools of the Great Jewish Conspiracy, baby-killing monsters, or race traitors. Or, more likely, all three. 

The actual made-up reason for them to go to war with the rest of society doesn’t really matter. They could insist we’re extra-dimensional slug people from the distant future and they would need just as much proof as they were loading us onto the cattle cars. Fascism is all based on lies and the truth is murdered in broad daylight. 

It’s important we understand this because it underscores that we are not dealing with rational people. Millions of MAGAs believe, really believe, that Trump won the election, meaning anything their terrorist wing does to correct this injustice will be completely justifiable. The Big Lie is the foundation of the Church of MAGA Jesus.

Blinded By The White (Nationalism)

MAGA Jesus, like Republican Jesus before him, loves the rich, the Confederacy, White people, and guns. Not much of that has changed. But the hate Maga Jesus holds in his heart is qualitatively different.

MAGA Jesus hates anyone who isn’t White because MAGA Jesus is a white nationalist whereas his predecessor was a white supremacist. The distinction between a white supremacist and a white nationalist is crucial and is often ignored. They are not interchangeable. To understand how dangerous MAGA Jesus is, you really need to understand and internalize this distinction.

A white supremacist is someone who thinks white people are inherently better and believes they should be in a position of authority over non-white people. White supremacy is extremely harmful, but generally speaking even rabid white supremacists are perfectly fine with having minorities around as long as they know their place.  

White nationalists, on the other hand, cannot tolerate the existence of non-white people in what they perceive to be their country.

A decade ago, Republicans would loudly denounce Nazis. Now they just kind of shrug when they show up at their rallies. They’ve even started occasionally name-dropping good ol’ Adolph and “unintentionally” using Nazi iconography. Nothing to worry about there.

But MAGA Jesus isn’t just about racial hatred. He also hates women. Republican Jesus wasn’t a fan of half of the human race but MAGA Jesus despises women to the point of violence. On top of the ongoing war against women’s rights, MAGA Jesus has taken the Men’s Right Activist/Incel movement into his flock.

If you’re still blissfully unaware of MRAs/Incels, think of them as the gender equivalent of Nazis or the KKK. They talk about women the way the absolute worst racist you know talks about Obama. Yes, it’s that bad. And worse. In the world of MAGA Jesus, women are fully subordinate and men are owed sex. Rape culture doesn’t exist because rape is not a crime. It’s the norm. 

Finally, MAGA Jesus hates democracy because democracy is for the weak. The strong take what they want and when a country lets Black and young people vote, terrible things happen. Therefore, in order to uphold the Constitution and the American dream of freedom for all (all in this context meaning “White men”), fair and free elections have to end. 

Sure, that sounds crazy but in a country where the party of MAGA Jesus is a rapidly shrinking minority, the only choices are A. Rig the elections and permanently end democracy, B. Stage a violent coup and permanently end democracy, or C. Surrender to the democratic will of the majority. 

Republicans have been working on Plan A for decades and when that still didn’t work, they gave Plan B a shot. Now it’s a race to see if they can still successfully implement Plan A or B before they’re forced to accept Plan C.

More likely, they’ll go with their back up plan of “Burn it all to the ground”, but we’ll see.

Apocalypse Now-ish

Republican Jesus was not great for America but MAGA Jesus can only end in violence. He has a deathgrip on the American right wing and he will not let go. Domestic terrorism is the lifebood of MAGA Jesus and the more the FBI and DHS cracks down on the sprawling terrorist network, the more martyrs MAGA Jesus will have to spur his devoted followers on to further atrocities. 

It’s been a while since I wrote about what the future looks like for America and it’s...still not great. MAGA Jesus has a real taste for political violence now. Sure, a few hundred followers are facing prison time but, so far, no one important has paid the price for attempting to stage a coup. MAGA Moses is still free to spread the Gospel, the high priests are still in Congress, and the Church of Fox stands strong. 

The Republican Party and the right wing media instigated a deadly attack on America and none of them are in jail. The message that sends is that they can do it again and again until it works or we elect a president who will do what is necessary to take away their ability to wage war on the nation. Until then, the violence will continue.

It’s not all terrible, though. We’re still talking about the attack and so is the press. If the right continues to be the vile and violent cult MAGA Jesus demands, it seems possible, almost probable, that it won’t be another decade before the mainstream media catches up. It may take just a few more terrorist attacks before we’re all talking about the dangers of MAGA Jesus. 

It sounds trite in the face of so much coming pain but in order to solve a problem, first, you have to admit you have one. For decades, America has absolutely refused to acknowledge it has a white nationalist problem. Or, to be more specific, White America has refused to acknowledge this. When Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building and murdered over 160 people, including 19 children, almost no one talked about his ties to white nationalism, just that he was “anti-government.”

But the coming terrorism will not be so easily dismissed as merely “anti-government”. And god help the journalist that tries to play the “economic anxiety” card after some of the terrorists flew to the attack in a private jet. These, and the coming attacks, were motivated by racial hatred and fascist propaganda.

It is imperative that we cut through the blather of the right wing machine and keep talking about MAGA Jesus. Every death, every horror, every nightmare has to be laid at his feet and Republicans have to be made to take responsibility for all of it. They welcomed MAGA Jesus with open arms and now we have to nail them to his cross.

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Yes, Britain Is A Racist Country

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are not lying about racism in Britain. I grew up there and have experienced it first hand.

(image via CBS)

by Ben Cohen

I had very little interest in the Royal Family while growing up in Britain. I was aware of who the prominent members of the family were, but from an early age instinctively felt it was a ridiculous institution that was completely removed from reality. From the ludicrous crowns and gowns to the bizarre way Royal Family members spoke, the Windsors were as alien to me as an un-contacted tribe in the Amazon rainforest. My family weren’t anti-Royal Family per se, but they were never discussed at the dinner table, and we didn’t buy newspapers that gave them much attention.

I vividly remember the death of Princess Diana in 1997 and the global grieving it inspired. I also remember the astonishing fallout between supporters of Diana and Royal loyalists, but I could never really follow the details — mostly because I had never been invested in any of the characters. While obviously sad, I had no real understanding of who Diana was, so was not particularly affected by her death.

The recent Royal Family drama involving Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is again sparking world wide attention. Media outlets around the world are devouring the conflict and using it for their own profit driven purposes. The American media in particular appears to be deeply invested in the drama. Doyenne of daytime television Oprah Winfrey even managed to bag an interview with Harry and Meghan to give their side of the story of what appears to be an incredibly nasty, racially tinged spat.

I’ve seen some clips of the interview and have tried to follow the ins and outs of the drama, but again cannot find enough stamina to wade through it all to develop a considered opinion about it. It all seems very sad, but given we are still in the midst of a global pandemic and millions are being thrust into devastating poverty, the lives of the unfathomably rich and wealthy hold even less weight than they did before.

One thing that has struck me about the conflict though is the overwhelming nastiness Meghan Markle has been subjected to. To even the most casual observer, it seems extraordinary how much vitriol is leveled at Markle, and in the wake of her interview with Oprah, that vitriol seems to have grown exponentially.

While undoubtedly wealthy and privileged, Markle is a black woman who has had to navigate a powerful family with deep historic ties to brutal colonialism and racism. Both Meghan and Harry have described the racism Meghan has been subjected to by both the tabloid press and the Royal Family. In a particularly shameful example of dehumanizing racism, an unnamed member of the family apparently expressed concern over the skin tone of their son Archie. Markle was apparently so distressed by her experience in the UK that she was driven to the brink of suicide.

Predictably, wealthy white men have leapt to the defense of the Royal Family, discounting their experience and insisting Markle is making it up. According to Piers Morgan for example, Markle’s claims about racism have no merit because, well, he doesn’t think they do. According to Morgan, Markle isn’t entitled to have a mental health crisis because she is a wealthy celebrity.

I have no idea whether Markle is a drama queen or a bully (as members of the Royal Family have claimed), but her and Harry’s claims that she has suffered racial discrimination by the family are almost certainly true.

How do I know this? Because I grew up in the UK and know firsthand how racism permeates every stratum of British society.