On the surface, it sounds like a nice slogan. It sounds hopeful of repairing damage and doing good things to make this country great. Again.
But the slogan suffers from a couple big problems. First is that it's unclear about when in United States history it was great that we're trying to go back to. Is it when slavery was legal? Is it when black folks and women couldn't vote? Is it when government stopped representing the people and became a plutocracy? Is it when we made the mistake of including religious language in anything legal (like when "under god" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance, or when "in god we trust" was added to coins)? Is it the great depression (because we do seem to be trying for that one)? What point in our history are we actually trying for?
The second problem is that the person who is using that slogan for his presidential theme is not only failing at making this country better, he seems to be actively working against the country. He's not trying to make America great. He's trying to make money for himself and for other super-rich people in this country at the cost of our environment, our economy, our foreign relations, our internal relations, and our future. There are three big things this country was pretty great about at some points in our history, but he's definitely actively working against those.
#1: Religious Freedom
This country was never a Christian nation... nor should it be. The founding fathers were building something intended to be free of government sponsored religion. Government is specifically supposed to be agnostic to religion. I put the link there so people understand what agnostic means. Actually, I'll explain too: It just means in this case that government can't acknowledge religion; support religion; oppress religious belief; or in any way favor one religion over another. It has to act like there's no religion. And that's a really good thing.
If somehow, the country decided that Ancient Egypt had it right, and passed law that we all had to pay homage to the sun god Ra on a weekly basis, and that all churches would be torn down, and rebuilt as places of worship for the various Egyptian gods... Christians would be pissed off. So would I really... but I'm trying to make the point that while many vocal Christians seem to think this country is a Christian nation and would be better if more of their religion were applied to government and public services (for example in public school). But that's absolutely false. Christianity is not deserving of favoritism. No religion is. Any religion that becomes a state religion would mean government is suddenly not representative of the people, and it would mean that it is unfair to everyone who doesn't believe in that religion.
But vocal Christians: take heart. Separation of church and state is good for you too. You just don't realize it because you think your religion should have favor and that laws should be made to favor your beliefs. But separation of church and state (part of the first amendment) protects you from having to deal with someone else's religious beliefs. It means that government is a body that tries to be fair to all of us. And you can practice your religion at home or at church or where ever you like as long as you don't infringe on anyone else's rights. That's a really good thing. You just need to really think about the fact that Christianity has held a place of favoritism and that it shouldn't.
Now how does this relate to MAGA? Between having Pence as his Vice President; playing up his religious side; and putting the religious fanatic DeVos in charge of Education in the country, Trump is sending the message that he's trying to put religion into government. If DeVos and people like her succeed, this country will get worse in terms of its ideal, and in terms of education. Forcing (for example) science teachers to teach that intelligent design is as valid an explanation for the universe as the Big Bang, Abiogenesis, and Evolution means the dumbing-down of our children. When a child is told that Intelligent Design is how the universe came about without any evidence of that being the case (and no: the Bible is not evidence. It does not have supporting evidence itself. Faith is not a valid source of evidence), that child is taught that believing things an authority figure tells you is necessary and to not question it. If that child asks for evidence, the only thing that can be offered up is faith.
Then when that child is faced with having cancer, faith is the tool they turn to. Faith that God will get them through it. The people who will actually try to get them through it are medical professionals from researchers to nurses to doctors. Without people looking for evidence based knowledge in our world, we wouldn't have medicine (even old world medicines were scientifically discovered... it worked or it didn't, and the things that worked stuck around); we wouldn't have electricity to use; we wouldn't have cellphones; we wouldn't have cars; we wouldn't have air planes; and we wouldn't computers or the internet. Pushing faith on our children ruins the inquisitiveness children naturally have. It tells them to shut up and just believe what they're told. Faith is a crutch and an anchor.
Don't get me wrong. I believe in an individual's right to have faith in their religion so long as it doesn't infringe on anyone else's rights. And I understand how having faith in a higher power can console a person dealing with rough circumstances. But making faith into a value for our government and public schools is horrifyingly damaging to all of us.
And if Trump's goal is put more religion into our country, I dislike his version of making America great.
#2: Inclusiveness
We proudly called ourselves the melting pot nation. We had immigrants from all over the world and that was a good thing. Our strength came from diversity. We all worked together to make something better. Now... I'm not pin-pointing this because there's almost always a nationality or categorization that got stepped on. Africans (including Americans with ancestry from Africa today), Mexicans, Irish, Japanese, Jewish, LGBTQ, and probably more I'm not thinking of at this moment. But this country's ideal of being inclusive and being strong by its diversity is awesome. And it's one way we should be trying to make this country great.
But in Trump's MAGA plan, we have the demonization of Muslims, Mexicans, the Media, and Science (and anyone who values science). I'll talk more about science in the next section, but instead of Trump being a leader who tries to bring people together, he's doing everything he can to divide us. Our government is set up currently to help him starting with the two party system. If you're a Republican, you hate everything the Democrats stand for, and if you're a Democrat, you can't believe the stuff the Republicans are doing right now with their majority in every part of government.
Trump is talking up the problems with people coming here illegally and distorting it wildly so he can use it as a flash-point with his followers. He's suppressing the research his own people did as best he can about how good illegal immigrants are for our economy. Not only that, he plays up the lie that they are a drain on the economy. He's also claiming that the people coming here are criminals of the worst sort when evidence of crime research suggests that illegal immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than citizens.
What does Trump get out of this? He gets to have a topic he can work his followers up about at any time he likes to distract from other awful stuff he's doing. He's using it as a tool to divide us. And what harm is there in being mad at people coming here illegally? The people coming here are human beings... like us. They have crappy circumstances and they're asking for help. Where is our compassion? Where is the compassion that Christians are supposed to have those in need? It's really weird to see heavily religious people taking the exclusionary stance of kicking out people that need help. But Trump is managing to play the religious card and the callousness card at the same time.
Why aren't we looking at our immigration policy? Why isn't that the bad guy here? Does anyone really think that immigration policy is protecting us from terrorist attacks? Really?
And if you want to say that allowing more people into the country means a drain our economy... look again at the research. Here's an article that goes over it. Make sure to read the whole thing. Or do your own research. A Google search for something like "illegal immigrant effect on economy" should bring up a number of sites you can check. Doing your own research is better than taking my word for. But the point is that our economy is not suffering from illegal immigration.
To make this country great, we need to make our immigration policy less complicated and time-consuming. And we need to stop being racist or discriminatory. No more trying to make it legal for Christians to discriminate against LGBTQ in business. No more shouting about illegal immigrants. No more blaming all black people just because some black people commit crimes. White people commit crimes too. They're just favored in our justice system and they get away with it more. Like Brock Turner because of Judge Aaron Persky. That's flat out bullshit is what that is. Oh here we go... what I was looking for. You can do searches to verify the facts yourself, but here's an article comparing Turner to Cory Batey. In one case we have a white guy serving three months for the same crime a black guy is serving 15 to 25 years for. Unacceptable.
And Trump is pushing for divisions. He's actively telling his followers to hate the media, to hate illegal immigrants, and to hate democrats. It's in televised lives speeches. He's not even trying to hide it. He's just a power for dividing us, when we should be standing together against him. What a piece of crap our president is.
#3: Science
We used to be a super power in the world due to science, technology, and education. We led the world. We put a man on the moon.
But now we have people like Trump and Scott Pruitt (who thankfully has left the EPA) who are actively denying science in favor of loosening restrictions on polluting industries... so they can make more money. The coal industry? Really? Let them pollute more so they can continue being profitable? Sweet Baby Jebus on a Stick... what kind of dumb ass solution is that? I know there are coal workers who's jobs depend on those companies. But what about a government offered amount of money (we're doing bailouts all over the place, why not do it this way?), that comes with the requirement that the company transition to clean energy. Pick a different energy source like wind, water, geothermal, solar, or whatever qualifies as clean energy, and the company gets money to support the pay of its workers and to support learning the new technology. All its workers get training in something they think they can do and want to do in the new company. It's scary but the transition has to be made. It's not an option.
Anthropogenic (Human Influenced) Climate Change is real and it's a danger to us now, to our children, and to future generations. The denial of it only benefits the super-rich assholes that own and run the fossil fuel industry. Here are a couple NASA articles: Consensus and Evidence. As always though... do your own research. The only people denying it are those with something to gain from the truth being hidden. And Trump wants the money that comes with supporting big-oil.
So, instead of a country excited about science and making leaps and bounds toward a brighter future, we have an administration that denies science in favor of profits for the super-rich, and pushes religion in school instead of critical thinking. The MAGA plan is to stop people from trusting science. This is horrendously bad for us. When fanatically religious parents of sick children let their children die because medicine is against their religion... we've hit a terrifying low for faith versus science. This shouldn't be a thing. But you can find plenty of news stories about it.
And that's the America Trump is pushing... he's pushing for people to lose trust in science, and he put the idiot DeVos in charge of educating our children.
Conclusion About MAGA
The MAGA agenda and strategy is terrifying because people seem to think Trump is doing good things. It's astounding to me that his actions and their results are being ignored by his supporters. And I didn't even talk about his awful tax plan. A brief mention of it: It benefits the super-rich. It give the middle and lower classes a tiny amount of money back, but hamstrings government programs that middle and lower finance people need. So, for those super-rich assholes getting millions back to hide overseas and take out of the economy, we get an illusion of benefit covering up a big loss in support. The man is a slimy car salesman, and he sold his supporters on a lie. It's the entire basis of MAGA. Tell people something they want to hear or give them an enemy to be angry about, and then do things that benefit the people in power at the cost of the people our government is supposed to represent. It's big damn lie.
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