{"id":51570,"date":"2022-05-13T16:57:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T16:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=51570"},"modified":"2022-05-13T16:57:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T16:57:00","slug":"maga-this-maga-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=51570","title":{"rendered":"MAGA this, MAGA that"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Oh, how I find it so interesting the way some expressions take on lives of their own, how they become words suitable for conversation.<\/p>\n

Take the word “MAGA.”<\/p>\n

It’s an acronym, of course. It stands for Make America Great Again. The Donald Trump campaign for president in 2016 ran on that slogan. Trump managed to win in the biggest political fluke in U.S. history.<\/p>\n

Since then, the term has become a noun and an adjective.<\/p>\n

“I am going to a MAGA rally,” someone might say.<\/p>\n

Or, “How about that MAGA sign?”<\/p>\n

How about, “Can you believe the number of MAGAs out here?<\/p>\n

The acronym as it’s pronounced does roll off the tongue. I prefer to avoid using it whenever possible. Except perhaps for purposes of making a point on my blog, which I am attempting to do at this moment.<\/p>\n

To be candid, the term — and, more to the point, what its spell-out version tells us — just pisses me off. To say we are going to “make America great again” is to suggest the country has been less than great.<\/p>\n

America is a great nation. It’s been great for a long time. We emerged from World War II as the planet’s pre-eminent military and economic power.<\/p>\n

What’s more, the juxtaposition of MAGA in the presence of certain symbols fills me with rage. Picture a MAGA follower toting a Confederate flag or much worse, parading under a swastika. Do you get my drift? Good!<\/p>\n

I get that Donald Trump’s campaign didn’t coin the phrase that has become an acronym. Bill Clinton said the same thing while campaigning for POTUS in 1992.<\/p>\n

Still, it has taken on a life of its own. It’s become a dangerous metaphor for anger and paranoia.<\/p>\n

It’s weird, man.<\/p>\n

I just want to proclaim that the only time I use the term MAGA is to deride it … and those who adhere to it.<\/p>\n

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n

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Oh, how I find it so interesting the way some expressions take on lives of their own, how they become words suitable for conversation. Take the word “MAGA.” It’s an acronym, of course. It stands for Make America Great Again. The Donald Trump campaign for president in 2016 ran on that slogan. Trump managed to … Continue reading MAGA this, MAGA that<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[7419],"class_list":["post-51570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-maga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51572,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51570\/revisions\/51572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}