I am not what anyone would call a "MAGA" supporter - at least as that slogan is currently understood. The link above will take you to Wikipedia, which discusses this slogan. "MAGA" stands for "Make America Great Again." Wikipedia notes that the slogan has been "most recently popularized by Donald Trump." Those identifying themselves with the "MAGA" effort are Trump's "political base."
I am definitely not part of Donald Trump's "political base." However, while I am on the opposite side of most things where Donald J. Trump is concerned, and while I am hoping that he is not elected, once again, to the presidency, and while I am planning to do whatever I can to insure that result, I actually think it would be a pretty good idea to "Make America Great Again." I have said that before, too.
What do you think? Don't you think that's a great goal and objective? What citizen of the United States of America wouldn't want America to be "Great" - now, or again, or however you'd like to put it? The problem, of course, is that we do have different ideas, here in the United States, about what would "Make America Great." Furthermore, the "Again" part of that slogan is a big problem.
"Again" suggests that there was a time, in the past, when America was "Great," but that things have now changed. Frankly, a lot of people have a lot of difficulty with the idea that America used to be "Great," because they don't think it really was.
How about slavery - and all of its aftermath, which is still with us? Not so great! How about the fact that women could not hold office, or even vote, until early in the twentieth century? Not so great! How about the appropriation of a huge part of the North American continent by immigrants from Europe and beyond, who savagely killed off the native tribes that were here long before they came, all in order to perfect the appropriation of the land by those newcomers, who came to call themselves "Americans"? Not so great! How about the way we have treated the natural environment? How about killing off the buffalo? How about the way workers have been treated throughout our history? How about health care and income inequality? How about the military interventions that the United States has made, all around the world? How about the Vietnam War (that's one that affected me personally)? NOT SO GREAT!
My earlier blog posting featuring a photo of a "MAGA" hat said that the slogan was "aspirational." And, in fact, what has actually been "Great" about "America" has been its aspirations, has been its stated aspirations, which are best understood as commitments. Actual performance has not uniformally lived up to the promises we have made to ourselves.
When I say that I want to "Make America Great Again" (and I do), I have a couple of things in mind. I think that the slogan refers to our revolution, and specifically to the following statement of intention made in our Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all persons are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, and that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Those who signed the Declaration of Independence pledged their "Lives," their "Fortunes," and their "Sacred Honor" to the realization of the statements made in that document. To "Make America Great Again," we will need to do the same thing, now. Realizing the commitments made in the Declaration is how to "Make America Great."
We have, in fact, been down this road before. When it became ever more obvious that slavery would have to be abolished, to fulfill the promises we made, as our nation was born, a great Civil War ensued. This was, at bottom, a war between those who wanted the nation to continue to strive for what was promised at the inception, and those who were prepared to abandon the idea that we would found our nation on the proposition that "all persons are created equal."
As the Civil War drew to a close, Abraham Lincoln made clear that the Civil War was, in fact, a war that recommitted and rededicated the nation to the pledges made in 1776:
From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Make America Great Again? I say, "Yes."
But let's understand what that "Yes" means. That "Yes" means that we must, again - individually and collectively - dedicate ourselves, and our lives, and our fortunes, and our sacred honor - to the proposition that a government of, for, and by the people will not be abandoned. It means that our actions, as we make and carry out national policy, will be premised, without fail, on the recognition that "all persons are created equal," and that every one of us has an "unalienable right" to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
To Make America Great Again, we must recall what was stated so plainly in 1776. To realize those objectives, just mentioned, is in fact, is the whole reason that "Governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
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