The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) always contains disturbing revelations, but this year they outdid themselves. As a sample, right-wing activist Jack Posobiec opened the Conference by declaring:
“Welcome to the end of democracy. We are here to overthrow it completely. We didn’t get all the way there on January 6, but we will endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this.” He held up a cross necklace and continued: “After we burn that swamp to the ground, we will establish the new American republic on its ashes, and our first order of business will be righteous retribution for those who betrayed America.”
Well, what a lovely sentiment. Despite almost 200 years of observing humanity’s embarrassing foibles, this humble spirit can’t get over just how blatant these MAGAs are about their intention to dismantle America as we know it. It’s hard to know where to begin, but once again I’m struck by their shameless audacity, their presumption that the rest of us will all sit idly by as they destroy our democracy—seemingly in favor of a theocracy (I’d say autocracy but note the reference to a “cross necklace”)—and burn our country to the ground.
The reason these people hate democracy and want to overthrow it is because they know they are a minority whose far-right, fascistic agenda can no longer prevail in a democratic system—unless, of course, they lie, cheat and steal (elections). What I’ve never understood about the “Big Lie” or the January 6 insurrection is why MAGAs believe it’s acceptable to try to steal an election and, in effect, disenfranchise millions of their fellow citizens. Donald Trump and his MAGAs clearly exemplify the adage, “if someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
Who in Hell do MAGAs Think They are, Trying to Hijack America for Themselves?!
MAGAs not only want to dictate to the majority, somewhere along the way they decided they own the trademark on “America” and fervently believe that people who share their right-wing views are the only “real” Americans inhabiting (Sarah Palin’s) “real America,” presumably a place filled with white people who wish to return to a time before the Civil Rights era and relive “Happy Days” forever while they cling to a cross necklace. (Except for the ones still reliving “Little House on the Prairie” while clinging to a cross necklace.) The big question, of course, is what constitutes a “new American Republic,” the country they intend to force down our throats, and what will satisfy their obsessive desire for “retribution”? I fear the answers aren’t pretty.
A good portion of their wish list is outlined in the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” including an almost 900-page “collective” document entitled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” screeds that lay their intentions bare and definitely show us who they are. The 400 so-called “conservative scholars” who contributed to the latter’s authorship presumably think they have a “mandate” to “deconstruct the administrative state” even if it requires stealing the election.
Although it remains unclear just how this MAGA cult of real Americans has been “betrayed” and how far they will go to achieve satisfactory “retribution” for their many grievances, they make no secret that the remedy requires dominating and controlling the rest of us, our freedom be damned. A project of that sort clearly entails taking things a good deal further than what’s included in Project 2025. That’s where it gets scary—and why your humble spirit is glad to be up here rather than down there with you mortals.