What do you do after you've won ...

 I’ve been pondering this for a while.  

Because it appears to be a very real problem for would-be social justice warriors and assorted activists who can’t seem to grasp that they’ve already won what they were fighting for. 

And almost nobody is trying to take back what they’ve won. I think a lot of us have been wondering for quite some time why they continue fighting ever more vehemently for things they already have. It’s as if they can’t accept a victory on the bigger issues. 

Maybe that’s why they increasingly focus on what to most Americans are relatively meaningless and inconsequential things.  Like issues that affect a minute portion of the population.  Or things most of us really don’t care all that much about. 

Mainly because we realize those things – the bigger things – have already been resolved.  And accepted by most folks. 

I suppose if your entire life is built on being angry about something, anything, it must be difficult to give that up.  If you lose your “cause,” and your righteous indignation, because you’ve won, what do you have left? What gets you up in the morning and makes you feel alive if there’s no longer a purpose for your anger? And there’s really nothing important to be angry about anymore?  

Maybe your anger over your cause was the defining aspect of your life.  You felt like part of something. Part of a larger group. You belonged to a club of other angry people that embraced you. And it felt so virtuous because you deep-down felt you were important. 

As long as whatever you did was for the cause, it was righteous.  Now, that’s gone.  But you really miss the excitement of lashing out against whatever.  You’ve lost a part of your identity. 

This has been a very difficult transition for a lot of people.  

The answer for many has been to invent new and increasingly weird causes to fight for to get that old feeling back.  That fire of anger within. That outrage. That reason to attack anew. 

Consider the plight of some gay rights extremists as an example.  

The gay community fought relentlessly for years against job and housing discrimination, for the right to marry, and for acceptance. They won.  Their basic rights were codified and enforced. That part’s over.  Instead of celebrating their win, a small yet highly vocal group of gays became increasingly provocative over issues most other gays frankly didn’t want to be identified with.  

Issues that in some cases were absolutely repellent to most Americans, including significant segments of the gay community, especially when imposed on children. Like having drag queens perform simulated sex and various suggestive routines in front of children.  Like having naked men, or others flaunting giant prop vaginas, as part of a public “pride” parade attended by families. The gay community has won a lot of well-earned rights. But being an obnoxious asshole for no apparent reason except to shock isn't one of them.

Or encouraging teachers in public schools to present materials to those as young as six to learn about blowjobs, anal sex, masturbation, and the use of sex toys.

I suspect most gays don’t approve of meddling with children, much less experimenting on them or trying to convince kids before they even hit puberty that they are gay or transgendered.  Sure, they’d like to protect gay adolescents from ostracism and bullying, as would any responsible adult.  But they are being overshadowed by a relatively small number of extremists.  

There’s an enormous risk for the overall gay community from the actions of these extremists. They risk losing the acceptance from the public they fought so hard to attain over the decades; the acceptance they have already achieved. 

To be completely frank, today most Americans don’t give a damn whether someone is gay or not.  Nobody cares if gay couples share a room, or show affection in public, or get married.

That’s something I had to impress on a gay couple we went with on their first cruise ever. They were pleasantly surprised to see so many other gay couples together on the ship.  They shouldn’t have been. But they were prepared for the worst from crew and other passengers, because they're historically conditioned to expect discrimination just because they are gay. 

Of course, none of that happened because, again, nobody cares.  

But they were also disappointed that the nightly LGBTQ event the ship held at one of the bars rarely attracted any other gay singles or couples.  Most nights they were the only ones.  

Not that there weren’t any gay and lesbian people, couples, and groups traveling together on board.  There were.  They hung out at the bars like everybody else. They were highly social with everybody at the bars and restaurants. None of them started conversations by telling anyone they were gay, lesbian or whatever, nor did anyone who wasn’t start out by saying they were straight.  

There’s no need for that anymore. Gay people are fully in the mainstream. 

They are largely assimilated.

And maybe that’s what bothers the activists so much.  They’re afraid of losing the feeling of being “special.” Of belonging to a private and exclusive club.  They are no longer entitled to special attention and special treatment.  They’re just like everybody else. 

When you’re like everybody else, broader cultural rules apply.  Most people don’t make a big deal about how they have sex and with who.  Nobody is that interested whether you’re gay, straight, bi, or vegan, (although vegans can be particularly annoying).  

That’s one downside of assimilation. It diminishes the power of dividing people into artificial subgroups simply for political purposes.  So it can break down barriers to getting along, not by ignoring differences, but by embracing the commonalities shared by the larger group.  

That scares a lot of people who have so much invested in belonging to a group or idea they assumed was vital to who they are and how others see them.  

And some will do anything to avoid that.  Even if it doesn’t really matter anymore. 

Republicans: Embrace Make America Great Again ...

 There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make America great again. 

 After the disaster caused by Biden and his cohort of clowns in his administration, it’s something we should all be in favor of.  Yet somehow Democrats have tried to make the desire to make America great again (or “MAGA”) a horrible, loathsome thing.

How strange.  

They usually add “extremists” whenever they use MAGA as an adjective.  

So anybody who supports making America great again must be an extremist.  Are they all part of an insidious plot to trample on the Constitution to seize power? Are they trying to keep political rivals tied up in court? Are these extremists removing opposition candidates from ballots? Or using the FBI, DOJ, CIA, and IRS to harass and intimidate ordinary citizens? Have they co-opted the media to promote false narratives, censor dissent, and hide the truth? 

If so, then they really are dangerous extremists. A danger to our democracy.  

Oh wait. That’s what Biden and the Democrats are doing. Never mind. 

MAGA for Democrats and the media has become their shorthand to imply that anyone who endorses it is essentially evil.  Really evil.  As in bringing back slavery and lynchings, repealing voting rights, persecuting gays, and forcing women to die from back-room abortions. That kind of pure evil.  Not only that, but also white supremacists, bigots, racists, homophobes, xenophobes, and religious fanatics who would replace our Democratic government with an Old Testament Christian theocracy. 

Run, of course, by white men. Think Taliban without the beards.  

And destroy democracy as we know it.  Or as Democrats think it should be which, frankly, has far more in common with classic fascism than they realize.  

The reason they hate the actual words abbreviated by MAGA so much is blindingly obvious. 

Making America great again speaks to what our country once was; a country many of us still remember fondly.  It also speaks to restoring the promise that made it great and attracted legal immigrants from around the world – that America is in fact a land of opportunity where anyone willing to work hard can succeed.  A great melting pot of races and cultures, with freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and most of all, the freedom from government tyranny. 

It's the antithesis of the America many of us feel we have now.  

It’s no longer fashionable to have pride in our country.  Or to think of our country as a discrete nation. The people running things – in education, government, and even the military – are completely out of touch with the citizens they’re supposed to be working for.  They act like an aristocracy above the rest of us, immune from any accountability for their actions. 

If we’re all brutally honest in recent years there’s been a concerted effort to diminish everything good we’ve ever done here and abroad. No other country in the world has done so much to raise people out of poverty, free them from tyranny, improve their lives, and eliminate diseases that shortened their lives. Not just here, but around the world. 

We have long been one of the most generous and benevolent people.  

That’s who we are as a nation.  You’d never know it from what is taught today in our public schools and our once-elite institutions of higher education.  

What always set us apart from many other countries was that while we may come from different backgrounds, cultures, races, and religions, we somehow shared a broader identity as Americans.  Irish Americans, Polish Americans, Italian Americans, African Americans, whatever, but ultimately Americans.  In times of crisis or war, we stood together. As Americans. 

At least we once did.  

Yet no longer do we seem able or encouraged to bury our differences and come together for the common good.  Instead, we are constantly driven apart by race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and an unending list of evermore infinitesimal traits. 

We’ve never been more divided as a nation since the Civil War in the 1860s.  

By whom is the question, and Democrats are afraid that by now the American people have an excellent grasp of who is responsible. And appear ready to retake the country.  

The motto of our country is out of many, one. We seem to have forgotten that.  Democrats dismiss this because the power to divide is their favorite tool to maintain control.  

Make America Great Again is a call to reassume our traditional role as the greatest nation in the world, politically, economically, and morally.  To our history as a nation of laws, not men.  To stop our infatuation with petty differences and to once more unite as Americans.  

Sadly, Republicans allowed MAGA to become a dirty word. What they need to do is simply to refuse to allow the Democrats and the media to use it as a weapon. So always spell out what MAGA actually stands for: Make America Great Again.  

And fully embrace it.  Wrap your collective arms around Make America Great Again.  Always use the full wording: never the lazy acronym.  Force the media and Democrats to say out loud that they are opposed to Make America Great Again, which they are. Make them admit they don’t think America is that great and can never be again. 

Then use that against them. Broadcast that simple message everywhere. 

The American public is starting to realize how much they are hated and derided by those in power. And they are. Biden and the Democrats – and especially the media – don't care how ordinary Americans live and work, what challenges they face, and how angry they are.  

The reality is that most Americans – particularly those accurately described as the forgotten, by Trump – are embarrassed at the state of our nation, our schools, and our intentional degradation of our status on the international stage. They’d like to see us return to being a reliable ally and a force for good here and abroad, that, in fact, always tried to practice what we preached. 

Most Americans want to feel proud of America again. Proud to be citizens.  

They want to Make America Great Again.  Nothing wrong with that.