Starvation and Its Scapegoats

The banner on the USDA website, blaming the loss SNAP benefits on Democrats wanting to fund “healthcare for illegal aliens and gender mutilation procedures” hits like a gut bunch. They are fanning the flames of hatred against our communities to excuse denying food and healthcare to millions, while they take away jobs from those working to provide the food we all eat. MAGA wants you to forget that they are the ones fomenting a crisis that will plunge millions of us into suffering and death. Instead they want you to hate who you are told to.

They are hoping that you will turn away from your sense of morality and compassion to join them in fear. Fear is all they understand. Fear is all they will ever have, because their politics have failed repeatedly and will fail again; the only question is how many have to die before we recognize it.

When fascists take control of government, they know that they have to move fast to stop any opposition that might rise to expose the weakness that lies at the heart of their movement. They know that have a fanatical base that will believe any lie and can be called on to create mayhem in the streets. They know that they can blame whoever they like and send the cops in to clean up their mess. They know that they have skilled brazen liars and propagandists who will tell us, with authority, that black is white. But they also know that all that isn’t enough.

MAGA knows that all of that amounts to a tenuous grasp on power because the public will quickly turn on them when the promises that they made don’t pan out. They know that many of the millions who voted for them did so hoping for better times and despite their misgivings for the moronic narcissist in chief. They are already seeing those who supported them in the election turn against them now as the market price for their crops plummet, the price of groceries go up, the premiums and deductibles of their health insurance sky rocket, and the wave of layoffs continue to grow. They know that there are many, so many more of us than there are of them. What seems like an invulnerable enemy is actually a craven paper tiger, one that has no choice but to continually feed their failing Ponzi scheme with more cruelty and bluster.

They may feel secure behind their instruments of coercion and bigoted propaganda, but we can all see that it is really hubris. Don’t be afraid to call them out for what they are, let people know that going against the spirit of the regime is possible, preferable, and what must be done.