Don’t Fret, MAGA

“OMG! The Healthiest Man Ever To Become President made no public appearances over Labor Day weekend! Donnie must be dying! Those swollen ankles and bruised hand are a sure sign of his imminent demise! Who will lead the MAGA Movement when Donnie is buried alongside Ivana next to the first hole at Trump National, Bedminster, NJ (his Happy Place)?”

Don’t fret, MAGA. White Christian Nationalist Racist America always has a standard-bearer. In 1962, Alabama Governor George Wallace was elected on a platform of “Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever”. George blocked the entrance to the University of Alabama on national TV to prevent its first Black students from enrolling. Even with no Fox News, Wallace became the darling of what would become MAGA America.

How popular could a rabid segregationist be nation-wide? Wallace formed his own political party for the 1968 presidential election. He gained 9.9 million of 73.2 million votes cast that November. He garnered 45 electoral votes carrying Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Nearly 10 million Americans voted for a president who would require separate White and Colored drinking fountains. Even JD Vance wouldn’t go that far.

Wallace ran for president again in 1972, this time as a Democrat. He was doing great in the primaries with 3.8 million votes vs. anti-war George McGovern’s 4.5 million. Nearly as many Democrats preferred “Segregation Forever” to ending the war in Vietnam.

Then Wallace was paralyzed by an assassin’s bullet at a Maryland campaign rally. He nearly died. His presidential campaign ended. Nixon’s Southern Strategy picked up the racist banner from Wallace’s Democrats. Republicans now dominate the South.

Before Trump, before the Tea Party, before Fox News, there has always been a MAGA element in American politics. After Trump, there will be another Racist Christian Nationalist.

Sometimes, I’m embarrassed to be an American.

By Ed Dufton