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    No Kate Andrews, We Are Not All MAGA!

    By 6 Mins Read
    Image credit: ShutterStock

    On July 13, 2024, at a Trump rally in Butler, PA, gunfire rang out, resulting in the shot heard around the world, and most specifically by Donald Trump’s ear. A failed assassination attempt was made on the former president and current presidential candidate. The details are still unfolding, but the attempt did result in a minor injury to Trump’s ear and the fatal execution of the shooter, as well as a rally attendee. However, the real injury was to the barely attached thread that is the United States. In response to the shooting, Kate Andrews, a writer from the Spectator, pinned an article titled, “Today, we’re All MAGA,’” and today, I say to that, Bitch Please, and in fact, just Bitch.

    I am not, nor will I ever be, MAGA, and to make that statement is not only reductive but comes from the perspective of a privileged person whose rights are on the line, but not nearly as much as other marginalized groups. 

    Trump’s assassination attempt was not a sad event for many Americans; look no further than to Black Xitter for evidence of the other America, an America that will not even pretend to feign sadness over the possible death of someone who has championed bigotry. That is exactly what is happening. There are two Americas and Andrews is clearly unaware of the peril that the other side of America will face if Trump secures the presidency again. Her America is Xitter users like @WalmartThomist who quote xitted a picture of Trump’s post-assassination attempt, with his fists in the air, as if the draft dodger is some American hero; he writes, “I want a dictator.” His xweet had more than 36,000 likes.

    Image credit: @WalmartThomist/X

    There is nothing that I have in common intellectually or politically with anyone, let alone 36,000 people, who think living under the dictatorship of a rapist, racist despot, let alone a dictatorship at all, is a good idea.

    While the most humane thing would be to be empathetic to Trump during this time, how empathetic can you be to someone who does not seem to have much humaneness?

    Corey Comperatore was fatally shot at that same rally, and while Trump has made a statement since the incident, Comperatore’s death was not mentioned, but sure empathy. No one is perfect, but Trump is not some sort of complex leader who has his minuses that may have voided some of his extreme pluses. There are no extreme pluses; he is an unrepentant rapist and bigot whom the Republican party has rallied behind to become a quasi-dictator that will strip many of the non-white, non-male citizens of this country of their rights. Trump and his political allies are positioning themselves to scale back many of the progressive policies that have been put in place post the Civil Rights Era, making the United States a nation run by white male conservatives. 

    Kate Andrews, a woman, who you know has a job, and I presume reproductive organs, is someone whose rights are also in jeopardy, but not nearly as much as mine. Throughout her article, in a thinly veiled attempt to seem impartial, Andrews pairs Democrats with Republicans as if their agendas and actions are remotely comparable. Andrews writes, “Trump’s biggest fans and biggest critics should not hesitate to come together on this issue.”

    This issue she is referring to is political violence.

    Trump has never denounced his neo-Nazi supporters for obvious reasons. While people are marching for their rights, alt-right groups are showing up to instill terror; those are not the same things. There is a big difference between the group trying to take away human rights and the group defending theirs. Democrats and Republicans are not two sides of the same coin. She adds, “[t]here is going to be a lot of pressure now for Democrats to tone down their rhetoric about Trump as a ‘dictator’ and ‘despot’: the kind of words people use around the world to justify political uprisings.” He is absolutely a despot who is attempting to be a dictator. HE TRIED TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT; HOW MUCH MORE OF A POLITICAL UPRISING COULD YOU HAVE? Additionally, why is calling a thing a thing seen as political agitation? Her attempt to make a kumbaya and rage-bait article underscores the very danger that a Trump presidency presents. MAGA is divisive, so to write from a perspective that MAGA cultists are somehow deserving of a unity that they specifically eschew is reductive and pacifies the party that has initiated the strife simply because they are currently the most injured. No one is required to splint fingers broken by the person whose hands are around their necks. Trump caused this. He and his allies have incited this violence; this is their doing. To say that we are all MAGA is the equivalent of saying “We are all Nazis” after Hitler died. This alleged assassination attempt will negatively affect the other America, the America that Andrews does not live in, that America is now directly in the line of fire from MAGA cultists looking for retaliation. 

    Trump’s attempted assassin was a white male Republican, the people who are a target for the retaliatory violence are not. MAGA’s slogan, originally made popular by Ronald Reagan, whose assassination attempt was mentioned in her article, is a nostalgic reference to the white male conservative rule that crushed any marginalized group that dared to exist with dignity. MAGA is NOT representative of any equality, so it is stupid to equate everyone under its f*cked-up political stance.

    There is no honor in identifying with your oppressor, so no, Kate, today, we are not all MAGA, nor were we yesterday or any days to come. Bitch.

    Kyla Jenée Lacey is an accomplished third-person bio composer. Her spoken word has garnered tens of millions of views, and has been showcased on Pop Sugar, Write About Now, Buzzfeed, Harper’s Bizarre, Diet Prada, featured on the Tamron Hall show, and Laura Ingraham from Fox News called her work, “Anti-racist propaganda.”. She has performed spoken word at over 300 colleges in over 40 states. Kyla has been a finalist in the largest regional poetry slam in the country, no less than five times, and was nominated as Campus Activities Magazine Female Performer of the Year. Her work has been acknowledged by several Grammy-winning artists. Her poetry has been viewed over 50 million times and even used on protest billboards in multiple countries. She has written for large publications such as The Huffington Post, BET.com, and the Root Magazine and is the author of "Hickory Dickory Dock, I Do Not Want Your C*ck!!!," a book of tongue-in-cheek poems, about patriarchy....for manchildren.

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