Whatever happened to the idea of the “common good”? It seems to have been washed out by the recurrent flood of hatred, cruelty, lies, and cold-heartedness that marks the current MAGA political era.
Wiping out aid to starving millions around the world by gutting USAID was the opening gun for this policy. Hundreds of thousands of people are already dying in Africa as a result of this murderous policy. Bill Gates, to his credit, called it out in stark terms (speaking of Elon Musk who led the charge): “the richest man in the world is killing the poorest children in the world.”
This cruelty comes home today as 42 million poor Americans will be deprived of their SNAP benefits and go hungry. Most of its recipients are seniors, families with kids, and people with disabilities. Since its origin in depression days, SNAP “has never been disrupted this way.”*
This federal program is part of the price being paid for the government shutdown, which is happening because the president ordered the minority House leader, Mr. Johnson, not to negotiate with Democrats to end the stalemate. Johnson has given Congress an unprecedented five-week vacation in fealty to his master. He has abandoned both his job and his Christian religion to do so.
Much, if not all, of the reluctance to call Congress back into session is due to the determined effort to protect billionaire friends of Mr. Epstein from the release of the files that would implicate some of them. Just as the new book by victim Virginia Giuffre implicated ex-Prince Andrew, who is finally paying a price for his crimes toward underage girls.
How many American potentates in high places are urging Trump to keep the Epstein files forever under wraps? Johnson is doing exactly that by refusing to swear in the newest member of Congress.
Behind the politics of cruelty is also a politics of hoarding. The same billionaires who received a $4 trillion tax relief do not want to see SNAP funds released. With their super wealth, they are buying up American media hand over fist to control news and information.
There are many ways the money can be released, even during a government shutdown. Never before in American history, even during government shutdowns, has SNAP been cut off.
Cruelty has been raised to the level of policy in MAGA politics. Whether one is talking about ripping law-abiding and tax-paying immigrants from their jobs and their families by masked men working for ICE, or about using tear gas and wooden bullets to attack non-violent protestors objecting to these strongarmed tactics, or establishing “inhumane conditions” in ICE facilities where victims are being held.**
Its purpose is to generate fear. Cruelty runs deeply in the veins of today’s politics, where prices for health care are skyrocketing to the point that millions will lose their health protection beginning this month.
Cruelty comes from a very dark and dangerous place in the unexamined dungeon of the soul. Psychologist Erich Fromm, on studying 20th-century history, concluded that sadism and taking pleasure in others’ suffering are born of self-hatred.
The hatred we witness in today’s version of authoritarian politics derives from a deep place of self-hatred indeed.
A wise person once said, “Love others as you love yourself.” Its obverse can easily happen: “Hate others as deep down you hate yourself.” When rage and revenge dominate and forgiveness is lacking, hate has its day. And cruelty. And sadism.
Love is the only cure for hate, and it begins “at home”, as Meister Eckhart put it, “with one’s own body and one’s own soul.” Will we ever learn?
*Jennifer Ludden, “SNAP runs out of money Nov. 1. Here’s what that means in your state,” The NPR Network.
** CHRISTINE FERNANDO, Associated Press, “Advocates allege ‘inhumane’ conditions at Chicago-area ICE facility in new lawsuit,” ABC News.
Banner Image: “You’re in good company; millions of Americans use USDA FOOD stamps.” Flyer from the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service, 1970. Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
How central a role do you see cruelty playing in today’s MAGA politics? How are you spreading light on such darkness? How have you learned to love both self and neighbor?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Meditations with Meister Eckhart: A Centering Book
The Hidden Spirituality of Men: Ten Metaphors For Awakening the Sacred Masculine
5 thoughts on “Is Cruelty the Name of the Latest MAGA Politics?”
Mary Trump’s enclosed video on her uncle Donald Trump’s history of severe narcissistic and sociopathic personality disorder, the source of his lack of empathy and cruelty, is powerful based on personal experience and her education as a psychologist. She is not alone in her mental assessment because 20+ mental health professionals wrote articles with similar assessments in a book called, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” written a few years ago. The ignorance and brainwashing of his MAGA followers, including many nationalist christians, is also evaluated by the enclosed video by a retired Christian minister. The selling of the souls, conscience, and values of the Republican congressional leaders with their sycophantic following of Trump is mainly due to their greed and need to maintain control and power. Many of these personal and societal sinful dynamics and racism are what happened to German society in their mass following of Hitler which we all know led to the cruelty, murder, and destruction of millions of human lives only recently in human history. Do Americans want to follow that same path of destruction?
This is why our personal and communal spiritual journeys and actions are so responsibly important in maintaining Our Faith in the Living Presence of God’s Spirit of Love, Truth, Peace, Justice, Healing, Strength, Creativity, Transformation, Compassion… within and among Us each in our own Sacred Unique Way….
For quite some time, the pervasive question of the manner in which the unsustainable industrial/capitalist paradigm would collapse has inspired different scenarios. I am not aware of any that closely resembles one in which the “beacon of democracy” elects a one-man showman whose antics capture the attention of the media to the extent that it eclipses countless initiatives straight from a fascist playbook and the extreme gravity of a prolonged government shutdown. “E pluribus unum” never meant that government should be reduced to a one-man show. To top it all, vying for the Nobel Peace Prize and resuming nuclear testing defies all norms of coherent behavior. Pat Kahnke and Mary Trump’s videos shed very useful light on the current disaster, thank you for posting them in today’s DM.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer pointed out that fascism’s central attitude is contempt for human beings. The sadism of MAGA fits into that paradigm. We need all of our strength and faith to bear the unbearable and to do everything in our power to resist this trend and to help our neighbors. Donating to food banks and other direct services is one way. Prayer is another. Contacting Congress to keep them accountable is another. We are are called to take action in some way in this dark time. Sitting silent is not an option, in my opinion. It is clear that we are seeing the collapse of democracy in the U.S. and other places, so now we need to respond, not react, in peaceful and loving ways.
Canada’s Jewish prophetic poet musician, Leonard Cohen, wrote a song THE FUTURE a couple of decades ago. The song describes in gripping detail the current events now. He may have been channeling Meister Eckhart when his song concludes that ‘Love’s the only engine of survival’………….
For Americans who want to litigate against sadistic cruelty to people outside the top income brackets, I suggest two organizations: Democracy Defenders (.org) and Defiance (.org). The former has a good track record of victories against lawless American politicians; the latter is new, and may help in referring people to particular legal resources. An example of these groups is Earthjustice (.org), which specializes in environmental lawsuits against governmental and corporate polluters.