{"id":4125,"date":"2016-02-19T10:22:28","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T17:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/?p=4125"},"modified":"2016-02-19T12:14:37","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T19:14:37","slug":"on-making-america-great-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2016\/02\/on-making-america-great-again\/","title":{"rendered":"On Making America Great Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It is early days. A long road stretches out between here and November. I know the campaign crazy is bound to get worse before it gets better. But I am already shying away from the t.v. during debates and town halls. I am already flipping away from NPR when I hear certain voices, and scanning past certain things in my newsfeed. It throws me into fits of anxiety and\/or despair, not necessarily in that order;\u00a0the fear-mongering, mis-information and downright hatred that has risen to the top to speak for the collective conscious of our country.<\/p>\n

But there is one phrase, in particular, that makes me yell \u201cI can\u2019t even\u201d to the heavens, and angrily flip off my t.v. (in more ways than one).\u00a0This\u00a0phrase seems to be the mission statement of this election cycle. Stop me if you\u2019ve heard it:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re going to make America great again.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly every politician stumping for the nation\u2019s top office has their own riff on these 7 little words. (A popular variation on this theme is take back our country<\/strong><\/em>).\u00a0And while they all sing a different version of how we are going to get there, the basic tune is the same. It is the tune itself that\u2019s misleading and misguided. And I cannot stand to hear it one more time. Not one more. But if I have to hear it again\u2013and we all do, I\u2019m afraid\u2013then let\u2019s at least take a moment to talk about what is meant by \u201cgreat again.\u201d\u00a0\"punch-316605_640\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Make no mistake: what they mean, when they say make America great again<\/em>\u2013is let\u2019s get another white guy in the White House, as the good Lord and the Constitution intended.<\/p>\n

What they mean is, let\u2019s become a force of global domination; in the name of \u201csecurity\u201d and \u201cfreedom,\u201d but really because we like to be the boss of all the things.<\/p>\n

What they mean is, let\u2019s keep taxes minimal for the top 1%, also in the name of \u201cfreedom,\u201d while we ignore a growing chasm between the very rich and the increasingly poor. And let\u2019s reject any narrative that addresses privileges of race or gender, because if those poor people\u00a0would just work a little harder,\u00a0<\/em>they would be rich too. Because that\u2019s what makes America great. Because freedom.<\/p>\n

Every time someone says they will \u201cmake America great again,\u201d this is the undercurrent of rhetoric that is implied. And it is making me absolutely crazy.<\/p>\n

Because a country cannot possibly be great when it de-funds public education; when it invests\u00a0as little as possible in its children, while also mortgaging the very air they breathe, the water they drink.<\/p>\n

A country cannot possibly be great\u2013it cannot possibly\u2013when it contributes to creating\u00a0the worst humanitarian crisis of\u00a0all time <\/em>in another part of the world; and then turns its back <\/a>when refugees of that crisis seek sanctuary within our borders.<\/p>\n

And speaking of borders, a country cannot be great if its main spokesperson talks only of walls, and never of bridges. Even the Pope has our back<\/a> on this one.<\/p>\n

A country is not great when it speaks only of its own interest, its own security, its own wealth, and its own grasp of power\u2013while millions starve\u00a0in Ethiopia<\/a>.\u00a0A million children, (<\/em>maybe two million)\u00a0who are not our problem because we are busy\u00a0\u201ctaking back America,\u201d from the black people, the women, and the gays. There is no greatness in letting the rest of the planet starve, \u00a0as\u00a0the direct result of climate change, which the \u201cgreat nation\u201d not only continues to perpetuate, but also continues to deny.<\/p>\n

There is no greatness in violence; in force that shamelessly risks\u00a0innocent lives<\/a>\u00a0to rid us of a single enemy.<\/p>\n

There is no greatness in exclusionism. There is no greatness in patriarchy, or manufactured scarcity, or the ongoing litany\u00a0of fear and anxiety.<\/p>\n

There is nothing great about these empty words that promise nothing but continued racism, xenophobia, and protection of the rich and powerful. That is not greatness. It is cowardice, pandering and narcissism, in all its ugliest forms. And, God help us, it is winning by a landslide.<\/p>\n

And since it is winning, I do not expect it to change. I expect that we will hear this same song, over and over and over again, until election day and beyond. I don\u2019t have an apt response, or a 9-point plan to make it all go away. But let\u2019s at least call it what it is. When you say, \u201cmake America great again,\u201d what you really mean to do is take away the rights of many, and keep power for the few.<\/p>\n

Namely, you.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is early days. A long road stretches out between here and November. I know the campaign crazy is bound to get worse before it gets better. But I am already shying away from the t.v. during debates and town halls. I am already flipping away from NPR when I hear certain voices, and scanning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1154,"featured_media":4126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1188,1148,1164,9,1117],"class_list":["post-4125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-economic-justice","tag-gop-debate","tag-presidential-campaign","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-syrian-refugee-crisis"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Making America Great Again<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is early days. A long road stretches out between here and November. 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