CommentsONE MAN’S OPINION-Why is Pogoism American but MAGA is un-American? Before answering the question, we need to expand it to include, “Why are identity politics un-American?”
These are hard questions since we do not really know what constitutes Pogoism, nor do we know what “American” or “un-American” mean. Most people know that Identity Politics refers to the Democrat Party’s Group Rights platform where people forget about their individual inalienable rights in favor of banding together under some group label. The Dems’ Identity Politics is the counterpart of the GOP’s White is Right cadre except the Dem Party openly promotes its racist approach, while the GOP pretends to shun such base appeals to ignorance and bigotry.
What is Unique to America?
From a political philosophy standpoint, our nation is based upon every individual having certain inalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A government is legitimate under the Declaration of Independence to the extent it secures our individual inalienable rights: “That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” -- Declaration of Independence, 1776.
Pogo pointed out that We the People are the enemy. No one forced Americans to have slavery or later to institute segregation. No one forced the Dem Party to erect its own denial of individual inalienable rights and instead to lure people into their Group Rights coalition where a person’s rights rest upon the percentage representation of his group in a particular school or job category.
MAGA – a Nonsense Word
Trump’s forte is branding and MAGA was a great success. A euphonious word with no actual meaning, but with a lure of greatness and paranoia. Make America Great Again was directed at Whites, especially those who believe that only White people can be true Americans. The word Again implies that a former Greatness has been lost and that Trump and his White is Right contingent will restore the nation to Greatness.
If MAGA were American, then Trump would be preaching self-reliance and mutual respect for every individual. rump would be evoking memories of collective barn raisings and how by working together individuals came together in hard times. FDR said the “only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Trump’s MAGA says the only thing we have to fear is Mexicans.
How horribly demeaning to Americans to pretend that things are going badly in America because of impoverished people south of our border. Trump’s MAGA projects an image of Americans who are weak and infantile in their blaming of innocent people. The Declaration recognized the harm the British crown was doing to the colonies and then we set about building a better country.
At the same time, the Dems’ Identity Politics supports Trump’s underlying MAGA a premise – someone else is responsible for all your troubles. That is always the real point of Group Rights – someone else is to blame.
Under the Declaration and under Pogoism, every individual’s inalienable rights are paramount and that logically requires each individual to maximize his/her own potential. Of course, there are injustices. We suffer under a racist and corrupt judicial system which is both anti-Black and anti-Semitic depending on which judge is presiding. Thousands of Blacks are unfairly incarcerated, but innocent Blacks are freed due to the hard work on individual cases through the Innocence Project.
Let’s remember that it was in connection with Earth Day, Pogo reasserted the truth that had been set forth throughout Western Civilization in the Torah and the Greek philosophers, i.e. our individual virtue determines the quality of our society. As Shakespeare wrote, “The fault, Dear Brutus, is not in the stars but in ourselves.” In connection with Earth Day, Pogo was pointing out that our environmental problems were the result of our own actions. So too, We the People have created our economic and political problems.
Both Political Parties Shun Individual Initiative
Group Rights hates the individual and has no use for inalienable rights. Both the GOP and the Dems want each person to identify with some group and then blame “The Other” for all their troubles. Group Rights are a fantastic way for the 1% to keep Americans divided and fighting against each other. Neither party exhorts each person to be as great as he/she can be. The best one gets is some jingoistic claim that its group is pure and holy, but rhetoric that quickly degenerates into the hatred of some other group. Trump would have us believe that transgenders imperil the military. Trump loves to victimize the most vulnerable among us. Should we all not stop and ask ourselves: “What sort of person am I that I allow scorn and hardship against another person due to his/her gender identity?”
What is MAGA about but victimizing the most marginalized people? At the same time, we can ask “what is great about an America that preaches that minorities should see themselves as victims and not self-actualizing individuals?”
Pogoism Provides an American Foundation to Build a Better World
Inherent in Pogoism is the need for each individual to maximize his/her talents in pursuit of Tikkun Olam – individual daily acts to further the creation of a better world. Pogoism is not Pollyannism. Pogo was standing in the midst of the environmental mess which we had created, but he did not blame the Mexicans, the transgenders, or old dead white men who founded the nation. Instead, he called upon each individual to recognize his/her own role in the present world.
We Have to Recognize When We are Manipulated
Neither political party wants us to think. Their handmaiden is the media which bombards us with emotional memes devoid of fact. Both parties want us to forget that wise action is based upon study. Study requires facts, but the media gives us sensationalism and scapegoats. But as Pogo would remind me, “We are at fault for allowing them to pollute our minds.”
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams’ views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
