I’ve spent a lifetime listening. I’ve sat at kitchen tables where the Formica was peeling and in mahogany offices where the air felt too thin to breathe. This thing we call the “MAGA movement.” They talk about a Carpenter from Nazareth, a man who didn’t have a stone to lay his head on, yet they’ve hitched their wagons to a man who plates his toilets in gold and builds shrines to his own name. We’re living in a moment where “Christianity” has been stripped of its marrow and turned into a costume. It’s no longer about the Sermon on the Mount; it’s about a cultural badge of office. It’s a way of saying, “I’m one of us, and you’re one of them.”
The Theology of the Private Jet
You look at the GOP platform today, and you don’t see much of that “least of these” christian business. Instead, you see the worship of the 1%. These are the folks who believe in infinite growth on a finite planet. They see a private jet not as a way to get from A to B, but as a way to hover above the rest of us in fly-over country, above the traffic, above the taxes, and certainly above the “common” struggle.
Now, the Good Book I remember says it’s easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom. But the modern movement tells you that if you aren’t rich, you’ve somehow failed the test. They’ve replaced the “Enough” philosophy with a “More” pathology.
The Fear That Feeds the Beast
Why does a union pipefitter or a girl in a cubicle feel the need to defend a billionaire’s tax cut? Because the system has made being “average” a death sentence. In this country, being average means you’re one medical catastrophe, one large car repair, or one rent hike away from the sidewalk.
The MAGA movement preys on that terror. They tell you that the reason you’re scared isn’t because the guy at the top is hoarding the grain; they tell you it’s because the immigrant is trying to steal your crumbs. It is a philosophy of hatred dressed in a Sunday suit. It is the direct antithesis of the man who shared loaves and fishes.
The Power of Being “Un-buyable”
There is a quiet revolution brewing in the USA. The “De-Growth” movement and the folks choosing “Public Luxury” over private excess. It’s the idea that we don’t need a world of five-bathroom houses if we have world-class public parks.
When a person decides they have enough, they become the one thing a demagogue cannot handle: un-buyable.
If you don’t care about the status they’re selling, and you aren’t afraid of the poverty they’re wielding, their power evaporates. The demagogues rely on your greed and your fear.