Burke: Are MAGAs soon joining Know Nothings as past history?

By Tom Burke / Herald columnist

The Know-Nothing Party of the mid-1850s (it is what they called themselves) was a political party fighting a “Romanist” conspiracy to usurp civil order by organizing native-born Protestants to attack the civil rights of Irish Catholic immigrants. They even burned down a church in Bath, Maine. When asked about their platform they were instructed to say, “I know nothing.”

Hmmm, shades of Sgt. Schultz on “Hogan’s Heroes”? Or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell when he was asked about the Republican’s 2022 Congressional platform?

It was one of hundreds of American political parties that make U.S. history so rich.

Americans have always named their political parties colorfully, albeit sometimes misleadingly, and their platforms spanned every possible philosophy of governance; from pro-slavery-dissolve-the-Union; to anti-immigrant; to the Communist Party USA.

These parties’ stories are the stories of America; from early in the republic with the Federalists (Alexander Hamilton) and the Anti-Administration/Democratic-Republicans (Thomas Jefferson); then later, the Whigs (Henry Clay) and the Confederate States of American (Jefferson Davis). Around 1900 it was the Bull Moose party (Teddy Roosevelt) and the Progressives (Robert LaFollette). In the 1930s it was the first America First committee (Father Charles Coughlin and Charles Lindberg schilling for Adolf Hitler); not to be confused with the current “America First” movement (Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Green doing the same for Vladimir Putin).

And let’s not forget the old Socialist Party of America (Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas) or the American Independence Party (George Wallace, Jim Crow), the Reform Party (Ross Perot), the Dixiecrats (Strom Thurmond, James [Jim] Crow), the Christian Liberty Party (god); the American Freedom Party (William Daniel Johnson, Adolf Eichmann), the Green Party (Jill Stein), and the Libertarians (Gary Johnson).

Historically, major social currents run through the centuries and party platforms; the fight for basic human rights (i.e., Progressives and modern Democrats); the fight against immigration (Know Nothings, MAGAs); and the religious-right, authoritarian wanna-be theocracies (American Independence, Dixicrat, Christian Liberty Party).

Now throughout our history people fervently, passionately believed in their party’s platform and in their party leaders.

In most cases parties were populated with honest men and women, with honestly-held philosophies, who thought their way to govern was the best way to govern, think either Roosevelt, Teddy or Franklin, Truman, the Bushes, Reagan, Clinton or Obama. However, there’s an anomaly during the Nixon administration as Tricky Dick was a crook and it cost him his job and his honor.

But the great democratic experiment righted itself via Jerry Ford and then Jimmy Carter, et.al.

But in 2016 it regressed via a president who massively lost the popular vote, but — through a combination of Electoral College anomalies, Russian meddling, and Fox News lying — was “elected” and went on to demonstrate he was, indeed, the liar, cheat, thief, grifter, wanna-be dictator and ignorant incompetent many thought he was.

And his administration was a bust, says Fox’s Tucker Carlson, off camera: “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it (Trump’s term in office) because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.”

Today, facilitated by the right-wing echo chamber of Fox/social media/podcasts, we are contending with Trump (again) and a group of vocal, performative “MAGAs” — untethered from the truth and wrecking legislative havoc nationwide — that’s more cult-like than legislative, worshiping a “Dear Leader” dictator-wanna-be, with party leaders willing to make any devil’s bargain to achieve power.

So what to do now, before the 2024’s election? Plenty.

• Pay attention to the Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox News and the revelations that the Fox “presenters” publicly endorsed Trump and the Big Lie while privately saying Trump was, according to Rupert Murdock, “going increasingly crazy.”

• Understand MAGA proposals, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bid to engineer a “divorce” of the Union (completing the work begun by Jefferson Davis); the Freedom Caucus’s debt ceiling ultimatum threatening to destroy our economy; and the Republican goal to kill Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, aid to Ukraine and a women’s right to choose.

• Track, both nationally and locally, the evangelical Christian right as they work to replace the Constitution with their Bible and impose Christian Sharia law across the country.

• Watch DeSantis as he tries to run a mini-dictatorship in Florida; banning free speech, banning books, and banning ideas (and people) who oppose him.

• Decide, if you’re still a true MAGA believer with a few bucks to spare, whether you buy Trump’s new book; DeSantis’s book; contribute to Kari Lake’s lawsuit, the Jan. 6 defendant fund, Kyle Rittenhouse’s fund, Peter Navarro’s legal fund, Mike Lindell’s lawsuits, or Kash Patel’s “2000 Mules” fund — or buy Kimberly Guilfoyle’s steaks or gold or silver from Donald Trump Jr.?

I’ll conclude with some words of solace to the betrayed: Yeah, you’re upset. You listen to Trump, still watch Fox, read MTG and Rep. Lauren Boebert’s tweets, then realize you’ve been lied to. It doesn’t make sense. You’re confused. And you feel you’ve been played.

You have.

But you can regain your political equilibrium. You can stop being a sucker. You can make honest choices based on objective truth, not “alternative” facts.

Just get the real facts! Don’t be a Know Nothing. Read a real newspaper (such as The Herald). Watch and listen to NPR if you still believe the Times, Post, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN or MSNBC are the “enemy of the people,” and stop throwing your money down the Trump, MTG, Lake, Rittenhouse, Rep. Jim Jordan, CPAC grifting sewer.

And hope Tucker Carlson is right when he opines, “We are very close to ignoring Trump most nights. … I truly can’t wait.”

Neither can I.

Slava Ukraini.

Tom Burke’s email address is t.burke.column@gmail.com.