As a lifelong Republican but staunch “Never Trumper,” I have often wondered what the slogan “Make America Great Again” actually means, but I haven’t really paid it much attention. But now that Donald Trump has been elected president with a majority of not only the electoral vote but also the popular vote, I feel obligated, as a citizen, to understand what the MAGA movement is trying to tell us.

To begin with, talk of making America “great again” means that there was an earlier time when America was actually “great.” When was that? Was it 1945, when the might and sacrifice of American men and women had escaped economic depression and brought victory in World War II? I don’t think anyone would seriously claim that this was 1939, when American isolationists held their peak influence. Was it 1992, after the fall of the Soviet Union, but before the rise of China and when the United States was the world’s sole superpower? Was this during Donald Trump’s first term, before COVID hit? Or another period?

I imagine MAGA supporters would agree that a country cannot be “great” by only being interested in foreign affairs. A “big” country must also be “big” at home. So when was America “great” at home and what specifically made it “great”?

Was this the post-Civil War period, when the Union had been preserved, slavery abolished, America was becoming an industrial power, and immigrants were welcome? Remember what happened to the Native Americans.

Was it the 1950s, when the middle class was expanding? Remember that Jim Crow ruled the South and women had few options outside of the home.

Was it in the 1960s that the civil rights movement and Brown v. Board of Education brought new political and educational opportunities to many Americans who had long faced discrimination?

Was this during Donald Trump’s first term before COVID hit? Or another period? And what were the specific things that made America “great” then?

It is important for us to know the answers to these questions in order to understand how Donald Trump and the MAGA movement want to change America to make it “great” again.

So I challenge a MAGA supporter to do the public a significant service by writing a guest commentary explaining two things. First, when was the time when America was “great” that you aspire to be? Second, what made America great then and what do you aspire to do again? You can add whatever you want. I look forward to your explanations.

Ed Rutan

Pinebrook

Related Stories