"What the hell is the matter with us?"

Has America already been lost?

Michael Steele, the former Republican Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and MSNBC commentator, posed a question to viewers in the wake of the recent attacks on two Minnesota legislators and their families. Steele asked, “What the hell is the matter with us?” Indeed.

Steele was especially irked by the behavior of Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah when Lee posted a barrage of offensive falsehoods on social media that served to mock the tragedy. “ Steele rattled off the many crises we have come through in our history, including 911, and then asked, “Is this who we are?”

It got worse when Trump sarcastically refused to call Gov. Tim Waltz to offer condolences. This sort of behavior makes me profoundly sad—and angry—with those who suggest by their inaction that everything is fine.

Photo by Ozan Safak on Unsplash

I am favorably impressed with James B. Greenberg, an anthropologist who writes on substack.com. Greenberg asserts that we must understand MAGA as a worldview and, not a transient wedge issue.

So the question becomes: what can be done?

First, we must stop treating this as a matter of messaging or fact correction. MAGA is not a misunderstanding. It is a counternarrative. And counternarratives are not defeated by evidence—they’re displaced by more compelling visions. Democracy’s defenders must offer something better than a return to normal. We must offer belonging. Purpose. A story of inclusion that doesn’t require someone else’s exclusion. One that says: you matter, your town matters, and your voice counts.

Second, we must reinvest in the civic infrastructure that makes pluralism possible. That means public schools not as test-prep factories but civic institutions. Local journalism, libraries, youth centers—spaces where strangers become neighbors. Democracy doesn’t self-repair. It must be rehearsed, cared for, renewed.

Third, we must hold accountable those who profit from decay. MAGA leaders aren’t revolutionaries. They are opportunists in patriotic drag. They rage against elites while cashing donor checks, dodge taxes while preaching sacrifice, and stoke chaos to consolidate control. They flourish not despite neoliberal disinvestment, but because of it—converting economic betrayal into moral grievance.

Fourth, we must resist the temptation to mimic their tactics. Authoritarian movements thrive on moral erosion. They want us to become cynical, to abandon the very norms we claim to defend. That means we must uphold civil liberties even for those who oppose us, reject caricature even when used against us, and protect the rule of law especially when it’s inconvenient. The goal isn’t just to win power. It’s to preserve the conditions under which power remains contestable.

Finally, we must think long-term. This is not a season. It is a generational struggle. MAGA is not an anomaly—it’s a symptom of deeper failures: inequality, isolation, disinvestment, the corrosion of civic trust. We are confronting not just a man or a movement, but the vacuum they’ve filled. The space left behind when democracy was reduced to transactions and identity to resentment.

Understanding MAGA is not about sympathy. It’s about strategy. And strategy begins by recognizing that we are not merely defending norms or countering lies—we are contesting meaning itself. The fight ahead is not only for the machinery of government. It is for the moral imagination of what government is for—and who gets to belong in its promises.

—James B. Greenberg, June 19, 2025

Trumpism must be defeated and erased from our national conscience. It will not be easy. I still believe we need to convene something like a truth and reconciliation commission when this is over. South Africa grasped that when apartheid came to an end. There must be accountability for what has been so egregiously wrought. I want to know who was pulling the strings because I do not believe for a moment that it was all Donald Trump! His erratic behavior and visible lack of perceivable strategy has convinced me that he is incapable of anything other than the cruelty of the moment.

I have read that many of the defendants in the Nuremberg Trials worse sunglasses during the proceedings. The courtroom had been brightly lit to facilitate filming and still photography. The purpose of the trials had been to punish the guilty and to teach an historical lesson. It’s not that I wish to “punish” MAGA, but I do wish to shine the bright light of civic decency on a disgraceful period in our history. We shall see if there is the political will to do just that. Frankly, I doubt it.