The MAGA hat and the accelerating crackup of post-America

Let me preface anything I'm about to say about MAGA hats with a reiteration of what ought to be clear to any and all LITD readers. I find Donald Trump more objectionable than praiseworthy.

I'll tell you what. I'll just reprint what I had to say about him on a post the other day (about his weird remarks on his emergency declaration):

Look, LITD's position on Donald Trump is very well known. It's pretty much the same as that of, say, Jonah Goldberg, Ben Shapiro, Kimberly Ross, Susan Wright, Noah Rothman, Joe Walsh and Brad Thor.

The Very Stable Genius has orchestrated some absolutely excellent policy moves since he's been president:

• rolling back regulations in a number of areas
• giving his full support to the right-to-life movement (even if its is a reversal of position that looks suspiciously like political calculation)
• superb judicial appointments
• pulling out of the JCPOA
• pulling out of the Paris climate accord
• pushing Congress to cut taxes
• moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem
• recognizing Juan Guaido as the Venezuelan president

But there have been some very bad moves as well. It's possible history will prove me wrong, but I think playing footsie with Kim Jong-Un is one of them. Imposing tariffs on trade partners certainly is. Endorsing paid family leave goes in this category.

Then there are his personality and character flaws. His reckless mouth. His Twitter habit. His belittling of anyone who gives him less that unqualified support. (The way he singled out Mia Love for humiliation is unforgivable.) His utter lack of interest in reading or cultivating relationships with great minds.

Now for some fresh content: There are millions of Americans who think the above list of good moves outweigh his boorishness, shallowness and inconsistency. They are greatly pleased that much conservative policy is getting implemented. They are elated that the Left's power has been rolled back to a considerable degree. 

They wear a particular kind of hat to show it. It is their right. They can wear it in nearly any public place. 

But there are some thugs out there who think otherwise.

Like this punk:

A Vans store employee at the Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, Kansas was terminated after saying “f*ck you” to a 14-year-old customer who wore a red MAGA hat into the store.

The incident occurred on Sunday and its aftermath was recorded and posted to social media. In a video, the teenager’s mother confronts the employee, then takes the issue up with the store manager.

“He did nothing to you,” the mother told the employee. “What did you say to my son, to my 14-year-old?”
“I’m sure he’s heard it before,” the employee responded.
“Where’s your manager?” she said. “Let’s go.”

The mother then told the manager that the employee told her son to take off his hat. “Then he said F you to my son. My son said nothing to him, did nothing …”  

Or this goon:

On Saturday in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a man from Tennessee allegedly pulled a gun on a man wearing a Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat, stuck the gun in the MAGA-hat-wearing man’s face and reportedly threatened, “It’s a good day for you to die.”

Yes, it's important to include the word "allegedly," but there are witnesses.

And let us remember that the two utter frauds who recently made news with pathetic identity-politics-hustling stunts, Nathan Phillips and Jussie Smollett, also made the MAGA central to their moments of basking in the spotlight of leftist adulation.

There is no more concrete example of the Left's determination to stomp into the dust anyone who reserves the right to embrace a different worldview.

As much as I understand what Ben Sasse and Arthur C. Brooks implore us to begin doing in their books (Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal, and Love Your Enemies: How Decent  People Can Save America from Our Culture of Contempt, respectively), I think we may be in a phase of our current soft civil war that makes that a pretty dim possibility.

This is not to say that as individuals we shouldn't cultivate hearts of wisdom and humility. It's one thing, I would posit, that distinguishes actual conservatives from Trumpist boneheads.

But we cannot tolerate a societal climate in which people are subjected to thuggery for a hat merely exhorting all who read it to make America great again. The layers of symbolism with which Leftist haters imbue this simple phrase embroidered on simple red fabric are in their head and nowhere else.

So we must also cultivate the hearts of righteous warriors.

We've let far too much erosion occur already. It must stop at the hat on our fellow citizen's noggin.