DECEMBER 9, SATURDAY

INCLUSION

MAGA has been on my mind all year, but particularly these days as the polarization becomes more intense and Republicans insist on excluding marginalized people: women and the control over their own bodies, gay or trans people, immigrants fleeing persecution or hunger, ignoring distant countries being invaded.

Suddenly it occurs to me that celebrating American traditional values, which MAGA people feel are being threatened, is not only not a bad thing but a way of feeling good about yourself and your identity. It is fine to honor manly strength and drive, the feeling that white people have done good things, the feeling that strong traditional family life is a good thing, that the USA is a beautiful place where people work hard and go to church on Sunday and celebrate freedom.

The only problem for me is when this leads to marginalizing everyone who doesn‘t fit into these traditional categories. And this becomes particularly acute when people who are marginalized insist on being included as equals and people with traditional values resist this inclusion. Men have control over their bodies with much of medicine being male centered. Women want to be treated the same way. Whites have all kinds of opportunities and privileges and respect, Blacks and

Browns want the same. USA citizens, almost all are descended from immigrants who wanted freedom from poverty, violence and oppression and newer immigrants want the same. Straight people are not discriminated against, gay and trans people want the same.

And for some reason many whites feel that the demand for equal treatment is a threat. Feminism is a threat to masculinity, gay is a threat to straight, Black equality is a threat to White identity, new immigrants are a threat to established older immigrants, any belief that is different from fundamentalist Christianity is a threat to fundamentalist Christianity.

If people with traditional American values could realize that people with different values are not a threat, that pluralism protects and enhances fundamentalism, that empathy is more enlivening than shutting out and demeaning others then we could all live in harmony with each other, it would seem.

How to show MAGA people that the things they are proud of are both good and are protected and that those who are left out just want to be treated the same way?