Canada shows a MAGA problem
but don't Blame Canada
The Pew Research Center puts the number of unauthorized Canadians in the United States at 160,000. That is a lot of polite people stealing hockey jobs, dealing maple syrup and helping Tim Horton’s take out Dunkin’ Donuts.
The most subversive swing at MAGA in SNL’s 50th anniversary special was Steve Martin calling in ICE agents to deport Canadian Martin Short, while Short offered to “name names” of his fellow travelers, like Jim Carrey, to save himself while being drug off-stage.
The bit echos Trump’s fixation on showy deportations and Roy Cohn callbacks to name names. And Short’s melodramatic exit was comedic. But we all know why the gag worked—white folks will not be deported by Trump. It is absurd on its face. In fact, Trump’s decision to accept Afrikaners as refugees shows bringing in more white folks is MAGA orthodoxy.
Non-anglo MAGA cannot find a more clear example what its anti-immigration position is truly about—racial purity. MAGA wants to keep America white. Attack equity and drive people of color into segregation again, out of sight and away from politics. Keep the undocumented so terrified that they only emerge for work and dare not mix into American society with their fabled “anchor babies“ —which is simply code for non-white, non-deportable children.
The old school Jim Crow racists like George Wallace or Bull Connor were at least honest. No disputing what they meant. No way to rally non-white or not-racist folks to their segregationist cause because these supremacists plainly were against anyone not white. As horrible as such officials were, they sadly score higher on morality than MAGA today because of their perverse candor. Today, following strategy outlined by Lee Atwater back in the Reagan era, white supremacy got a make over. Racial epithets out, code words in. Moreover, issues became more concrete, like opposing school busing or the old standby, fighting against immigration, to broaden an audience. Never talk about what you really mean, at least until you are successful enough rolling back rights so you no longer need to care.
So, unpack this 30 seconds of television and you find a bit of satire revealing a large, threatening truth—the dissonance between what Trump and MAGA says and the white supremacy that drives them on.
And you cannot Blame Canada for this.
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