Kari Lake giving a speech in front of a Confederate flag perfectly sums up the Treasonous MAGA
This is Pure MAGA
Donald Trump loving Kari Lake—who is the frontrunner to be the GOP’s US Senate nominee in Arizona--made headlines this week for giving a speech standing in front of Confederate Flag. As the New York Times reported on Friday, footage of Lake’s speech confirmed that she delivered a speech in a store with a large Confederate flag positioned behind her as she repeated lies that Trump actually won the 2020 election. In fact, she bragged to the Trump loving crowd while standing in front of the Confederate battle flag, “I am the only person running for U.S. Senate, either Republican or Democrat, who truly believes there was fraud in the election in 2020-- does anyone else here believe that?”” In response, the MAGA crowd cheered.
But it was not just Lake—it was everything else about this incident that perfectly defines MAGA. First, Lake delivered this speech in a store known as “The Trumped Store,” described as “a one-stop emporium of all manner of President Donald J. Trump merchandise — T-shirts, caps, Trump teddy bears and talking Trump toilet paper rolls.” The Trump wares include 2020 election denying souvenirs –such as items that declare “Trump won” --and of course the aforementioned Confederate flag.
That’s right, a Trump obsessed person named Steve Slaton opened a store in 2018 to sell Trump merchandise—meaning there are enough Trump supporters to keep this store open buying items to honor their beloved Trump. That is again more evidence of the loyalty to Trump that is a defining characteristic of authoritarian and fascist movements.
Second, the fact this Trump store sells the Confederate battle flag and the Confederate national flag reminds you of the strong connection between fans of Trump and the Confederacy. For starters, both share the myth of “The Lost Cause.” In the case of supporters of the Confederacy, “The Lost Cause” myth was a way for the losers to feel better about themselves by peddling lies about the Civil War—such as it wasn’t actually fought to defend slavery. It was.
In the case of MAGA, the 2020 election “Lost Cause” mythology includes the claim there was widespread fraud, votes were illegally flipped by sinister computers, etc. This is a way for the MAGA losers to come to terms with their beloved Trump losing the 2020 election. Plus of course MAGA and the Confederacy share white supremacy as their animating ideologies.
In addition, Trump has become the prime defender of all things Confederacy, repeatedly defending the display of Confederate flags and other symbols of the Confederacy. As president, Trump also resisted efforts to rename Army bases in the South that had been named for treasonous Confederate generals who fought against the U.S. Army in the name of the Confederacy.
Another reason this event defines so much of the moral bankruptcy of MAGA is that the owner of “The Trumped Store,” Steve Slaton, is a Republican running for office who lied about his military record. In a recent radio interview, Slaton who is seeking the GOP nomination for a spot in the state legislature, boasted, “I was a combat veteran in Vietnam for four months in support of the missions of the South Vietnamese and patrolled along the DMZ.”
That was a lie. As the local Arizona paper Mountain Daily Star reported, Slaton’s official military records show he did not even join the Army until after the last US troops left Vietnam. Instead, he was stationed in South Korea during 1974, serving mostly as a helicopter mechanic. But what is stealing valor to MAGA?! After all, the leader of their party, Trump, was convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying business records to cheat in the 2016 election. Plus MAGA Grand Wizard Trump has a long history of demeaning the sacrifice of our veterans, even calling those who died for our nation, “losers” and “suckers.”
Then there is Trump sycophant Kari Lake, the speechmaker. She picked that store knowing exactly what it sells and who owns it. And while there, Lake peddled the very lies that inspired Trump’s Jan 6 violent attack on the Capitol, such as telling the MAGA faithful, “Anybody believe Joe Biden really, truly got 81 million votes?”
Lake, for bad measure, also repeated lies that she actually won the 2022 election for Governor, which in reality she lost to Katie Hobbs. Again, it’s “The Lost Cause” myth where instead of accepting you lost, you craft lies that make you and your supporters feel better.
In response to the image of Lake giving the speech with the Confederate flag as her backdrop, Lake’s likely Democratic US Senate opponent Ruben Gallego—a combat veteran—posted on social media, “Disgusting but this is who @KariLake is. Divisive. Dangerous. Out of touch with Arizona values. Unfit to serve.” He added, “I served the USA and our values of freedom and equality, not the failed Confederacy.”
Overall, this one event sums up so much of MAGA. It featured a loser like Kari Lake who peddled election lies designed to undermine our democracy instead of accepting she and Trump lost. There was a group of people so beholden to Trump they are at a store that sells Trump memorabilia. There was the glorification of white supremacy and defense of the Confederacy. And then there are the lies about military service which demeans those who served our nation. That is MAGA.
Once again, MAGA is a cancer that--if allowed to grow--will kill our democratic Republic. It’s up to us this November to politically kill it.
Goodness, Dean, I am glad you’re on the job to report these atrocities. Thank you for calling out more MAGA madness.
I hope to God that Kari Lake turns off democrats and independents so thoroughly that they get out and vote in unprecedented numbers. I am certain that most Arizonans are grateful that Katie Hobbs won the governors race. I've had several people explain to me why some are still so stuck on trump, but I still can't understand it, even though what they said made sense. Thank you, Dean, for keeping us up to date on how awful MAGA is and why we don't want it to ever gain power again.