If you’re like me, you have known this sort of person all your life without knowing there is a word for them. Perhaps it’s your cantankerous old aunt who talks agreeably to her dog but disagrees with everything you say. Or maybe it’s your grumpy old boss who made you listen to Rush Limbaugh at work every day. They are generally argumentative and, in more extreme cases, downright confrontational and combative. These people are contrarians.
Merriam-Webster defines contrarian as: “A person who takes a contrary position or attitude.” Of course, taking a contrary position or attitude isn’t always a bad thing. Debate teams in high school and college formally and competitively argue the pros and cons of a resolution or issue, with the affirmative team supporting the resolution, and the negative team opposing it.
Regardless of the issue, MAGA Republicans always find a way to take a contrary position. For example, on the issue of immigration reform, Trump and MAGA Republicans claim the Democrats favor open borders, while they are opposed to open borders.
The truth isn’t so black and white, so pro and con, so us against them. Last October, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), then Majority Leader, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), then Minority Leader, backed a bipartisan team of senators that produced a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would have solved most of the problems at the southern border.
However, presidential candidate Donald Trump was polling well on the immigration issue, and he didn’t want Congress to preemptively steal his thunder. When Trump voiced his disapproval, Republican support for the important bipartisan legislation vanished in just a few days.
According to the Marshall Project, by last October, when he killed the bipartisan immigration reform bill, Trump had stated at least 575 times that Democrats want an open border. He would not and did not allow Congress to pass meaningful bipartisan legislation that would’ve fixed most of the problems at the southern border.
I have access to six alt-right news channels on Pluto TV. Hoping to gain greater insight into the Trump presidency and the MAGA movement, I look at them from time to time.
The alt-right podcasters and commentators often complain about “mainstream media” and “fake media.” For example, on the day President Trump signed an executive order aimed at reducing the price of prescription drugs, one MAGA commentator complained bitterly, “Why isn’t mainstream media reporting this historic legislation? Why doesn’t mainstream media report all the amazing and wonderful things our great president is doing?”
All the major news networks I watch dutifully reported President Trump signing that executive order – which, experts agree, might or might not have a significant effect on prescription drug prices.
All the major networks I watch also reported President Trump’s decision to accept a $400 million Boeing 747 jet as a gift from Qatar. Naturally, mainstream media addressed a few attendant issues, such as the apparent violation of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution which prohibits the president from receiving gifts from foreign entities.
The alt-right news channels constantly claim that “the Democrats are losing their minds” and/or “the fake media are losing their minds” over this, that, or the other. For example, they are “losing their minds” over the president accepting a $400 million gift from Qatar. In fact, the alt-right podcasters and commentators are the ones who often seem on the verge of hysteria.
If we look at the ongoing political discourse as a debate, MAGA Republicans are breaking virtually every established rule of debate. For example, in an actual debate: “Speakers must not introduce personal attacks or irrelevant information.”
Can you even begin to imagine Trump and MAGA Republicans not making personal attacks on Democrats? I recently watched an alt-right program that showed photos of eight prominent Democrats all in a row – Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and so on. I waited to hear the host’s comments, but he didn’t say much, really. Mostly he just leered at the camera – gloating, hateful, and encouraging his viewers to be hateful, too. His only small comment was that Democrats need to acknowledge President Trump’s historic and overwhelming victory, and fall in line and accept the MAGA agenda.
Other important rules for debate include: “Facts presented must be accurate, and speakers must be prepared to support their statements with evidence or reasons.”
During a debate in 2024, former president and then presidential candidate Donald Trump repeated a false claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating dogs and other pets. “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump claimed in response to a question about immigration. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”
David Muir, the ABC News anchor co-moderating the debate, promptly rebutted Trump’s false claims, stating that the city manager in Springfield, Ohio, had informed ABC News there were no credible reports of pets being harmed, injured, abused, or killed.
Yet Trump refused to back down from his false and hateful rhetoric, and for weeks it echoed in online media and the alt-right channels and podcasts. Trump surrogate and close ally Vivek Ramaswamy held a town hall meeting in Springfield, harshly condemning the failed immigration policies of the Biden administration, while dodging the specific issue of immigrants eating pets.
Cambridge dictionary defines contrarian as: “Someone such as a writer or politician who likes to disagree with other people and express opinions that are unpopular.” In this regard, President Trump can rightly be called our “contrarian-in-chief.”
In a recent interview with ABC newsman Terry Moran, President Trump insisted that an obviously photoshopped photo of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, showing the characters “M” – “S” – “1” – “3” tattooed on his knuckles, was real. Trump claimed the photo proved Garcia belonged to the notorious gang, MS-13.
“He did not have the letters ‘MS-13,’ “ Moran stated plainly. “That was photoshopped.”
“That was photoshopped?” Trump scoffed. “Terry, you can’t do that. They’ve given you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you’re doing the interview.
“I picked you because, frankly, I had never heard of you, but that’s okay,” Trump continued. “But I picked you, Terry, but you’re not being very nice. He had ‘MS-13’ tattooed. Terry. Terry. Do you want me to show you the picture?”
Moran tried to move on, but Trump insisted, “No, no. He had ‘M-S,’ as clear as you can be. Not interpreted. This is why people no longer believe the news . . . because it’s fake news. You do such a disservice. Why don’t you just say, ‘Yes, he does,’ and you know, go on to something else?”
President Trump loves to pump his fist and encourage his minions to “fight, fight, fight.” Unfortunately, our great contrarian-in-chief and his contrarian cohorts are fighting against truth, justice, freedom, and democracy.
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