Why “Make America Great Again” Fails—and Why Moving Forward Is the Only Path

Paula Sadler
Jan 9
17 min read

America cannot be made “great again” by going backward—because America has only ever been great when it moved forward.

America became stronger when women gained the right to vote. It became more just with the 14th Amendment. It moved closer to its ideals through the Civil Rights Movement, the Voting Rights Act, and the ongoing pursuit of the Equal Rights Amendment. It grew healthier when we embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion, not as slogans, but as moral commitments.

What makes America great is inclusion—the recognition that all people belong.

America is great when it acknowledges the harms done in its past:

The Red Scare and Lavender Scare, where fear destroyed lives
The Japanese American internment camps, where citizenship did not protect families
Slavery and its enduring legacy
The genocide of Indigenous peoples, justified through dehumanizing language and colonial violence
The labeling of human beings as “savages,” “degenerates,” or “immoral” to excuse their exclusion

These same patterns were used against:

Black and brown people
Immigrants
LGBTQ+ people
Disabled people
Non-Christian and non-white communities

America becomes great only when it names these truths honestly and commits to not repeating them.

There is nothing to return to before 1965.There is nothing noble in segregation, colonialism, imperialism, or enforced hierarchy. There is nothing moral about concentrating power in the hands of a few while stripping protections from the many.

Progress is not decay. Change is not weakness. Inclusion is not chaos.

The real danger we face today is a movement that seeks to roll back rights, centralize power, and rule for the benefit of a wealthy elite, not for the common good.

We must reject the lie that wealth equals wisdom, morality, or leadership.

Wealth does not indicate intelligence. Wealth does not indicate compassion. Wealth does not indicate moral authority.

History shows that wealth can be accumulated:

Through exploitation
Through inherited advantage
Through systems that harm others
Through the absence of ethics, not their presence

Billionaires are not heroes by virtue of their bank accounts. Corporations are not virtuous simply because they are profitable.

We must judge leaders, institutions, and systems by their character:

How do they treat other people?
How do they speak about the vulnerable?
Do they unify or divide?
Do they protect dignity or strip it away?
Do their actions serve the many—or only themselves?

As we learn in recovery communities: No one individual is above the group.

If the group collapses, the individual collapses with it.

That principle must guide society itself.

America will not be saved by nostalgia. It will be saved by moral courage, historical honesty, and collective responsibility.

We do not need to go back. We need to move forward—together.

We will know who truly seeks justice not by their slogans, but by their actions, their history, and their words.

When leaders speak with cruelty, scapegoating, and division, they reveal themselves. When they act with compassion, accountability, and humility, they do the same.

America is not great because of power. America is great when it chooses humanity.

America Was Never Great by Going Back: A Conversation About History, Power, and the Future We Must Choose

An op-ed interview with Paula Josephine Sadler

Interviewer:

You’ve said that the “Make America Great Again” campaign fundamentally misunderstands what made America great in the first place. What do you mean by that?

Paula Josephine Sadler: America has never been great because it went backward. It has only been great when it moved forward.

Every moment we point to as progress in this country—women gaining the right to vote, the 14th Amendment, the Civil Rights Movement, the Voting Rights Act, the push for the Equal Rights Amendment, and the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion—those were moments when America chose expansion of humanity, not restriction.

So when people say “make America great again,” the question is: great for whom?

Because if it means returning to pre-1965 America, pre-civil-rights America, pre-women’s suffrage, pre-equal protection—there is nothing great there. There is nothing moral there. There is nothing just there.

America’s greatness has always come from its capacity to learn, to admit harm, and to change.

Interviewer:

You often reference historical harms. Why is acknowledging them so central to your argument?

Sadler: Because denial is the engine of repetition.

America has harmed people again and again under the banner of “security,” “morality,” or “tradition.” And every time, the rhetoric is the same.

We saw it in the Red Scare, when people were accused without evidence and destroyed professionally and personally. We saw it in the Lavender Scare, when LGBTQ+ people were labeled immoral, mentally ill, or dangerous and were fired, institutionalized, and tortured through electroshock, lobotomies, and conversion therapy. We saw it in the Japanese American internment camps, where entire families lost their homes, land, businesses, and freedom—without charges, without trials—based solely on ancestry. We saw it in slavery, in Jim Crow, in the genocide of Indigenous peoples, and in the dehumanizing, language used to justify it—calling human beings “savages” so violence could be framed as necessary.

That same language—immoral, dangerous, a problem for society—has been recycled against Black people, immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, religious minorities, and anyone who does not fit the dominant hierarchy.

What makes America great is not pretending this didn’t happen. What makes America great is telling the truth about it and refusing to repeat it.

Interviewer:

You’ve drawn parallels between those historical moments and what’s happening now, especially around immigration. Can you explain that connection?

Sadler: History doesn’t usually repeat exactly—but it rhymes with precision.

We are again seeing people framed as threats rather than human beings. Immigrants are described as invaders, criminals, or animals. We’re seeing calls to remove them to remote detention sites, to prisons abroad, to places intentionally designed to be harsh and out of sight—language like “Alligator Alcatraz” isn’t accidental. It’s dehumanization dressed up as policy.

This is how it always starts:

Fear is manufactured
A group is defined as less deserving of rights
Due process becomes “optional”
Removal is justified as necessary
The public is told it’s temporary
Decades later, apologies are issued

Japanese American internment happened in weeks—not years. People had 48 hours to leave their homes. Their wealth vanished overnight. And the government later admitted it was wrong.

The speed is what people underestimate.

Interviewer:

You’ve also spoken about attacks on DEI and equal protection. Why do you see those as dangerous?

Sadler: Because DEI didn’t appear out of nowhere. It grew out of the Civil Rights Movement as a set of tools to make equal protection real—not theoretical.

The 14th Amendment promises equal protection under the law. DEI is part of how institutions tried to live up to that promise. When you dismantle DEI, you’re not creating neutrality—you’re removing safeguards.

This is how erosion happens. Not by repealing amendments outright—but by hollowing them out through non-enforcement, reinterpretation, and cultural hostility.

It’s the same reason the Equal Rights Amendment is still fought against. Because once equality is explicit, hierarchy becomes illegal.

Interviewer:

You’ve been very critical of wealth concentration and elite power. How does that fit into your broader argument?

Sadler: We’ve been sold a dangerous lie—that wealth equals virtue.

Wealth does not indicate intelligence. Wealth does not indicate compassion. Wealth does not indicate moral authority.

Wealth can be accumulated through exploitation, inherited advantage, and systems that harm others. Being a billionaire does not make someone a hero. Being a profitable corporation does not make an institution ethical.

What matters is character:

How do they treat people?
How do they speak about the vulnerable?
Do they build or divide?
Do they take responsibility for harm—or deny it?

Power concentrated in the hands of a few has never benefited the many. History is unambiguous on this.

Interviewer:

You often reference recovery principles in your political thinking. Why?

Sadler: Because recovery communities understand something society often forgets.

In 12-step programs, no one person is above the group. If someone tries to dominate, exploit, or elevate themselves above the collective, the group suffers—and eventually collapses.

And if the group collapses, the individual collapses too.

That principle applies to society. You cannot sacrifice the many for the comfort or power of the few and expect long-term survival.

A society that protects only the elite is not strong—it is fragile.

Interviewer:

So, if you had to summarize your position—what would you say America needs right now?

Sadler: We don’t need to go back. There is nothing to return to.

We don’t need pre-1965 America. We don’t need segregation. We don’t need colonialism or imperial rule. We don’t need hierarchy disguised as tradition.

We need honesty, inclusion, and courage.

America is great when it:

Expands rights instead of shrinking them
Protects the vulnerable instead of scapegoating them
Tells the truth about its past
Chooses humanity over fear

Progress is not decay. Change is not weakness. Inclusion is not chaos.

What we are seeing now is dangerous because it seeks to reverse these lessons—to strip protections, centralize power, and rule for a narrow group driven by control and wealth rather than the common good.

Closing Statement

America is not great because it looks backward. America is great because it learns, repairs, and moves forward.

We will not be judged by our slogans. We will be judged by our actions.

We will know who leaders are—not by their promises—but by how they speak about others, how they treat the powerless, and whether they unite or divide.

History has already shown us the cost of fear, dehumanization, and silence.

There is nothing heroic about repeating old harms. There is everything courageous about choosing a better future.

America’s greatness is not behind us. It is ahead of us—if we choose it.

America Was Never Great by Going Back

A Historical Interview on Power, Progress, and the Long Arc of Justice

An op-ed interview with Paula Josephine Sadler

Interviewer:

You’ve said that America’s greatness has always depended on moving forward, not backward. History suggests progress has been slow and contested. Can you walk us through that?

Paula Josephine Sadler: Yes—and the timelines matter, because they reveal the truth that rights are never simply “granted.” They are fought for, resisted, delayed, undermined, and often only partially honored.

Let’s start with women.

🗳️ Women’s Voting Rights: Law vs. Reality

📜 The Legal Timeline

1776 – United States founded; voting restricted to white male property owners
1848 – Seneca Falls Convention demands women’s suffrage
1920 – Nineteenth Amendment ratified➡️ 144 years from independence to legal recognition

⏳ The Cultural & Social Reality

Women’s turnout lagged for decades due to intimidation, social norms, and economic barriers
Married women still lacked:
- Equal property rights
- Equal employment access
- Bodily autonomy
Women of color were still largely barred from voting until 1965

So even after ratification, equality was theoretical, not lived.

Interviewer:

What about Black Americans and the promise of equal protection?

Sadler: That’s where the gap between law and reality becomes undeniable.

⚖️ The 14th Amendment: Promise vs. Practice

📜 The Legal Timeline

1868 – Fourteenth Amendment ratified
- Citizenship
- Due process
- Equal protection

🚫 Immediate Backlash

Reconstruction violently dismantled
Jim Crow laws imposed
Supreme Court narrowed enforcement

⏳ Enforcement Lag

1868 → 1965 = 97 years before meaningful federal enforcement

It took nearly a century—and mass protest, imprisonment, and murder—for the 14th Amendment to begin functioning as intended.

🗳️ Black Voting Rights: The Long Delay

📜 Legal Milestones

1870 – Fifteenth Amendment ratified (Black men)
1920 – Women enfranchised (but not equally)
1965 – Voting Rights Act

⏳ Reality

Most Black Americans—especially Black women—did not vote until after 1965
That’s nearly 200 years after the nation’s founding

And even now:

Voter ID laws
Poll closures
Roll purges
Gerrymandering

…continue to target the same communities.

Interviewer:

You’ve emphasized that cultural change always lags behind legal change. Why is that important today?

Sadler: Because it explains why backlash never stops.

⏱️ The Cultural Lag of Justice

Every expansion of rights follows this pattern:

Demand
Legal change
Backlash
Undermining enforcement
Cultural resistance
Generational normalization (if protected)

We are always living in stages 3–5.

Examples

After women gained the vote → anti-suffrage movements reorganized as “family values” politics
After desegregation → “states’ rights” and “law and order” rhetoric
After LGBTQ+ rights → “religious freedom” used to deny services
After DEI initiatives → “meritocracy” rhetoric used to erase structural inequality

✝️ The Role of White Evangelical Male Power

Interviewer:

You specifically mention white evangelical men seeking to restrict voting again. Why?

Sadler: Because the historical record is clear.

In every era, disenfranchisement is justified by moral superiority.

Today, we are seeing:

Calls to limit voting to “heads of households”
Claims that men should vote on behalf of families
Assertions that women are too emotional or misled
Religious arguments that leadership is divinely male
Open disdain for pluralism and democracy

This is not new. It is patriarchal theology weaponized for political power.

The same arguments were used:

Against women’s suffrage
Against Black citizenship
Against Indigenous sovereignty
Against LGBTQ+ existence

Hierarchy always claims divine approval.

📉 The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA): Still Unfinished

Proposed: 1923
Ratified by enough states: 2020
Still blocked by political maneuvering

Nearly 100 years later, equality on the basis of sex is still not explicitly guaranteed in the Constitution.

That alone should tell us everything.

🧠 Why DEI Is Part of America’s Greatness

DEI exists because:

Equality promised ≠ equality practiced
Rights without enforcement are hollow
History proves exclusion doesn’t disappear on its own

Removing DEI does not create neutrality—it restores default inequality.

🕯️ The Throughline: Power vs. Humanity

Every regression shares the same logic:

“We know better.”
“They are dangerous.”
“They are immoral.”
“They must be controlled.”

And every advance shares the same courage:

Truth-telling
Collective responsibility
Inclusion
Repair

Closing Statement

America is not great because it goes back. America is great when it admits where it failed and refuses to repeat it.

Progress took:

144 years for women to vote
97 years for equal protection to be enforced
Nearly 200 years for Black Americans to vote freely
A century and counting for gender equality to be explicit

That is not weakness. That is the cost of justice in a resistant society.

There is nothing to return to before civil rights. There is no virtue in hierarchy. There is no morality in exclusion.

As recovery teaches us: no one is above the group. If democracy collapses, no elite will be spared.

We will know who leaders are:

By how they treat the vulnerable
By whether they expand rights or shrink them
By whether they unite or divide

America’s greatness is not behind us.

It is ahead of us—if we choose humanity over fear, and truth over nostalgia.

Below are acronyms for MAGA real meaning, a spiritual, ethical, and historical warning.

🔥 Core Acronym: M.A.G.A. as a Spiritual Warning

Moral

Authoritarian

Gnostic

Absolutism

Meaning: A belief system that claims secret moral truth, elevates itself as righteous, demands obedience, and rejects humility.

This aligns with:

Religious authoritarianism
“We alone know the truth” thinking
The fusion of power and purity narratives

Historically, this is the mindset behind:

The Inquisition
Witch trials
Fascist movements
Theocracy
Purity crusades

🧠 Psychological / Spiritual Framing

Messianic

Authoritarian

Grievance

Addiction

Meaning: A movement driven by grievance, fused with a savior complex, addicted to power, outrage, and domination.

This speaks to:

Cult psychology
Leader worship
Victimhood paired with supremacy
Emotional dependency on fear and anger

🕯️ Moral Injury / Soul Sickness Framing

Moral

Abandonment of

Grace &

Alterity

Meaning: The loss of compassion, humility, and the recognition of the Other as sacred.

This fits your language of soul sickness:

A turning away from empathy
A hardening of the heart
A theology without mercy

🩸 Historical Pattern Framing (Careful, but Accurate)

Militant

Anti-Human

Governing

Authoritarianism

Meaning: A political theology that treats some lives as expendable for the sake of “order,” “purity,” or “nation.”

This is where your historical parallels sit—not as hyperbole, but as pattern recognition:

Salem Witch Trials
Religious pogroms
State-sanctioned persecution
Genocidal logic (“they are a problem that must be removed”)

✝️ Religious Masquerade Framing

Masquerading

As

Godly

Authority

Meaning: Power cloaked in religious language, using God-talk to excuse cruelty.

This is exactly what Jesus confronted:

“You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. ”You place heavy burdens on others but will not lift a finger to help.”

This framing makes clear:👉 The critique is of false righteousness, not faith itself.

🌑 The “Mind Virus” Framing (Less religious, more cultural)

Manufactured

Anger

Glorifying

Authoritarianism

Meaning: A system that feeds on outrage, resentment, and division to consolidate power.

⚠️ Important Distinction (This Matters)

What you are naming is not that people are evil, but that:

A system
A theology
A political identity has become spiritually corrosive.

That’s the same distinction used by:

Liberation theology
Civil rights leaders
Truth and reconciliation movements

It says:

“This path leads to destruction—turn back.”

Not:

“Destroy the people.”

That moral clarity keeps you on the side of life, justice, and repair.

🕊️ A Closing Line You Might Use

“MAGA is not a return to greatness. It is a moral sickness that disguises power as righteousness, cruelty as truth, and domination as faith. History has seen this sickness before—and it always leaves devastation in its wake.”

“When religion loses compassion, when power replaces humility, and when fear becomes holy, the soul of a nation is in danger.”

The word “Nazi” is not a descriptive term in itself — it is a shortened name that comes from German political history.

📌 What “Nazi” Literally Means

Nazi is a shortened form of the German word Nationalsozialist, meaning “National Socialist.”

It refers specifically to members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

In German:

National = national / nationalist
Sozialist = socialist (in name only; the ideology was not socialist in practice)

“Nazi” was originally a colloquial abbreviation, similar to how:

“Democrat” becomes “Dem”
“Republican” becomes “Rep”

🧠 Important Clarification (This Matters)

Despite the word “socialist” in the name:

Nazis violently opposed socialism and communism
They imprisoned and murdered:
- Socialists
- Communists
- Trade unionists
The regime was:
- Ultra-nationalist
- Authoritarian
- Militaristic
- Racially supremacist
- Genocidal

Historians are unanimous that Nazism was a form of far-right authoritarian nationalism, not socialism.

🌑 What Nazism Came to Mean

Over time, “Nazi” came to signify an ideology characterized by:

Racial hierarchy and “purity”
Authoritarian rule
Suppression of dissent
Fusion of state power with mythic nationalism
Dehumanization of targeted groups
Mass violence and genocide

This is why today the word Nazi is used not just historically, but morally, to describe systems that:

Elevate one group as superior
Treat others as expendable
Justify cruelty as necessary or righteous

🕯️ Why the Term Is So Heavy

The Nazi regime:

Orchestrated the Holocaust
Murdered six million Jews
Killed millions more (Roma people, disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, political dissidents, Slavs, and others)

Because of this, the word “Nazi” is not used lightly by historians — it refers to a specific historical movement and a pattern of ideology that has catastrophic consequences.

📌 Bottom Line

“Nazi” = short for National Socialist
Refers to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party
The ideology was not socialist
It represents authoritarian, racist, genocidal nationalism
The term carries moral weight because of its historical reality

If you want, I can also explain:

How Nazism rose to power
How ordinary people were drawn into it
How propaganda worked
How democracies collapse into authoritarianism
How historians distinguish warning signs from hyperbole

Just tell me where you want to go next.

And let us do a side-by-side comparison of Nazi and Maga in Word and its meaning

Below is a clear, side-by-side comparison of “Nazi” and “MAGA” focused on word origin, stated meaning, and how each functions rhetorically and politically. This is descriptive and analytical, not an endorsement of harm, and it keeps the distinction between historical Nazism and contemporary movements explicit.

Side-by-Side: Word, Origin, and Meaning

Category	Nazi	MAGA
Word origin	Short for *Nationalsozialist*	Acronym for “Make America Great Again”
Source language	German	English
Original usage	Colloquial nickname for members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party	Campaign slogan popularized in U.S. politics
Literal meaning	“National Socialist” (in name only)	Promise to restore a prior version of “greatness”
Stated goal (on paper)	National renewal through unity and strength	National renewal through restoration
Actual ideological core	Far-right authoritarian nationalism; racial hierarchy; suppression of dissent	Populist nationalism; strong executive power; grievance-based politics
Relationship to democracy	Rejected pluralism; dismantled democratic institutions	Skeptical of pluralism; challenges norms and guardrails (varies by faction)
Use of nostalgia	Mythic past of ethnic purity and destiny	Idealized past of social hierarchy and dominance
Treatment of “outsiders”	Dehumanization and exclusion by race/identity	Rhetoric of exclusion by immigration status, ideology, or culture
Role of “morality”	Moralized nationalism; purity narratives	Moralized nationalism; “law & order” / “family values” framing
Leader symbolism	Führer principle (leader as embodiment of nation)	Strong-leader appeal; personalization of politics
Historical outcome	Totalitarian state; genocide; world war	Ongoing movement; outcomes contested and evolving
Moral weight of the term	Fixed by history (genocide and mass violence)	Contested slogan with multiple interpretations

What the Words Do (Function, Not Just Definition)

“Nazi”

Began as a party nickname
Became synonymous with:
- Racial supremacy
- Authoritarian control
- State violence and genocide
Today, the word carries settled historical meaning because of what followed.

“MAGA”

Began as a slogan
Functions rhetorically by:
- Invoking a lost golden age
- Framing change as decline
- Defining belonging by loyalty to a narrative
The phrase does not specify when America was “great” or for whom, which allows the meaning to be filled in by the movement.

Why People Compare Them (Pattern Recognition, Not Equation)

Scholars and historians caution against equating contemporary movements with Nazism. At the same time, they encourage pattern recognition:

Nostalgic nationalism
Moral absolutism
Scapegoating
Strong-leader politics
Erosion of pluralism
Exceptionalism (“only we can save the nation”)

These are warning signs seen across many historical contexts—not just Germany in the 1930s.

A Careful, Accurate Distinction

Nazism is a specific historical ideology with catastrophic outcomes.
MAGA is a modern political slogan and movement with internal diversity and contested meanings.
Comparing language, structure, and patterns is legitimate scholarship.
Claiming they are identical would be historically inaccurate.

The value of the comparison is preventive:

Understanding how words mobilize fear, nostalgia, and moral certainty—before institutions are irreversibly damaged.

One-Sentence Summary You Can Use

“‘Nazi’ names a historical ideology whose meaning is fixed by genocide; ‘MAGA’ is a slogan whose meaning is shaped by how it is used—but history teaches us to take nationalist nostalgia and moral absolutism seriously, because we’ve seen where those patterns can lead.”

These are spiritually dangerous times. We are currently being oppressed by a political and religious nationalist movement under GOP, MAGA, and project 2025, that seeks to strip away all rights and freedoms, and have the wealthy elite and corporations run the country and the world. We must unite and fight for freedom, with prayer and action, for freedom for all.

A Closing Spiritual Statement

From Universal Rainbow Faith & Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler

What we are witnessing in the world today is not merely a political crisis. It is a spiritual crisis.

The hatred, fear, cruelty, and division being normalized in public life do not arise from healthy or awakened hearts. They arise from spiritual underdevelopment, from a profound disconnection from empathy, love, peace, and humility.

These qualities—love, compassion, justice, mercy—do not emerge from domination or control. They emerge from awakened hearts and conscious minds.

When empathy is absent, power rushes in. When love is replaced by fear, righteousness becomes a weapon. When humility disappears, certainty hardens into cruelty.

What we are seeing beneath the paradigms of Trumpism, MAGA ideology, segments of the GOP, and extremist religious movements is not strength—but spiritual emptiness masked as moral authority.

Much of the hatred driving these movements is rooted in:

False teachings
Misinterpretations of sacred texts
Distorted versions of Christianity and other religions
Centuries of manipulation and control exercised through churches and religious leaders

These doctrines are far removed from authentic spiritual teaching.

True spiritual wisdom has always been inclusive, never exclusive. It has always expanded dignity, never restricted it. It has always protected the vulnerable, never scapegoated them.

Jesus did not teach domination. The prophets did not teach hierarchy. Sacred truth does not demand conformity through fear.

What we are witnessing today is not faith—it is power masquerading as holiness.

And history shows us clearly: whenever religion is used to justify cruelty, exclusion, or the stripping of human rights, it has lost its soul.

Universal Rainbow Faith affirms that all people are sacred, without exception. Any doctrine—religious or political—that denies the humanity of others stands in direct opposition to our faith.

This is why silence is not an option.

Spiritual maturity requires discernment. Discernment requires truth-telling. Truth-telling requires courage.

This article, and the study it accompanies, are offered not as condemnation—but as a call to awakening.

We believe the world does not need more power. It needs deeper compassion. It does not need more certainty. It needs greater humility. It does not need control. It needs collective healing.

The future will not be saved by nostalgia. It will be healed by consciousness, accountability, and love in action.

URF Disclosure & Statement of Spiritual Purpose

Universal Rainbow Faith (URF) is a spiritual and religious organization. We do not endorse, affiliate with, or align ourselves with any political party, candidate, or campaign.

While this article and accompanying study reference government, law, public policy, and political movements, these discussions are presented solely for spiritual education, moral discernment, and the protection of our faith community.

As a religious body, URF has both the right and the responsibility to:

Examine doctrines and teachings that conflict with our faith
Address ideologies that pose spiritual, emotional, or moral harm to our members
Teach discernment when religious language is used to justify exclusion, cruelty, or oppression

Spiritual education does not exist in a vacuum. Faith traditions have always engaged with the moral realities of their time.

Throughout history, responsible religious leadership has required: