Why ‘MAGA’ Can Be ‘Construed as Racist,’ According to Bryan Cranston

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | February 27, 2023 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | February 27, 2023 |

Bryan Cranston is trending on Twitter this morning because of an answer he gave to Chris Wallace on his CNN show, Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? and because a lot of folks felt both heard by what Cranston said and, apparently, also shamed by it.

Bryan Cranston breaks down MAGA and racism in 60 seconds.

My African American wife served this country for 21 years, and she said “I feel seen” hearing that video clip. ❤️
pic.twitter.com/3yQRFUxj54

— Ryan Shead (@RyanShead) February 27, 2023

I saw the clip and thought it was simple, straightforward, and irrefutable. MAGA found plenty to refute. They say Cranston is a “clown,” that he’s gone “full woke CUCK,” that he’s an “irrelevant idiot” and that, when the Democrats start to lose control, they “trot out the celebrities [like Bryan Cranston) to shame you.”

It’s that latter point that hits upon so much of the outrage within the MAGA world. They hate to be called racists, and when they do something racist, they accuse liberals of weaponizing shame against them. This is what they perceive as the basis for cancel culture. They don’t want to be called racist. It hurts their feelings. They do not want to acknowledge their privilege because doing so might deprive them of their ability to paint themselves as victims. Notwithstanding their four years in power, MAGA feels marginalized and they don’t like to acknowledge groups that are actually marginalized. They remind me of people who complain to someone with cancer that they hurt their finger and then get angry with cancer patients for not acknowledging their grievances.

That, of course, is how we end up in a place where a Florida Republican has introduced a bill to amend their defamation laws to make it possible for people called a racist or a bigot to sue their accusers for $35,000. Yes, a racist could sue their accuser for calling them a racist, and the bill — as currently written — would even remove truth as a defense where it concerns accusations of homophobia.

The bill would enshrine in Florida’s defamation standards that an “allegation that the plaintiff has discriminated against another person or group because of their race, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity constitutes defamation per se.”

What set off most alarms for advocates was the seeming absolution of the accused. First, the legislation states: “A defendant cannot prove the truth of an allegation of discrimination with respect to sexual orientation or gender identity by citing a plaintiff’s constitutionally protected religious expression or beliefs.” It then goes on to say the same of “a plaintiff’s scientific beliefs.”

If a plaintiff who sues an accuser under this provision of the law prevails in court, they would be entitled to damages of at least $35,000, under the bill.

Harvard Law clinical instructor Alejandra Caraballo called Andrade’s law the “Empower Bigots Act.”

Florida is trying to pass laws to protect fragile racists.