It is baffling yet interesting in equal measure to examine the reasons why migrant communities, such as Hispanic Americans, voted for MAGA candidate Donald Trump in the last US elections. Numerous commentators have analysed the reasons why a candidate who openly demonises migrants – Trump attacked Mexicans as drug dealers and rapists – would acquire political support among migrant communities.

During the first iteration of the Trump presidency, I wrote about the Iraqi Christians who voted for him, were then subject to the threat of mass deportations. Trump made no secret of his anti-immigrant agenda. In his most recent moves, the Trump MAGA cult invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expel Venezuelan immigrants. This act has not been used since World War Two, and is invoked only in times of war.

At the time of writing, a federal judge has stopped this latest deportation. The 1798 act allows the US Congress to deport non-citizens, the latter unable to appeal the decision to an immigration or federal court judge.

The original legislation, passed by lawmakers worried about a potential war with France, has been used only rarely – during the war of 1812, for instance. This law has not been deployed since the end of World War 2.

Why is all this relevant to current circumstances?

Joan Walsh, writing in The Nation magazine, makes an important argument – do the Irish Catholics who supported Donald Trump realise they see the original enemy aliens? The Federalist party, at the time the equivalent of national conservatives, wanted a strong army, navy, economy, and intended to keep out enemy aliens.

The Irish Catholics, being of the same faith group as the French, were considered undesirable elements. The new American government, emerging from the war of independence, was concerned that French revolutionaries would infiltrate the nation, and bring their ideas with them.

The American patriots who rose up in the 1770s were certainly anti-British, but not politically revolutionary like the French Republicans. While expressing support for basic democratic demands, such as no taxation without representation, they were limited in their demands against the English monarchy. They made clear they were rebelling against the excessive impositions of the British crown. The French Jacobins demanded full equality without any geographic or time limitations.

Excluding the French was one thing; targeting the Irish Catholics for exclusion was particularly galling. Why? The American government, in a display of realpolitik, supported the failed 1798 Irish uprising against the British crown. That insurrection was led by Irish Catholics against the British-Anglican establishment. Having cynically supported the Irish rebels, the US government promptly closed the door on those Irish seeking asylum in the new nation.

Federalist politicians in Washington railed against the Irish, demonising them as wild, unruly pestilential elements, bound to disturb the tranquility of the American nation. Irish Catholic Republicans in the US were harassed and targeted as enemy agents, disloyal to the new republic.

Irish American republicans knew exactly what side they were on – in our own times, Irish left wing activists drew explicit links with the African American civil rights movement on a platform of antiracist solidarity. No doubt this caused consternation among conservative Irish.

Be that as it may, it is pertinent to ask if Irish Catholic MAGA supporters will now withdraw their support for the Trump administration. I am not holding my breath….. The MAGA cult, because that is exactly what it is, is not known for its logical thinking or interethnic solidarity.

Next time, think deeply about what you are voting for – decisions made by this administration are a predictable consequence of the political platform you supported at election time.

MAGA and military veterans

There is one electoral bloc that has consistently sided with the Republican Party down the years; military veterans. If that is going to change over the next four years, I do not know. There are already indications that US military top brass are unhappy with all the sackings of US generals and officers, only to be replaced by MAGA loyalists.

Be that as it may, there is no doubt that military veterans are a key base of support for the Trump administration. Seeing that is the case, let’s make a suggestion which will further solidify US military veteran loyalty to the MAGA club – or perhaps it won’t, you be the judge.

In World War 2, the US Army’s 761 tank battalion fought courageously in the European theatre of war. What is special about that unit? It was staffed completely by African Americans. The original ‘Black Panthers’, this all-black unit confronted the preeminent white supremacists in Europe, the Nazi army.

This group of soldiers were not allowed to interact or train with white soldiers. Indeed, white race riots broke out in Louisiana and other military compounds where these black troops were being trained. The US army was not officially desegregated until 1947, after World War Two had finished.

The most famous of the black tank drivers was the late great Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play baseball in the major leagues. These veterans, after risking life and limb fighting racism in Europe, returned to a nation which rejected them. They knew exactly what they were fighting against.

Troops of the 761 battalion helped to liberate Gunskirchen concentration camp in Austria, in May 1945. The sight which confronted the African American soldiers was horrifying; inmates half starved, frozen, vermin-infested, barely able to walk, skin hanging off skeletons, weakened by malnutrition.

These troops, and their sacrifices for personal freedom (individual liberty being such a prized commodity in MAGA land), were all but ignored in the decades after 1945.

These military veterans should be commemorated and respected, especially when confronting racism today.