SACRAMENTO – Like all authoritarian movements, MAGA likes to display “shock and awe” to arouse its supporters and intimidate its opponents. Why else would, say, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem attend high-profile ICE raids – and then post videos of them on her social-media accounts? It’s all for show.

Likewise, responsible political movements are embarrassed by hypocrisy, but MAGA displays it as a loyalty test. The same JD Vance who berated the Brits for detaining people over social-media posts recently called on Americans to report people to their employers for negative posts about Charlie Kirk. And Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed to crack down on “hate speech,” even though Republicans have long viewed such laws as speech controls. They know what message this sends

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