MAGA dictatorship updates: Rigging the 2026 elections; CN's cruel bigotry

Political science is the study of politics, more precisely power. Marcus Stadelmann, Political Science for Dummies, page 1, 2020

Since 2017, MAGA leader Trump has asserted his desire to be a dictator for life on multiple occasions. In a Nov. 5, 2025 meeting with Trump Party (GOP) Senators in congress, he clearly stated his wish to be a dictator. "If we do what I'm saying, they [Democrats] will most likely never attain power". 

For MAGA elites and Trump, it is all about power and wealth. Trump's lust for dictatorship power cannot get much clearer than that. In view of the circumstances, it is reasonable to argue that the 2026 midterm elections will probably be a crucial last line of defense for what's left of our democracy and rule of law. 

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The corrupt CN (Christian nationalist) theocrat wing of the MAGA wealth and power movement is intensely hostile to the LGBQT community. Apparently God told CN elites that the LGBQT community is evil and needs to be discriminated against, suppressed and dehumanized. CN bigotry here is arrogant, self-righteous and cruel. Although not a Christian himself, happily Trump goes along with CN's cruel bigotry. First, he needs those votes. Second, he takes real joy in seeing people suffer. Treating the LGBQT community like garbage is a win-win for CN theocrats and the deranged monster Trump.

The authoritarian MAGA judges in our sanctimonious USSC are fully on board with this kind of CN bigotry and cruelty. On Nov. 6, 2025, all six USSC CN  MAGA judges used the shadow docket to allow Trump to enforce a policy restricting passport gender markers to biological sex assigned at birth. That reversed a lower court injunction. The policy comes from Trump's January 20 executive order declaring the government would only recognize two sexes and require government-issued identification to "accurately reflect the holder's sex". That overturned the Biden administration's policy that allowed individuals to select male, female, or "X" as gender markers without requiring medical documentation.

The shadow docket allows the six MAGA coward judges to shaft targeted people and groups without any explanation. The shadow docket is a means MAGA judges on the USSC use to hide their authoritarianism, corruption, cruel bigotry and unprincipled use of law to kill democracy and the rule of law. The tactic is called autocratic legalism.

The dissent by one of the three pro-democracy, pro-rule of law Dems left on the USSC bench explained the cruelty and legal irrationality of this cruel, silent decision. Reporting on this comments, quoting the dissent: "once again [the 6 MAGA judges] paved the way for the immediate infliction of injury without adequate (or, really, any) justification," calling it a "pointless but painful perversion of our equitable discretion". Jackson further argued the Court "misunderstands the assignment" and is misusing its emergency docket to "cavalierly pick the winners and losers in cases that are still pending in the lower courts".

Here, the MAGA cowards hiding behind the shadow docket allowed Trump to discriminate against the LGBQT community without the usual needed showing of irreparable harm to the government as the justification for supporting this bigot policy. The USSC just sided with the bigot Trump simply it because it could. Legal analysis or consideration of harm to affected people be damned.[1]

By dismissing equal protection claims without meaningful scrutiny, the MAGA majority allows government discrimination against transgender people under the pretense of biological essentialism. That approach that could extend beyond passports to other areas of law and policy, e.g., discrimination on the basis of races, sex or national origin.

 

Footnote:

1. The harms here are real, not merely imagined. Bigotry and simple ignorance is widespread. Real harms have arisen from gender-mismatched documents. For example, transgender males who mark their passport as female are sometimes hassled at border crossings if their passport says they are male, their biological designation the government now demands on passports. When border agents or immigration officials see documents that don't align with a person's sex presentation they sometimes face increased scrutiny, interrogation, and potential detention. Forcing transgender people to carry passports that out them against their will increases the risk that they will face harassment and violence, especially in countries with hostile attitudes toward LGBTQ people. 

Deadnaming: Gender mismatched IDs create heightened risks during police encounters. A ProPublica investigation found that in 74 of 85 transgender murder cases since 2015, victims were identified by law enforcement using names and genders from their IDs, not than their lived identities. That is called "deadnaming". It impedes investigations because witnesses only know victims by their lived or actual names.

Lived name, also "actual name" or "affirmed name", is the name a transgender person actually uses in their daily life. That is the name by which friends, family, coworkers, and community members know them. This is their real identity, the name that reflects who they are. Legal name is the name on government-issued documents like birth certificates, driver's licenses, or passports. That is usually the name assigned at birth. It usually doesn't match gender identity for transgendered people.

Bottom line: The harms to transgendered people are real, while harm to the government or American society is almost completely non-existent. Unaffected straight or hetero people who might claim to be harmed are either bigots who fear or hate LGBTQ people, or religious people with religious objections, e.g., many CN supporters.