Not a lot of good news comes out of the USA just now, so today’s report in The Guardian on Pamela Hemphill’s choosing to reject Donald Trump’s pardon is particularly welcome. Formally caught up in the attempts by MAGA supporters to overturn the democratic result of the previous election – an activity that made a mockery of democracy and resulted in wholly unnecessary deaths – Hemphill has come to accept responsibility for her (minimal) participation in the attack on Capital Hill. She recognises, as any honest person must, that Trump’s pardoning of his supporters who took place in that attack makes a mockery both of the American justice system and its democratic process.
I respect, and want to celebrate, anyone prepared to speak out against the Presidentially-led culture of lies and intimidation now in place in the USA. The call to “make America great again” is simply an attempt to mask an often deeply problematic, indeed murderous, historical reality. What I suggest is badly needed instead is a MASA (“make America sane again”) movement.