It seems as though Donald Trump’s pageant judging history has inspired some of his supporters, as one Louisiana couple is planning to host a Miss MAGA pageant in order to “preserve and promote the values of hard work, family, and patriotism that helped make America great.”
John and Jessica Carlson wanted to find a way to promote their conservative views while also dabbling in philanthropy work.
“Both of us have really been interested in philanthropic work, like donating to charities,” John Carlson told Yahoo Lifestyle “And we figured this would be a good way for us to contribute and donate to charities and to give a voice to more conservative women across the country.”
The project was inspired by University of Michigan student Kathy Zhu.
Zhu won the 2019 Michigan World America title, but subsequently had her crown taken away after a number of her tweets were perceived as racist and Islamophobic.
The couple believe that Zhu was treated unfairly based on her political views.
“She had her crown taken, because of her conservative views,” John continued, “So it really just kind of inspired us to do something, or to stand up for what we believe in.”
Surprisingly, John explained that he and his wife would like judges from an array of political backgrounds to help with the project.
“We want to get someone on the judge panel that has the opposite views,” he explained, “Because we do realize they are now all people who have conservative views.
We knew it was going to be mostly conservatives who support it, and we’re kind of standing up for conservatives whose voices have been silenced or stifled, but we do want to include everyone.”
“We’d love to have people who have liberal views enter into the pageant.”
“No matter their race, religion, sexual orientation, we’d like them to be involved,” the couple stated.
John went on to explain that the ideology of the event should be embraced by everyone, regardless of their political affiliation.
“MAGA stands for ‘Make America Great Again,'” he said, “Some people view it as one thing, others view it as another.”
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“If you live in this country, you should want America to be great, and that’s what we’re all about.”
On the organization’s social media accounts, Jessica wants to make it clear that as conservatives, the two of them have a lot of stereotypes working against them.
“We wanted to start a conversation and kind of change the connotation of MAGA to, just because this person has conservative views doesn’t mean there’s this horrible racist person, like this stereotype,” she explains, “And to show people, like, you know me so why do you think just because now I’m saying I have conservative [views] I’m this totally different person? Because I’m not.”
“We want to close the gap politically and get people talking to each other.”
Since announcing the pageant, the couple has received a tremendous amount of backlash from those who say that it is impossible to distance one’s self from a president’s bigoted ideology while also using their catch phrase.
“We’ve gotten a lot of hate mail and backlash,” they wrote on Facebook, “I think in one day we got 50 or 60 emails.”
They’re hoping to raise upwards of $100,000 to give their event nationwide coverage.
Do you think that the Miss MAGA pageant is a step towards closing the divide between political parties, or do critics who say that it simply regurgitates bigoted ideology have a point? Let us know.
h/t: Yahoo Lifestyle
