The Cruel Psychology Behind MAGA’s Obsession With “Law and Order”

Authoritarian minds aren’t seeking justice, they’re enforcing obedience, no matter the cost.

Introduction: Deportation as a Patriotic Drug

They don’t just support it, they celebrate it. Families ripped apart, children sobbing at the edge of detention buses, mothers deported after decades of living peacefully in the U.S. , and the chants roll in louder: "You broke the law!"

This isn’t law enforcement. It’s a ritual. A purification ceremony for the aggrieved nationalist. And in the era of MAGA, deportation isn’t just a tool of immigration policy, it’s an emotional fix for a movement addicted to the illusion of control.

They say it’s about the law, but they don’t care that overstaying a visa is a civil violation, not a crime. They say it’s about order, but they cheer when ICE kicks in the wrong door. The truth? It’s not about justice. It’s about punishment, collective, symbolic, and cleansing.

And yet, MAGA will swear it’s none of that. “We just want people to come legally.” “Follow the rules.” “We’re a nation of laws.” But their policies, and their psychology, betray the script. No consideration of context. No pause for nuance. No care for circumstance. A man who crossed a line for survival is, to them, as deserving of removal as a violent offender. Not because of what he did, but because of what he represents.

This article is not an appeal to sentiment. It’s an autopsy. A forensic look into why MAGA, and the authoritarian mind it depends on, defends mass deportation with such unwavering zeal.

We’ll expose how “law and order” is a euphemism for domination. How psychological profiles like Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) shape obedience and exclusion. And how collective narcissism, under the guise of patriotism, transforms cruelty into virtue.

Deportation, for MAGA, is not a last resort. It is a sacrament.

---

“Law and Order” as a Euphemism for Control

If you listen closely to MAGA’s obsession with “Law and Order,” you’ll notice it’s not about the legal system functioning fairly. It’s about control. The phrase is repeated like a sacred incantation, yet it rarely refers to due process, proportional punishment, or individual rights. Instead, it’s wielded as a cudgel, a way to justify indiscriminate enforcement, particularly against immigrants, the poor, and marginalized communities.

This is why MAGA supporters can say with a straight face, “If you came here illegally, you deserve to be deported. No excuses.” Even if it means deporting someone who overstayed a visa to care for a dying parent. Even if the person has no criminal record. Even if they’ve lived here for decades and have U.S.-born children. The logic is simple: a rule was broken, therefore punishment must follow, no nuance, no mercy.

This isn’t “law and order.” It’s authoritarianism.

The Psychology of Obedience and Hierarchy

Research shows that individuals high in Right-Wing Authoritarianism are psychologically predisposed to support punitive, obedience-focused policies that maintain traditional norms and punish deviation, regardless of whether the punishment is justified (Saeri et al., 2015). To them, rules are sacred, and those who break them, even civilly, threaten the moral fabric of society. In the MAGA worldview, immigrants are not just lawbreakers, they’re symbolic of chaos, disorder, and loss of control.

On the other side, those high in Social Dominance Orientation see the world as a hierarchy, and believe it should stay that way. They are comfortable with power being concentrated in the hands of the “deserving” and view any challenge to that order (like migration or minority empowerment) as a threat to their group’s status (Saeri et al., 2015). When MAGA supporters say, “Crime is crime,” what they often mean is: The social order must be protected, even if justice is flattened in the process.

The Discarding of Circumstance

What separates justice from tyranny is the weighing of context. In the U.S. legal system, not all violations are treated equally. A person who jaywalks is not given the death penalty. A mother who steals food to feed her child may receive help, not handcuffs. Circumstance matters, or at least, it’s supposed to.

Yet MAGA rejects this nuance when it comes to immigration. Overstaying a visa, a civil violation, not a crime, is often lumped in with drug trafficking or violent offenses. The very idea of context is dismissed, because it complicates the black-and-white worldview that authoritarians cling to. The facts don’t matter. The crime doesn’t matter. What matters is obedience, and removing anyone who didn’t fall in line.

Saeri et al. (2015) found that high-RWA individuals were more likely to support dominant groups using aggressive force, and less likely to empathize with disadvantaged groups, regardless of whether the group was actually threatening.

This helps explain why MAGA can watch families being torn apart and say, “They shouldn’t have broken the law.” To them, the law is a tool for maintaining order, not justice. Not fairness. Not compassion.

Control in Patriot’s Clothing

“Law and Order” in the MAGA lexicon is not about the rule of law, it’s about ruling. It serves as a euphemism for re-establishing dominance over a society they feel slipping away. It’s not that they fear crime. It’s that they fear change, especially change that challenges their group’s historical control.

When law becomes untethered from justice and is used only to punish the already powerless, it stops being a legal system. It becomes a control mechanism, weaponized not to uphold American values, but to purge those deemed unworthy of them.

---

Why Collective Narcissism Makes Mass Deportations Look Like Justice

At the heart of MAGA’s support for sweeping, indiscriminate deportations is not simply a concern for legality, security, or jobs, it’s a deeper psychological need for national validation. This is where collective narcissism, particularly national narcissism, comes into play. It’s not just about loving one’s country. It’s about believing one’s national ingroup is exceptional and that others, immigrants, critics, liberals, have failed to recognize that greatness. And this perceived lack of recognition demands retribution (Golec de Zavala, 2024).

Unlike healthy patriotism, which can coexist with self-critique and inclusivity, collective narcissism is driven by the need to be seen as superior. It's less about being great than about forcing others to acknowledge that greatness, ,even if it means targeting vulnerable groups to do so (Golec de Zavala, 2024).

The Engine of Narcissistic Rage

Collective narcissism fuels exaggerated feelings of victimhood, not from real harm, but from the mere suggestion that the ingroup isn’t treated as exceptional. This mindset distorts any criticism as an attack, justifies retaliatory aggression as "defensive," and encourages an almost compulsive belief in threat. Immigrants are not just outsiders, they are cast as existential enemies. Deportation, then, isn’t just policy; it becomes punishment for disrespecting the nation (Golec de Zavala, 2024).

“Collective narcissists want their ingroup to be recognized as better than others more than they care about the ingroup actually excelling in anything” (Golec de Zavala, 2024, p. 1029).

Collective narcissism also magnifies intergroup hostility by fostering a zero-sum worldview, where any gain for immigrants or minorities is seen as a loss for the dominant group (Golec de Zavala, 2024). MAGA’s deportation policies, framed as law and order, are thus interpreted by its base as righteous self-defense against imagined humiliation.

Feeding Inequality, Not Fixing It

Most insidiously, collective narcissism doesn’t only appeal to advantaged groups. Members of disadvantaged groups can also internalize national narcissism, aligning themselves with systems that marginalize them in pursuit of belonging (Golec de Zavala, 2024). A working-class Latino who supports mass deportation may be expressing not solidarity with the powerful, but an anxious desire to be recognized as a "true American."

Research shows that national narcissism in both advantaged (e.g., Whites, men) and disadvantaged groups predicts support for inequality, symbolic racism, sexism, and exclusionary policies (Golec de Zavala, 2024). Disadvantaged individuals may embrace the national ingroup’s superiority myth to maintain a positive identity, even if that identity is built atop their own marginalization.

“Members of disadvantaged groups who endorse national narcissism internalize beliefs legitimizing inequality” (Golec de Zavala, 2024, p. 1028).

This process is not palliative, it doesn't soothe. It often results in worse psychological well-being, particularly when disadvantaged individuals endorse a national identity that excludes their own subgroup (Golec de Zavala, 2024, pp. 1029–1031).

MAGA’s Emotional Payoff: Punishment as Recognition

The MAGA movement’s support for deportations is not rooted in rational policy analysis. It’s a response to the collective narcissistic injury of feeling unrecognized and “replaced.” Deportation becomes symbolic, a way to affirm who the nation belongs to.

To the collective narcissist, inclusion feels like erasure. Diversity feels like defeat. Deportations feel like justice, not because they are just, but because they restore a sense of dominance that was never truly under threat to begin with.

“National narcissism… supplied ‘resentful affectivity’ that fuelled the forceful desire to return to the past” (Golec de Zavala, 2024, p. 1028).

In short, MAGA doesn’t support deportation despite its cruelty, it supports it because of what it symbolizes: recognition, revenge, and restoration of the pecking order.

---

References (APA Style)

Canizales, S. L., & Vallejo, J. A. (2021). Latinos & racism in the Trump era. Dædalus, 150(2), 150–168. https://doi.org/10.1162/DAED_a_01852

Golec de Zavala, A. (2024). Authoritarians and “revolutionaries in reverse”: Why collective narcissism threatens democracy. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 27(5), 1027–1049. https://doi.org/10.1177/13684302241240689

Saeri, A. K., Iyer, A., & Louis, W. R. (2015). Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation predict outsiders’ responses to an external group conflict: Implications for identification, anger, and collective action. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 15(1), 303–332. https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.12081