Does the word "again" have a tense?

In a recent conversation, the mention of one politician's use of 'again' prompted a relative to say " 'Again' is past tense."

Can the word "again" be assigned past (or present) tense?

Context: Someone told me that they thought the slogan "Make America Great Again", "Keep America Great Again" was past tense with reference to the word 'again' and that this was backwards thinking.

I'm just an aspiring wordsmith, curious to the nuances in play here.

Solution 1:

While, looking at this strictly, no tense can be assigned to any parts of speech other than verbs, and so the frequency adverb 'again' has no more a tense than it does sidewhiskers, broadened usages often occur and often become established, acceptable. From the internet I've collected several examples where 'is past tense' is used informally to mean 'is history', 'is no more', 'is confined to the past'. This is a typical metaphorical broadening.

• 'Peak Oil is Past Tense': Exxon, Shell, and Aramco Admit the Peak is Real ... The IEA's Chief Economist Fatih Birol declared: Peak Oil is here, or rather, was here in 2006. And it really doesn't matter whose analysis you prefer....

• a fund for clean energy, oil barons are ... past tense [Google search]

• But beauty parlours are past tense.

• You can’t change yesterday but you can enjoy today and you can determine your tomorrow! All of your yesterdays are gone … they are past tense. [Carol Mcleod]

• 'The hair is gon.' ... Yep, that's the first thing coming up to my mind, when I see good old Willie [Nelson] standing up there on stage at the Circus Krone in Munich. Mind me, his long plaits were something like his brand. But they are past tense now. [MusicMirror_Reviews]

So " 'Again' is past tense" ( for "If we use the word 'again', it means we're revisiting the same old ideas / plans / projects that didn't work too well back in the day") is pithy, witty, and better than acceptable on one level. But not in a linguistics class.