I’ve seen a few calls on social media for people to offer redemption and acceptance to MAGA voters who may feel like they’ve made a mistake and who may feel like they want to help remove Trump or Musk or whoever is actually president from office. These calls ask us to prepare ourselves to “welcome them to the resistance” so we can all fight as one.
The past few weeks have undeniably been hell for all of us, some more than others, and we’re all dealing in whatever way we can. We’ve not only seen the regime charge right out of the gate with their self-proclaimed “mandate” to end the existence of Trans people, but to also re-segregate society along racial lines and put women back in our place.
We’ve watched as thousands of federal jobs were ripped away from USAID workers without a thought for the consequences to the workers or to the countries and causes they served in our country’s name. Thousands more federal workers are holding the line in OPM and in other agencies, trying to figure out how they can actively resist the occupation by Elon Musk’s weird-ass (presumably) non-biological children, and it’s reported that thousands more have decided to take the risk and trust the fork retirement program.
One of the more terrifying and heartbreaking institutions that is currently being demolished is our wonderful Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA works tirelessly to ensure aviation safety, and their success is evident by just looking at how easily we all grab a cheap air fare to see family or go on vacation with no thought for our safety getting to our destination. We trust that we’ll get there safely, and FAA is to thank for that. Now, however, the Elon Musk / Donald Trump regime has decided that their broccoli-haired creepers would make fine replacements for trained Air Traffic Controllers, that their untested, on-the-fly software would make a fine replacement for current software, and as a result there have been more accidents both in-air and on-ground in less than three weeks than there have been in decades.
We’re all worried about what this means for our jobs and banking and healthcare and childcare and schooling and even the fucking weather and and and…everything.
All of this is to say that those of us who knew things would be terrible couldn’t have predicted how terrible, and so reportedly, even those who carried Trump’s water and voted for him – despite copious warnings – are now having regrets. Therefore we must also add the stress of even the consideration of welcoming them with open arms.
There are several problems with that. First, I’ve only seen anecdotal evidence that any of them are actually hurting so badly that they would dare to speak against their open-pored god-king. Second, we’ve seen similar happen before, when people like Glenn Beck and Megan Kelley swore against the horrors of Donald Trump only to run right back once they found out that they would have to work for respect in the anti-Trump realm.
A mere three months ago, the people who – according to the benevolent leaders on social media ,we should welcome and forgive – were voting for a man who they knew incited a violent insurrection against our government. They knew he had been judged a rapist by a jury of his peers, and that he was convicted on 34 felony charges. They knew about his racism and sexism, and they knew that he’s an accomplished con man. They knew he would be cruel to people who weren’t like them (or in too many cases, who were) but they all convinced themselves that he would never exact that cruelty upon their own precious lives.
Again, I haven’t seen solid evidence to indicate that they’ve changed their minds. To many of them, any cruelty or hardship he thrusts upon them is a wise decision by a very rich and therefore very smart man. They either think he’s doing them a favor or they are so hate-filled that they’re willing to suffer any consequences to banish those of us who they find objectionable.
If anyone can provide evidence that someone could vote for Trump for any other reason, I will eat my hat but I think that anyone with a brain knows that what his voters were really concerned about was the master race (even if that did not include them), not the economy or education or potential wars.
It is for these reasons that I don’t think it’s wise to welcome repentant MAGAs into the fold. On the off-hand chance that a few of them might show persistent and genuine remorse and might do good work to make up for their destructive choices, who knows what the future holds. After eight years of this shit though, if these mythical MAGAs exist, they’ll need to realize that this won’t be an instant-hero story for them, and that they will have work very hard for that forgiveness.
Remember, those people voted for a con-man for a reason. Pre-forgiving them for something they most likely don’t really feel bad about is setting yourself up to get knee-capped.