But I stuck with MAGA. The fear of losing my community terrified me. For the better part of a year, I spent myriad sleepless nights wrestling with my conscience.
The final straw came for me on May 24, 2022, when a gunman massacred 19 kids and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. MAGA’s response was that we needed more guns. My research had shown me that was egregiously mistaken. Overwhelmed by guilt for having contributed to this madness, I quit MAGA.
Three months later, I published a mea culpa, in which I renounced my support for Trump and apologized for my hurtful deeds and rhetoric. I never imagined that anyone would care. But the opposite was true: I was deluged with requests for help from people hoping to save their relationships with their friends and loved ones in MAGA.
Ex-MAGAs need to know that while we are glad they’ve quit the Dark Side, it will take years of redemption before anyone trusts them again, if ever.
For one thing, we need to apply the 14th Amendment/ Section 3 to anyone who supported the Jan 6 Insurrection, including those who simply repeated Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen. They knew it wasn’t true, and their validation of his Big Lie encouraged MAGAs to turn traitor and join the Insurrection.
Anyone who supported MAGA should be prohibited from holding office.