People ask what I think of ex-MAGA. Are they sincere? Should we forgive them? Should we trust them?
In order, I reply:
Depends.
Yes. Always.
Depends.
Here are some samples of ways I respond to MAGA who claim to be out of love with the antichrist they did so much to create:
He is exactly the same man. You are lying to create distance from him and try for a piece of market share among disaffected MAGA. You are still refusing to take an ounce of responsibility for the monster you and your cult are 100% responsible for creating. Albert Speer took more responsibility than the entire GOP put together.
Another lying right wing grifter illustrates the way post-MAGA conservatives will continue to lie to the rank-and-file they seek to exploit. The ol’ “Everything changed since I was a professional liar! FOX used to have integrity when I lied for them. But now it’s completely different!”
Lady, they haven’t changed a bit. Nor have you. You lie for a living and, as the house of cards you built falls apart, you are just trying to carve out the biggest market share of the disillusioned cultists who cannot face the fact that they are consumers of lies.
I don’t trust any of these predators (including Carlson, who is, like rest, fighting for market share among the Cult rank-and-file by selling them full-on antisemitism). While I am happy to see them make life difficult for Trump (and Trump make life difficult for them) I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them, nor should you. Charity believeth all things, but we are to be wise as serpents too. I regard their rejection of Trump, not as metanoia, but as a business decision. The sharks smell blood in the water and think Trump is failing and flailing. So they are positioning themselves for as much market share of the rank-and-file in the Cult once the Cult disintegrates and turns against Trump. I haven’t seen one of these predators take responsibility for their part in creating the mess. I haven’t seen one of them ask for forgiveness.
As Rebecca Bratten Weiss nicely summed thing up in response to this half-assed act of repentence:
“Just over here waiting for one of these pouty little victims to acknowledge that while yes, Trump and his sycophants lied to them, the millions of us who warned them about Trump did not lie one bit.
But that would disrupt their whole innocent-victim-who-could-not-have-known-and -should definitely-still-be-listened-to game.” – Rebecca Bratten Weiss
I haven’t seen one of the ex-MAGA leaders apologize or make reparation to their victims. What they are doing is pivoting and finding a new grift. So let ’em all eat each other and do damage to Trump. But don’t regard them as anything but temporarily useful. They remain predators.
This is the fundamental problem the Party of Personal Responsibility has yet to squarely face. Yes. You were lied to. That’s true. But here’s the thing: YOU WERE ALSO TOLD THE TRUTH BY PEOPLE WHO, AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, TRIED TO WARN YOU.
And your response, again and again and again and again and again, was “Screw you, woke libtard. Go to hell, babykiller. Shut up soyboy.” And even now, you turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the very existence of the good and decent people who are still trying to get you help work for the common good while you still treat them like they have cooties and are simply too embarrassing or too leprous to touch. Until you stop pretending, “How were we to know?” and ignoring the people who told you clearly how you could have known at the time, you are still telling lies and not taking full responsibility. You’ve started repenting and that’s something. Now finish the job and stop trying to put a fresh coat of paint on a fundamentally flawed pack of lies. You were lied to, yes. But you were lied to because you were already lying to yourself. And if you don’t leave off lying to yourself, your repentance will wither and die and not bear fruit. Come all the way home to the truth that is in Christ.
All that said, I get that repentance is a process. Never forget that the Prodigal Son repented, not out of some sudden realization that he had gravely insulted his father, his people, and his God, but because he was hungry. Nor should we forget that the Father in the parable welcomed him back even after his half-assed apology. Nor should we forget both the justice–and churlishness–of the older brother’s complaint. But at the end of the day, what governs the parable is the love of the Father toward both his sons.
I’ve seen nothing to make me think the grifters in formerly MAGA media are doing anything but repositioning for future market share. Yes, I’m happy to see Carlson and Co. take a baby step of apologizing for their years of MAGA lies. But I’m not pretending it’s anything more than a baby step.
So as far as forgiveness goes. I believe they should be forgiven and extended grace. But I don’t believe in predicating that forgiveness on the sincerity of their repentance because Christ does not teach that. He teaches–and lives–the extension of grace unconditionally. He commands us to forgive anything we have against anybody (Mark 11:25) regardless of whether they are sorry or not. He does the same from the cross against his impenitent murderers. As Paul says, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” We are to do the same for those who sin against us.
But that does not mean we are to be fools. We are to wise as serpents and innocent as doves. So while we are bound to forgive half-assed (and even impenitent) sinners, we are under no obligation to trust them. So I want to see what a self-professed ex-MAGA does after his proclamation of regret. When the ostentatiously penitent start establishing a systematic–and self-sacrificial–program of making reparations to the countless innocents they did so much to hurt and even kill, then I will take them seriously as being on the road toward repentance and healing and transformation.
He entered Jericho and was passing through. And there was a man named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector, and rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not, on account of the crowd, because he was small of stature. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it they all murmured, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Lk 19:1–10)
Grace is free. Trust must be earned.
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4 Responses
So, they wail that “Trump lied to them.” Really? He does nothing but lie. Only an intellectual and moral fraud would believe him. The man is such an obvious con artist that it still amazes me that people actually believe him.
Marjorie Taylor Greene was an especially vicious attack dog for Trump. She went after survivors of school shootings and seems to have an IQ lower than her body temperature. Now, she sees the truth! Horse manure. These people are grifters who see the whole house of cards collapsing and are trying to position themselves as poor souls who were duped.
I wonder what Trump really thinks of his idiot followers? I would bet money that he has nothing but contempt for them. They deserve it.
I believed Trump, that is why I never voted for him.
I believed when he said he could shoot people on fifth avenue and not lose support that he was a narcissist .
I believed when I saw him mock a disabled reporter that he was cruel.
I believed when he tried to ban Muslims he was a bigot.
I believed how he acted at Charlottesville showed he was an instigator.
I believed when he said that if abortion became illegal women would need to go to back alley abortionists, that he didn’t care about women, babies or abortion, and couldn’t be bothered to learn the playbook.
I believed him when he raved about Epstein, that yes he also was a perverse abuser of children.
I have not seen one redeeming value that he held that could justify him being in the White House he’s destroying literally and figuratively.
When MAGA repent, they need to because of the values they held that made this megalomaniac monster seem normal leader.
You’re right, Mark, those media figures have seen the polling numbers and presidential approval numbers. It seems to me, with October knocking….they figure a brief apology and distancing will suffice to stay politically relevant, to save market share as you point out.
The other morning, I heard a Nebraska rep or senator now expressing chagrin, and even mentioned changing his future vote about the Iran war. Nevermind he didn’t do anything to stop it since February, and that no votes will occur in the house until after midterms….JD showed up a few days later across the river in Council Bluffs to lift spirits.
As I read your article, I thought: but what about all the bad actions you had no problem supporting or excusing? Were they bad too? Or good things with a liar selling them? Immigrant scapegoating and abuse, occupation of cities, exploding fishing vessels, kidnapping a foreign head of state, gutting USAID, starting a war in Iran with no congressional authorization, expansion of executive branch authority etc, etc.?
And the unfortunate thing is, a blue wave will be misunderstood as a vote of confidence. They will still support the ministry industrial complex with its middle eastern genocide. They will further advance executive power. They will also leave Congress as millionaires.
Autocorrect above changed “military” in my last paragraph to “ministry”. Although, I’ve got to say, MIC appendages do have a religious aspect to them