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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18 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
How is it anti semitism to say NO to genocide in Gaza? Tucker Carlson has “half repented?” What about you? I’m so disillusioned. Me thinks your “influencer” check from BiBi is more important than exposing the desecration of innocence in Gaza. Your silence is deafening. Even Rabbis are protesting. Trump is a stinky distraction from the real story and you know it.
The Netanyahu Regime is a genocidal criminal regime. Netanyahu belongs in the Hague along with his accomplices. None of that makes Carlson a Good Guy. The Right in the US has long used support for Israel as a shield for its anti-semitism just as it uses the unborn as human shields for its crimes. Carlson is now dropping the pretense of support for Israel so he can cultivate the naked Jew-hatred that has always simmered on the far right because his sole interest is in cultivating a new audience for a new grift. The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend. I stand with Cardinal Pizzaballa and the others who are speaking out on behalf of the victims in Gaza and other victims of Netanyahu’s crimes. I regard Jewish Nationalism as I regard Christian Nationalism: as a thing of Hell.
I’ve never understood the obsession that underlies anti-Semitism. The problems I see with Israel have nothing to do with its people being Jews, at least to my mind. It’s stuff that would, or at least should be unacceptable regardless of who is doing it.
Some of the crimes are rooted in a particular interpretation of Judaism, but it’s not fundamentally different from the Christian version of Manifest Destiny, American exceptionalism and rabid nationalism.
Where Israel has gone wrong it largely the same as the way America went wrong: The politics of sociopathy and cynicism fed by populist and criminal leaders.
“naked Jew-hatred”
I’m not seeing that.
“The Right in the US has long used support for Israel as a shield for its anti-semitism…”
I’m not seeing that either. I know hate when I see it and hear it.
The truth about these fake eastern European”chosen” with their supposed land deed from God, questionable DNA and their evil occult behavior–look up their history. Look up the unpublished papers of Freud normalizing pedophilia. Look up Sebatianism/Frankism Kabalah, and the star of Rempham.
The Semites are the Palestinians and Lebanese that converted to Christianity and Islam, that have been there for 2000 years.
Carlson is one of the few that has the courage to to talk about the billions going to Israel, Aipac, the Epstein class, Israel’s long history of false flags, the criminals that shorted American airlines right before 911, the trillions of dollars missing and unaccounted for from our government, the mafioso that took out the terrorist insurance on the twin towers, Robert Maxwell, the Bush brother and cousin in charge of security for the twin towers, the U.S.S. Liberty, (Captain McGonagle was a friend and patient of my Dad–McGonagle was *threatened* into silence–not by Israel but OUR government). The list goes on and on and on. What we are talking about is an organized criminal cartel that has lied, stolen, murdered, and caused mayhem for over a hundred years. Netanyahu is just one more in a long line of the same criminal behavior. The fact that Israel now has the largest bank of human organs and skin is the cherry on top.
And if that wasn’t enough, almost every last politician from both parties in our government accepts bribes from them.
Why are we even talking about the dottering old orange pervert when he’s powerless in the face of these accomplished murderers? We’re about to go above ground and officially merge our government permanently with a cartel and you don’t even talk about it.
This is not about antisemitism. My kids probably have more Semitic blood than those disgusting settlers stealing, sharp shooting kids, plundering and burning out families on stolen land.
Sorry my opposition to the criminal Netanyahu regime is not enough. I am busy trying to keep 40+ kids in Uganda from starving as well as writing a book. I wish your fantasy of giant (or any) checks from Bibi were true, but sadly the reality is that I’m on Social Security and busy enough with what I’m doing and nobody is paying me off or buying my silence. Over on FB, I’ve written critically of the Netanyahu regime repeatedly. Here, I’ve written of other stuff. It’s not a plan. It’s a crap shoot. When I get around to it, I will probably write something about Bibi and his evil government. But I’m pulled in many directions and finding the time to post stuff on the blog is a huge time suck when I am trying to write the book.
PS. As to the use of support for Israel as a shield for anti-semitism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md5iu-Rt-ms I’m not sure what DNA has to do with anything, nor Eastern Europe. People have converted to Judaism for centuries. Nor do I believe that Trump is helpless. He chose this stupid war. He’s a grownup. (And I agree that merging with Israel is a deeply stupid idea, by the way.)
But marching under the banner of the swastika at Charlottesville *is* naked Jew hatred.
None of this is even “half-repentance”. It contains not a single sub-atomic particle of repentance. This is the same old scam MAGA has been pulling since day one of their movement: Casting themselves as the Real Victim and center of the universe.
They’re not sorry at all for how they have voted or behaved. They’re only sorry it didn’t work out the way they’d hoped. If they had the slightest hope it would next time, they’d vote MAGA again tomorrow. Easily 9 out of 10 of them will vote that way in a few short weeks when nobody is looking.
Christ may give them the grace of unconditional forgiveness, but MAGA is going to find out quickly that I ain’t Him.
For me, forgiveness is always conditional on actual, not faked contrition, acknowledgment of harm, and some real effort to make amends, even if the damage they wrought is unrepairable. And the fact remains that most of what MAGA voters have done is not for me to forgive. They’ve caused me grief and inconvenience. They’ve cost countless others their lives.
Nobody was ever fooled by Trump who wasn’t desperately seeking to be fooled. It’s as simple as that. Nobody with the barest minimum of adult mental and moral capacity was unable to detect what he was really about. Not even in 2016, but absolutely not in subsequent elections.
The only deal I would offer to those who insist they were hoodwinked by Trump is this: We’ll accept that plea on the condition that the person making it be permanently barred from voting and accept a state-appointed guardian to look after their finances and daily affairs for the rest of their lives. Naturally they would be barred from jury service and possession of arms as well. Then, and only then, will I let them off the hook.
I dunno Mark. This argument I have has nothing to do with skinheads in Charlottesville. You know how I feel about white supremacists. The thing is— the Epstein class IS a bunch of white supremacists. The devil must have a sense of humor. Trump is a useful idiot that does what he’s told. He’s the fungal infection under the left toenail while Israel is the stage four cancer.
Fun fact: my uncle was a Sassoon. As a boy, he was sent to a Chinese concentration camp where he watched people being shot. His Jewish mother was the darling of the Sassoon patriarch. He supposedly left her everything in his will. When he died they cast her out with an ultimatum that she take a million dollars and leave (or else)…She took the money. My uncle was the most lovely man. His grandson Julian is a brilliant reporter on Capitol Hill.
Jewish Nationalism, like Christian Nationalism, is deeply racist, because Nationalism is racist. But the reality is that the Christian Nationalism Carlson and Owen are cultivating is deeply antisemitic. I’m not interested in quibbles over DNA. “Antisemitism” means (to the people who coined the word) “hatred of Jews”. It was a 19th century attempt to scientize hatred of Jews by decoupling it from Christian culture and declare that it was all based on “scientific racism” which was all the rage at the time and which would engender not merely the Holocaust, but the extermination and enslavement of all sorts of indigenous people. Like it or not, the MAGA base, like Trump, goes in for this eugenics bullshit which is why they march under the banner of the swastika and the Confederacy. It is true the Epstein class are white supremacists. But “Epstein class” sneaks in the idea that Jewishness somehow is a root cause when the obvious real issue is money and power and Jews are as appalled by these monsters as Christians are.
I think you radically underestimate Trump’s power and responsibility and radically exaggerate Israeli power as well as conflating it with “Jewish power”. The notion of the Jewish Puppet Master has a long and deadly history. As an American, I think it deeply dangerous to alleviate Trump of his responsibility and blame it all on a Shadowy Jewish Conspiracy. Bibi and his regime are criminals. No question about that. But Trump is responsible for his actions–as are we.
“As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham’s stock.
Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God’s saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ-Abraham’s sons according to faith (6)-are included in the same Patriarch’s call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people’s exodus from the land of bondage. The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles.(7) Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself.(8)
The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: “theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church’s main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ’s Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.
As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation,(9) nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading.(10) Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues-such is the witness of the Apostle.(11) In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and “serve him shoulder to shoulder” (Soph. 3:9).(12)
Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues.
True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ;(13) still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.
Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel’s spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church’s preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God’s all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows.
5. We cannot truly call on God, the Father of all, if we refuse to treat in a brotherly way any man, created as he is in the image of God. Man’s relation to God the Father and his relation to men his brothers are so linked together that Scripture says: “He who does not love does not know God” (1 John 4:8).
No foundation therefore remains for any theory or practice that leads to discrimination between man and man or people and people, so far as their human dignity and the rights flowing from it are concerned.
The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion. On the contrary, following in the footsteps of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, this sacred synod ardently implores the Christian faithful to “maintain good fellowship among the nations” (1 Peter 2:12), and, if possible, to live for their part in peace with all men,(14) so that they may truly be sons of the Father who is in heaven.” – Nostra Aetate
I’m not sure why critics of Israel think it’s a great strategy to invoke Race Purity (ie the notion that Israelis are not genetically “Jew enough” to have any right to live where they do.
When you lead with the disclaimer of “I’m not anti-Semitic” but then immediately go on to an argument rooted in Blood and Soil, that kind of seems like sawing off the limb you’re standing on credibility wise.
The U.S. has no business nor ability to mediate the question of whether the modern state of Israel should exist. It does exist. They have nuclear weapons. Lots of them. They’re not going anywhere.
The only real question at play is whether we should be actively aiding and abetting them in committing vast and deliberate crimes against humanity.
Mark,
I’m not against the Joooooos. I don’t hate anyone and am deeply horrified by the Holocaust. It’s Zionism. Zionism has nothing to do with the faith of Abraham. Nothing. Zionism bears all of the fruits of a powerful demonic cult. I regard Jewish people as my brothers and sisters. Thanks be to God for the ones that risk their livelihoods and reputations to loudly condemn what is happening and what they are waking up to.
How ironic that the hateful ones who say “never again” inflict ethnic cleansing upon a race of people that they refer to as animals and Amalak. They create hell on earth just like Hitler did. They have stated that they won’t stop until we are all gone, but will farm us like animals in the meantime. Their middleman Epstein quipped “Rome 0, Israel 1”. Netanyahu publicly wrote that they would suck us dry, then chop us up and sell us for parts.
I wonder if Zionism is what Mary warned the children of Fatima about when she told them that “Russia will rise up and spread her errors throughout the world.” We always referred to this scourge as “Godless atheism”, but I don’t think that is true. It is more like an inversion of everything that is good and holy. They do not have a Christian outlook in the least. Our text books failed to mention the massive Holocaust of the Russian and Ukrainian people.
You should feel afraid. They are creating a massive surveillance state, and building detention centers all over the country where they extract slave labor from people who are often wrongfully incarcerated. The billionaires build bunkers and the so-called Israelis casually refer to their “Samson option”.–Using the bombs that Robert Maxwell stole the plans for.
I have a Jewish, Zionist, brother-in-law who couldn’t have been more excited about the carpet bombing of Palestine. My sister, a Christian, stares blankly at me when I tell her “40,000 children have been murdered!” She literally said, “we know people in Israel who lost their son on October seventh–she had to go identify him in the morgue.” You know what I honestly think?–They think “those filthy sand n***ers had it coming to them, and those kids would have grown up to be terrorists.” My brother-in-law says, “What do you want?–That Iran builds a nuclear weapon?” This is supposed to cue my false flag brainwashing. I thought: “I’m more afraid of Israel having one” but answered, “why should Israel have one?”–Of course JFK tried to stop that (among other things $) and we know how that ended.
We are brainwashed idiots in this country. The narrative has been carefully massaged into our heads by a heavily controlled, and Zionist owned media.
It’s a good thing I don’t live in one of those states where I could be arrested for being critical of what “Israel” does.
Zionism can mean one of two things: Patriotism or Nationalism. Patriotism is a virtue. Nationalism is from Hell. Israelis who love their country do not sin so long as the love of their country is kept in proportion to the love of God and neighbor. Those who exalt their nation as an idol above all other goods are Nationalists and serve the devil, whatever country they happen to love. Israelis are not immune to this any more than Americans. However, since I am an American, I devote my energies to fighting Nationalists here more than I do to other countries. But Nationalism is from Hell, whatever country it is found in.
A couple of years ago, I might have agreed with you. I knew nothing about the founders of Zionism or who funded them. I always supported the right of the Jewish people to have a homeland. I never examined the idea that they had a right to that land–nor did I disagree with my sister when she glowingly referred to her soon to be husband as “one of God’s chosen.” One day a little 90-year-old lady from Our Lady of Sorrows Church shook her head and spelled it out to her directly saying: “no, honey, WE, the followers of Christ, are the people of the new covenant. *We* are the chosen people.”
I agree with her. Thankfully, that state of being chosen is open to all. According to my religion, the Jews are lost sheep. But I’m a Mom, and if being a Mom has taught me anything, it’s the fact that there is nothing my child could do that could stop me from loving them AND parenthood requires sometimes heroic patience. My love doesn’t blind me from the facts though.
Zionism is a death cult, no matter how you dress it up. Patriotism or no Patriotism. Sadly, for the Jewish diaspora, God didn’t promise them that land. They are lost sheep that we must love, and be patient with.
What I love about the country I live in is that it is not a failed experiment. We might still have a long way to go, but most of us get along with each other and see the other as our equal. I hope we have the chance for it to become what we ask for in the Lord’s prayer every day.
There is a difference between a). supporting Israeli genocide and war making (to me, that’s Zionism) and b). anti-semitism. Per Nostra Aetate, Muslims and Jews are our brothers, created by the same God. Unfortunately, we can’t seem to discuss the problems with camp a). for fear of enabling camp b)….. But, that of course, is the confusion, coupled with official US support, which allows camp a) to run wild. (I grant, however, there are people who hold membership in both groups).
Remember when, about a half a year ago, one of the members of the Religious Liberty Commission got kicked off for mentioning Zionism? It’s off the table.
To me, the rampant presidential and congressional (red and blue) support of a warmaking industry/nation/cartel is what enables it.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/y–3ac1GVoY