"My Mom's Support For Trump Divided Our Family. Then I Found The Crack In Her MAGA Armor."

[lindysalsagal]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/my-mom-s-support-for-trump-divided-our-family-then-i-found-the-crack-in-her-maga-armor/ar-BB1pNPLd?ocid=nl_article_link
Story by Tim Durnin

I pleaded with her not to vote for him. She wouldn’t budge. In the wake of his election, her choice took on the weight of a betrayal. Her blindness to Trump’s white nationalist tendencies was an affront to my wife, who is a proud Latina, and angered my biracial, high-school-aged children.

She voted for Trump again in 2020 but did not embrace the “big lie” that he’d won the election with anything close to enthusiasm. She did defend the honor of her chosen candidate afterward, but her Ultra MAGA armor started to crack when Trump’s attacks were directed at Republican icons like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney and the Bush dynasty. Then Jan. 6, 2021, shook the foundation of her political fortress. The damage was considerable and lasting.

Before saying our traditional grace, she stood up, and the room came to attention. She took a moment to compose herself, and with her signature confidence, said, “I want to apologize.” Looking around the table, she did not falter. “I made a horrible mistake voting for Trump. Had I known then what I know now, I never would have voted for him. I hope you will forgive me.” And it was done.

[XanaDUer2]

1. Her poker skills convinced ppl to vote Trump?

The fuck? Maybe I misunderstood that

[Wounded Bear]

2. Funny how so many of us knew what he was "then" and so many are just finding out "now"...

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt, folks.

[XanaDUer2]

3. Yeah she voted twice for him

What was the chink in her trump armour?

[Hekate]

10. Possibly covered in the whole article at link, & not in the 4 paragraph limit in post

[XanaDUer2]

11. Hi!

[Hekate]

12. Back atya

[Aristus]

4. Wow. Being totally blind and deaf for the period of 2015 until January 6th, 2021 must have really sucked.

And remaining upright without a functioning brain is a real testament to human perseverance.

[Under The Radar]

5. I think that most traditional Republicans had that same reaction

,,,immediately following the January 6th insurrection. But there seems to be a split among them now where apparently a very large and organized back room deal has been struck where many have fallen back in line, pledging loyalty and then a minority of the hardliners are still defiant but now are silent. even our moderate media streams appear to be kissing the ring. This has nothing to do with the debate, this started months ago. It is confusing, and very scary.

[markodochartaigh]

9. In 2015 the

Republicans were going to have a brokered convention to choose another candidate. But the "traditional", corporate Republicans realized that they could not win without Trump because he was so popular among the 80% of their base who are authoritarians. So they put party before country and chose an authoritarian Strong Leader who was not committed to democracy. After the attempted coup Trump's authoritarian base seemed to waver. It was like a gang who had been caught beating up homeless people. They waited to see what was going to happen. But gradually, in a few months, Trump's authoritarian support went back to about 80% of Republicans when they saw that Trump, the ringleader, was not going to face immediate accountability. Now Trump and his cronies have consolidated their power in the Republican party. And most media know that if the Republicans gain power the media will have a target on their foreheads. A big media corporation cannot reward their shareholders if all they can report on is city manager races.

[slightlv]

14. The lack of immediate

Accountability hurt us in a lot of ways... and the longer he remains unaccountable, the worse it will be for us, IMO. The farther from the event, the less people remember of it... or have a chance to play mind games with themselves that they didn't see what they really saw. Garland really let us down, and so did Congress. This country just isn't set up to realistically handle a crook like trump, imo. The courts give way too deference for the rich and connected... the richer the more deference. They're also way more concerned with threats than they are with saving the country. Maybe that's realistic, but if u can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. Public servants serve the public, and we aint been served!

[markodochartaigh]

18. Excellent!

Two points. We have different groups in society, one group is the military, mostly drawn from the working class. This group is often asked to literally put their lives on the line, even though the working class doesn't get much out of our society. We have an elite class, of course many of them are either disinterested in the problems of those beneath them, or are outright authoritarians. But there are many elites on the left or in the middle. How can we not ask these people who have gotten so much from our society, often for generations, to stand up against authoritarianism? Also we have a governing/ judicial class, also frequently well-heeled, whose job it should be to prevent insurrectionist activity. How can they not feel obligated to stand up against authoritarianism? Certainly both of these elite groups will be better protected than Joe Soldier. What happens when those who have gotten the most out of a society won't stand up for the continuation of an orderly and civil society? Will this class just take what they have sucked out of us and flee to another country, that is what most of the Russian royalty did.

And point two: immediately after the coup attempt it looked as if many corporations were not going to give money to those politicians who helped with the coup. But after a few months they realized which way the wind was blowing and resumed supporting both sides (pro-democracy and pro-autocracy). Since corporations are people, and some of the wealthiest and least legally accountable people, and the main way that we can influence these über-people is with our dollars I think that we missed a huge opportunity there. The maga people understand this, look at their actions against Target because of Pride, or against the beer company.

[Skittles]

20. since they had nothing, they had concentrated on Hunter

then unfortunately, Biden gave them exactly the excuse they needed

[JI7]

6. But he attacked Mccain , Ted Cruz and many other Republicans before 2016

So him going after Republicans was nothing new. So this doesn't make sense to me.

[Timeflyer]

7. Glad she came around. Hope the kids handled her evolution without too much trauma.

[Dan]

8. My thoughts on this was

The only way I would have heard about “Mom’s” apology would have been antidotal from family members that would have attended her dinner.

Given that the person narrating this event was involved in a multi-racial family environment with kids, there would have been no way that ‘grand-mother’ would have been in their lives.

Forgiving and forgetting - not really strong in my vocabulary - especially since in some ways, we continue to live with the choices people made in 2016. The damage is on-going.

[Warpy]

13. It takes a lot of courage to amit we've been dead wrong about something

and even more to apologize to the people we've antagonized over it.

Plus, a lot of families are so split that they no longer "do" the holidays, even if Mom is the only one who knows how to cook a turkey.

America is going to need a hell of a lot of healing.

It's starting slowly because I'm happy to report Limbaugh is still dead.

[Crowman2009]

15. Thankfully my mom remembered when Trump was a lying sack of shit way back in the 80's and never vote for him ever.

Don't know why anyone who was a grown adult during that time decided to be an ignoramus with regards to that corrupt asshole.

The only reason the orange bastard managed to stay out of prison was due to having friends in high places.

[PeaceWave]

16. It took "attacks directed at Republican icons like Mitt Romney" to sway your Mom?

Yeesh. So much for empathy in your family. My Mom voted for Trump back in 2016. All it took for her to realize she'd made a mistake was seeing children at the border in cages and separated from their parents. Mom saw that and audibly said "That bastard" and that was that for Trump.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

19. I think it has been said that the Reps are going to listen to former Reps

than the Dems. That makes sense.

[Skittles]

17. I cannot forgive people who helped give us Donald Fucking Trump

they make me SICK

[PeaceWave]

21. I'm the opposite. When people acknowledge fault, I'm typically proud of them.

How else can we grow as people and as a society unless we encourage them when they turn themselves around?

[Skittles]

22. well good for them

all it took was disgracing themselves and their country

we'll be paying for that fucked up nonsense for A LONG TIME