Early last week, I was at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library for its first weekend. At the library itself, despite President Donald Trump inserting himself incongruously into the opening ceremonies, I did not see a single person sporting a Trump-branded clothing item.
The town of Medora, North Dakota, itself was, however, a different story. It wasn’t overwhelming. But for someone who lives in an urban center of a blue state, where even in the ruby red rural areas most people have become sufficiently shamed to shut up about their MAGA tendencies, a single errant MAGA cap is a rarity.
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I scowled at the half-dozen or so people I observed wearing Trump-branded clothing in Medora, but didn’t initiate any interactions. What’s the point?
Still, apparent Trump support cost the town some tourist dollars. When my bibliophile significant other overheard the clerk at the bookstore excitedly pointing out to another patron the photos he’d gotten of Trump during the president’s earlier visit to town, she quietly reshelved the $60 or so worth of books she’d had in her hands. We left without making a purchase.
Later last week, I was on a boat called the Sea Hunter III with my father on the way out to Isle Royale National Park (it was a busy week). An overweight blowhard who was all alone was approaching nearly everyone onboard. Dad made a polite response when this man commented on his Air Force veteran ball cap.
I did not, because it took this guy less than 30 seconds to transition from my father’s Air Force service to praising Donald Trump. I shut him up with an acerbic comment.
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“He’s probably just lonely,” Dad said when the guy wandered away to bother someone else. I replied to the effect that he absolutely was lonely — who would want to spend time with such a son-of-a-bitch?
We hiked. I didn’t have my antagonist microchipped, but this guy was on the dock when we left and still there accosting people when we came back. I didn’t see him on the trail, and he was not in any kind of shape to make it out to the overlook anyway. In the safety briefing we received before boarding the watercraft we were told to shout immediately to the captain if we saw anyone fall overboard, but had it happened to this fellow, I wouldn’t have made a peep.
Trump is bleeding support even among his stubborn, uneducated base. We all know at least one Trump supporter who revels in upsetting people, who is an internet troll come to life in the real world.
I don’t think that is most of his remaining supporters, though. I think most of them are totally ignorant of exactly how much they are despised by anyone who does not identify as MAGA.
During Trump’s first term, I could be more forgiving. I have been fortunate enough to get several good scholarships, to get a good education, and to be able to discern reality from bullshit. For people who never got training in how to think critically, and whose lives are not going as they planned, I had some grace.
January 6 was the breaking point for me. After that, in what anyone who was not completely braindead could see was an overt attempt to overthrow the democratically elected American government instigated by Trump and Trump alone, I could not see MAGA acolytes for anything but what they were: enemies of America who cared about nothing beyond their own political power.
Other people have had different breaking points. Maybe it was the unnecessary war against Iran, maybe it was the more than $2 billion Trump has grifted off of the presidency in the past year, maybe it was his utter contempt for conservationism: different people have different reasons for leaving the MAGA cult. But if you haven’t left it yet, you are either a total moron who shouldn’t be voting, or a terrible human being willing to overlook absolutely anything so long as the political team you have chosen wins.
This isn’t the opposite political party spending money on things you don’t like. This is Trump’s regime killing innocent people and covering it up. It is ceding America’s position on the world stage. If you are still a Trump supporter and this column has somehow pierced your media bubble, know that you are justifiably reviled. You are actively making life worse for Americans. You will be lonely until the end, and then forgotten.
Jonathan Wolf is a civil litigator and author of Your Debt-Free JD (affiliate link). He has taught legal writing, written for a wide variety of publications, and made it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at [email protected].