Might be a hard pill to swallow, but more and more prominent Republicans have endorsed Kamala Harris and call Donald Trump a threat. Who are the real RINOs?
Choosing COUNTRY over PARTY
This is the common justification many – still – Republicans have given for endorsing Kamala Harris for President of the United States of American in the 2024 election, and disavowed Donald J. Trump – despite the fact he is the Grand Old Party (GOP) presidential candidate. So, what is prompting GOP Republicans to distance themselves from Trump? Well, there are many-many reasons, and we’ll speak about some of the most prevalent, and why these are significant.
In either case Trump calls RiNOs (Republicans in Name Only) to any Republicans who are not acolyte to him. But read all the way to the end of this article to gain context – there is plenty to discuss. the fact is that all MAGA are Republicans (or at least align Republican, but not every Republican/Conservative) is MAGA. And more and more of Republicans loathe Trump. Let’s explore why.
Trump’s antics got old
Love of hate Trump, one of the things that for some reason got him to the level of prominence and notoriety he “enjoys” today is the fact he insulted his way up to the top. There are entire compilations of Trump insulting a bunch of people who were inconvenient to him. And I am not talking about any liberals or democrats, I am talking about red-meat-eating-God-fearing-gun-toting ultra conservatives.
This includes a lot of his most ardent political supporters who were very vocal about Trump being a threat to the United States of America and the rest of the planet… and somehow became enablers for any bizarre or downright concerning situation Trump has been accused ever since then. This ranges from “mean Tweets” to criminal indictments and convictions. Here are a few examples of such prominent originally anti-Trump voices, but this is by no means a non-all-inclusive list, but I chose these because most people have heard of them.
- NC Republican Senator Lindsey Graham
- FL Republican Senator Marco Rubio
- KY Republican Senator Mitch McConnel
- TX Republican Senator Ted Cruz
- Conservative Commentator Tommy Lahren
- Former Trump’s inner circle member Kelly Ann Conway
- Former Trump’s Ambassador to the USA Nikky Haley
I’ve also mentioned these figures, because they played a key role in playing defense for Trump after he secured the nomination leading to 2016. However, they were very critical of Trump – stating very harsh (and correct) concerns about him – some even more than many other non-Trump American were speaking against Trump leading to 2016. The difference is that many of those never-Trumpers did not change their minds about the MAGA red flags these figures raised before they changed their tune.
The list for former Republicans, even many serving on his presidential cabinet is even longer. Some were flip flopping on Trump. Whenever they could no longer condone his antics, Trump disposed of them. And the disposing was not only unceremonious, but sometimes downright dangerous. Here are a few examples, this is also a non-inclusive list.
- Trumps Former Vice President Mike Pence. Who is better known now for the MAGA chants of “hang Mike Pence” – presumably to be executed on erected gallows in front of Congress on January 6, 2021, for a dark chapter in American history that is now better known as J6. This was prompted by Trump’s [erroneous] claim that the 2020 election was stolen.
- Most of his Cabinet were either fired or resigned, and have publicly spoken against Trump, warning the American people on their own way. Which of course include many book deals with tell-all stories. Here are a few examples:
- Former Trump’s White House Chief Staff John F. Kelly
- Former Trump’s White House Press Secretary Anthony Scaramucci
- Former Trump’s Secretary of Defense Mark Esper
- Former Trump’s acolyte, and NJ Governor Chris Christie
- Former Trump’s Chief of Staff – Mark Meadows – who cooperated with the criminal investigations against Trump in exchange for immunity.
- Former Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton
- A few Republican politicians even ended their political career when they were holding Trump accountable under the same metric that they would hold any Democrat accountable if they would be enacting the same type of action.
For example, we can speak about the many charges that led to his two impeachments, the criminal indictments, and the J6 Committee to investigate the incident – which occurred in Congress from all places! Here are a couple examples. Two prominent Republicans, who were de-facto, ran out of office are Wyoming US House Representative Liz Cheney and Illinois US House Representative Adam Kissinger.
You’re welcome (and encouraged) to research the backstory for each personality I’ve listed. This will prompt you with a couple of key questions.
First, what would turn otherwise hard-core Trump political foes into lapdog supporters to remain on his corner after Trump insulted THEM PERSONALLY on his way to the top? And even after he was already occupying the White House… and after his term.
And follow up question, why did other former Trump supporters have become extremely vocal about warning against him holding a subsequent presidential term – at a risk of losing their own “privileged” position?
The answers might be unique for each person, but this is my assessment to answer each question. For the first question, why remain on Trump’s corner after he insulted them, and they were warning against Trump’s character before he galvanized his power on the Republican party. If I were a betting person, I would assess they are under duress. Why? Because all of them warned that Trump was going to destroy the GOP during the 2016 primary. In fact, many of them were sounding the alarm even before Trump started his 2016 run for the presidency.
And if you think about it for a second, it makes perfect sense. Because the other possible answer is that these were spineless people who were speaking from both sides of their mouth and were always partisan hacks. In other words, were they lying about Trump being a danger to the country and that he would taint the Republican party? Is it really because they saw him as the threat they described, or were they only seeking to discredit another candidate in the harshest terms in order to advance their own political ambitions?
Hence, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt by assessing they are under some sort of duress – like blackmail, coercion, intimidation, or something akin to those lines. But that does beg the question… why have they not asked for help to any of the many regulatory agencies that exist. For example, the FBI, unless the reason for duress has merit. The way I see it, can it be whatever they are hiding is worse than swallowing their pride and protect Trump no matter what? Especially if they chose to kiss Trump’s caboose, because the consequences are seemingly an even worse option than coming clean?
Again, I don’t know if that is the case. But I will note that anytime ANY of them – most prominently Lindsay Graham – speaks any little hint of criticism against Trump, he is forced to immediately swallow his words and color up back into message. In fact, Lindsey Graham is now better known for openly weeping and begging supporters to spend money on Trump’s campaign on national television. To me this is concerning, because if they are indeed under duress, then our national security problems are a lot more prominent than a highly polarized election cycle.
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Trump became a turn off
Yes, that is probably an oversimplified way to say why Trump has been losing ground even with some of his former supporters who voted for him for the 2016 and 2020 election. The fact is that at some point his antics do get old, even when he keeps playing (or repeating) his “greatest hits” that used to entice his followers to cheer for him. But the truth is that if you’ve seen one Trump speech, you’ve seen them all. And I know, because I’ve actually sat and saw entire videos of many Trump rallies and speeches.
Much like listening to your favorite song on repeat for hours, it gets old – no matter how much you loved that song. But unlike a song, the tenor from his rallies have become increasingly dissonant. And Lindsey Graham and all other acolytes I mentioned who warned about this in 2016 were correct – the GOP is very different than what it was back in those days since Trump took over. And truth to be told, a lot of Republicans continue fleeing in great numbers because the GOP has turned into MAGA.
Yes, there is a HUGE difference between being MAGA, and being a Republican, or a Conservative for that matter. In fact, MAGA has become very polarized among its own followers, even if many have not realized it yet. But those who have realized this divergence have become ex-MAGA, and that includes some ex-Ultra-MAGA. Yes, as in people who have even tattooed the likeness of Trump on their flesh have eventually regretted their support for Trump. Why is that?
Well, it might or might not surprise you that the majority of ex-Ultra-MAGAS get an existential epiphany whenever they are emboldened to get out of their echo chamber and debate somebody who has choice words against Trump. Generally, what happens is that abrasive MAGA supporters chiming uninvited insults on people’s faces or social media accounts… they get checked, sometimes politely, sometimes not so much. But the result is that they get exposed to information that is normally concealed or downright negated inside their MAGA echo chambers.
Yes, more often MAGAs choose the cozy comfort of group thinking and negate any fact checking that contradicts anything that could “dare” casting Trump on a negative light. Other MAGAs are enticed to “prove Trump haters wrong,” and in their research they start to figure out a lot of crucial data points that were not afforded inside their cozy right-wing narratives. This has already enraged many ex-Ultra-MAGAs because they feel that pro-MAGA outlets are taking them for a ride. Which is a euphemism for saying they felt they were lied to on many key wedge issues that usually seek to enrage them – as a catalyst to support Trump’s rhetoric.
This is of course a much more traumatic situation to them, because it is very likely that many MAGAs have burned bridges with friends, family, total strangers (in person and in social media), broken friendships, broken marriages, loss of employment, tensions at work, on Thanksgiving, or whatever other place where others were holding Trump accountable for any alleged or confirmed misdeed (which is a euphemism for crimes or serious legal infractions). In other words, they were protecting Trump and giving him the benefit of the doubt in a way they would have never done to anybody who is not Trump. Finding out that Trump and his acolytes were suppressing facts would enrage any person.
Grading on a curve
People who have met Trump’s or have spent any amount of one-on-one time with him, tend to express something along the lines that Trump’s personality is the type that most people would prefer taking in very small doses. Yes, long sentences on purpose to illustrate that some people feel as being in his presence is a drag. However, most of his MAGA fans have never really gotten to spend actual time with him. Instead, they get to see what MAGA wants them to see.
Among many other things, this cult of personality also morphs into the homoerotic depictions of Trump as a semi-naked muscular hyper-masculine figure… which by the way, many mostly straight anti-same-sex advocates plaster these semi-naked photoshopped images of Trump on their walls. I’ve literally seen this on people’s houses as “home décor” in their living rooms.
I’m not even kidding; I’ve also seen people who have very misogynistic views, proudly post a bunch of quasi-erotic-Trump photoshopped images depicting him from anything as “Rambo” to whatever hyper-masculine-trope depiction has his ~eight-decade face plastered on it. Go to Twitter, or any Right-Wing MAGA verse on-your-face-dude-type account, and eventually you might find something akin to what I just described.
I mean, whatever floats your boat – like what you like as décor. However, this is concerning because this shows an over-idolized image of the person that has gained their affection. The Harris-Walz campaign have called it best, and this among some other things MAGA do, it’s just weird.
And for example, you would be hard-pressed to see photoshopped homoerotic images of a semi-naked Biden in every rally or all-over social media – as a MAGA person you would think that is weird, if not highly disturbing. However, you’re very likely to see no shortage of MAGA merchandise that is also vulgar and insulting. There is an entire industry of MAGA-aligned vendors who design, create, and distribute merchandise that is divisive. But the same group would feel extremely offended if a liberal would wear anything that is disparaging against Trump.
It does not take a PHD to realize that if Trump has a typo-abundant midnight “Truth Social” rant (similar to is Twitter rants during his presidency) that there are millions of MAGA fans who would defend him on that. But if any opposing party to Trump would make any similar action, they would be chastised. And at some point, the ex-MAGAs started to realize that divergence. And little by little, as they realized that there is a much larger world outside their echo chambers, it dawned on them… they stop liking themselves for liking Trump.
Yes, a lot of ex-Ultra-MAGAs realized that the reason why a lot of non-MAGAs dislike them, or stopped liking them is because they changed. They changed from being that mother, father, uncle, friend, co-worker, sibling, or loved one – into this person who is so enamored with Trump. And further, all these loved ones have at some point become victims of their MAGA rage for daring speaking against Trump. Yet, many family members and loved ones welcomed back the ex-Ultra-MAGAs. They finally realized that those who did not condone every problematic thing Trump did had indeed a valid point for why they did not like Trump in the first place.
And spoiler alert, it is the SAME point that people who are his ardent supporters today disliked and very publicly spoke against Trump leading to the 2016 election. Falling into the MAGA verse is not hard, but there is a reason why a lot of people who never bought into it voted against him. That is happening again. A lot of people will likely vote against Trump. However, the message from the Harris-Walz ticket is one of unity versus division. It is inviting Democrats, Independents, and Republicans to be part of America… that includes ex-MAGAs.
Conversely MAGA is not wanting to have Democrats, Independents, and in fact they marginalized many Republicans on their group. Trump has been very vocal about it, saying that he does not need – nor he wants their votes. Well, many Republicans are well aware of those words and are making Trump’s wish come true and have openly endorsed Kamala Harris. And we’ll see more and more Republicans distancing themselves from Trump.
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Republicans does not [necessarily] equal MAGA
Sure, we have plenty of so called MAGA Republicans. But a lot of Republicans are not MAGA. And MAGA numbers continue to dwindle. The Republican party has indeed shifted quite a bit from where we were just a few years go. And many conservatives in the Republican side prefer to go back to the times where even though they had differences in policies with the Democrats, there was still an opportunity to have a dialog. For several years, especially starting in the Trump era, every decision in Capitol Hill occurred through party lines.
In other words, only the majority would get their legislation passed and hardly anybody from the other side of the aisle would collaborate for a better win-win solution. The Harris-Walz campaign is aiming to improve that as well. Kamala Harris went as far as saying she would select a Republican to be part of her cabinet. Many Republicans are also very concerned about this final point I want to make. Sorry it took a while to get here – I wanted to give you enough context (especially for those who are deep into MAGA).
This is the point:
The MAGA rhetoric, for whatever reason (I’ll write about that in detail on our Patreon account) matches practically verbatim the official state-sponsored rhetoric of regimes that are adversarial to the USA. Is that a coincidence? No, it is not. There is plenty of evidence to that effect that, and the data is open to the public through official channels– if you’re paying attention. In other words, a vote for Trump or MAGA is a vote for one of the adversarial regimes who want to rule the USA – via whatever puppet legislators or executives they can put in prominent places of power.
Adversarial forces are favoring MAGA, because MAGA followers are repeating these adversarial regime talking points. These points are convenient for THEIR regimes but are contrary to US interests. Even if that seems counterintuitive to those stuck inside the right-wing echo chamber.
Trump is not in charge of this rhetoric nor is the MAGA movement for that matter – surprise. Trump, much like other influencers who have an impressionable audience are just a means to an overarching authoritarian propagandistic end. For example, in the indictment for RT where Russian-sponsored agencies were paying millions of dollars to influencers in the USA to repeat certain Kremlin-aligned narratives – the reason is obvious (as per the indictment). They want to leverage any useful fool audience to propagate narratives that are convenient to Russia, and anti-west. Especially those with millions of loyal followers.
And just as I am typing this, you might find it interesting to know also that a well-known Self-proclaimed Neo Nazi, named Nick Fuentes who was a huge fan of Trump has openly disavowed him after Trump admitted in an interview that he indeed lost the 2020 election! Fuentes was extremely angry that he had to suffer a lot for repeating Trump’s claim that he had won. This is what pretty much everybody except MAGA understand as the “big Lie.” And of course it is the catalyst that prompted J6, Trump’s second impeachment, and the criminal charges related to that… not to mention the entire premise for his campaign.
So, if even generally unsavory Neo-Nazy sycophants have until yesterday overtly embraced MAGA, that is a red flag many traditional Republicans prefer not to be associated with. Fuentes’ rant against Trump is hilariously tragic for the mere fact that they were parroting a lot of Trump’s lies that the election was stolen until then, but more importantly it also validates the fact that it shows very much which divisive groups were aligned with the MAGA movement. And are now only leaving because they realized they were indeed taken for a ride and were naïve enough to believe a lie that everybody else who was paying attention – but was not enamored with Trump already knew to be true. And Trump being Trump when he lowered his guard, spilled the beans himself.
This should make it fun for the debate with Kamala Harris this week. I wonder how Trump will talk about the “stolen” election now that he has been recorded – more than once saying he missed by a little margin. He said it in an influencer interview on a podcast, and he said it also during a press conference by the border. Once could have been a “slip of the tongue” – twice in that context – a lot harder to spin his way out of that web.
I will be writing more about the erosion of MAGA in the USA. And the reason is because there is another much more dangerous layer to this saga - even if Kamala Harris gets elected to the US presidency – the MAGA movement will not go away. In fact, my assessment is that unless we do something to make MAGA realize that they were not afforded the full context on all these wedge issues, they will likely perpetrate a J6 on steroids after the polls close in November 2024. Be on the lookout for my next article and read my previous articles to see what I mean by that. HLC