We all need to stop trying to convince ourselves Trump's supporters have been fooled or manipulated by him, and admit that in far too many ways, they are him.
Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz
Around the woman, hundreds of adults—presumably teachers, parents, police officers, and business owners film the assault on their phones, laugh to one another, shout slurs at her, move away from the melee, or join the salivating crowd’s chants of “USA! USA!”
A legion of self-identified patriots, alleged protectors of women, and professed followers of Jesus do everything but move in to protect one woman from the brutality of several men, a woman truly advocating for vulnerable women and children.
To a person, they refuse to stop the vicious attack of a mindless mob, mainly because they are part of it.
Meanwhile, from the platform, their beloved spray-painted, barely literate predator cult leader, a sitting U.S. President no less, ridicules the woman as “fat”, “very fat,” and “low class”.
Police finally intervene, not to protect the woman from being beaten by a group of men, but to escort her out.
No charges against them.
No accountability for their thuggery.
No justice for the laws they broke.
This should sound familiar. It’s what created him and this putrid national mess in the first place.
This rally isn’t an aberration; it’s a microcosm.
This is what MAGA is.
This is the depravity this movement foments.
This is what these people are.
Every single person in that arena, just like every single person who still supports him, is morally broken, all of them.
The people at his rallies, the people who voted for him, the people who are preparing to step into a voting booth in a few weeks and put a legislative hedge of protection around him, the people we know who align with him—are defective human beings.
His supporters are men and women who lack the same kind of decency the rest of us feel obligated to; otherwise, they would have long ago jettisoned him.
They have had to make so many ethical and theological exceptions to remain tethered to him that they are no longer capable of empathy or courage or elemental kindness when it is needed.
Once you make the initial deal with this kind of devil, the soul transaction is complete and binding.
You cannot be partially associated with a career criminal.
You cannot marginally approve of a rapist.
You cannot conditionally cheer on a vile, belligerent serial liar.
Donald Trump is a pass-fail test of one’s capacity for basic human goodness—and over and over again, these people have failed miserably, completely, and joyfully.
I am a person of compassion.
I believe in seeing the complexities in people, in realizing they are not two-dimensional caricatures or shorthand stereotypes, in believing that they cannot usually be easily summed up in broad strokes.
Like many people, I’ve spent the better part of a decade giving people the benefit of the doubt, trying to separate their political affiliations from their humanity, and dismissing every screaming red flag as something else.
I’ve labored through ten years dismissing their reprehensible actions as a byproduct of theological programming, family indoctrination, and political brainwashing.
I’ve tried to convince myself that they were basically good people, duped by charlatans and led astray by professional liars.
But it’s become impossible to rationalize away or make excuses for anyone who, at this point, would attend his rallies, sing his praises, boost his propaganda, vote for his enablers, or stay silent in the face of his prolific, barbaric violence.
With every human rights atrocity they shrug off, with every violent diatribe they dismiss as humorous, with every Constitutional crisis they justify, they sink deeper into a cavern of inhumanity that can never truly crawl out of.
The people throughout this country who stand with this toxic human filth are no different than the violent mob in that arena.
Just like this seething, jeering crowd applauding the assault of one woman whose worth and safety they had no regard for, they too are participating in, silently watching, or cheering it all on.
We all need to stop trying to convince ourselves they have been fooled or manipulated by him, and admit that in far too many ways, they are him.
John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.
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