Thread by @PerfectOurUnion

🧵1. The process of leaving MAGA was what I refer to as my Year of Heaven and Hell, commencing in Summer 2021, with Summer 2022 when I finally, and fully, left MAGA. I did not support the Jan. 6 riot, and in the six months following it, I always acknowledged my opposition to it.

2. But I also publicly said that those who continued to talk about it hyperbolized the adverse effects and consequences of the day. I had thought that groups such as QAnon, the Proud Boys, et al. were fringe hobbyists.

3. When my curiosity about the groups, and forces, who initiated the riot (with, at minimum, some inspiration, and, most likely, aid and/or comfort) led me to better understand them, I realized that I was wrong.

4. The groups were well-coordinated, well-funded---and, perhaps, worst of all---had the blessing of the world's most powerful person. These undeniable facts, along with Trump's incessant, traumatic lies about a stolen election that he lost, set me on my path to leaving MAGA.

5. As I continued to struggle and grapple with my inner mental, moral and spiritual war, as well as my increasing remorse over supporting MAGA/Trump, the GOP's designation of Jan. 6 as "legitimate political discourse" (in Feb. 2022) accelerated my leaving MAGA.

6. For an entire year, I stared into an abyss, and asked a question that mandated candor: is it possible that everything I believed about MAGA---a movement of which I never took an hour off from, and was emotionally, spiritually, morally and financially invested in---was wrong?

7. Finally, I concluded---beyond any reasonable doubt---that, yes, I was wrong to have allowed myself to unapologetically support MAGA and Trump. When I went public with my mea culpas, I truly didn't think anyone would care; I give thanks that I was wrong about that, as well.

8. Though I cannot prove this, I am virtually certain that, had "we" (MAGA) won in 2020, I would have never left MAGA; I would have been much too deep in the proverbial rabbit hole to have escaped.

9. Soon, a concept I've been working on for many months will be alive and active: an org. called Leaving MAGA.

10. Our Mission Statement is:

Persuade people to leave MAGA. Empower those who leave to tell their stories, and guide them on how to converse with friends and families in MAGA. Develop movement leaders to help others leave.

11. Most MAGA voters, I believe, are good and decent people. Adherents to MAGA are responsible for their choices---as I was---but they have also been exploited and traumatized.

12. MAGA creates despair and hopelessness among its followers, making them live with a daily sense of desperation and panic that their nation is in decline.

13. I'm living proof those in the traumatic thrall of MAGA *can* leave: leaving will try and test you; it will confuse you; it will not be emotionally and morally simple; it will feel, at times, Sisyphean. For those who leave, however, I promise you this: you will be liberated.

14. Join us tomorrow at @Heidi_Cuda's Speakeasy, for a friendly, enlightening conversation, amongst friends who are devoted to perfecting our Union and democracy.

bettedangerous.com/p/defeating-ma…

15. Happy New Year, all. 2024 will be a seminal year not only in American history, but world history. For better or worse, this year will shape events and politics for generations to come. We need men and women in the arena, working every day to perfect our Union and democracy.