Thread by @PerfectOurUnion

Please share our story with any undecided voter you may know.

I Was MAGA. Why Am I Voting Solely for Democratic Candidates?

For seven years, I was an unapologetic member of MAGA nation. If someone had told me then that I would be addressing the 2024 Democratic National Convention to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, I would have considered it a personal affront.

Yet there I was, appearing in a 1-minute video in August, acknowledging the grave mistake I had made supporting former President Donald Trump.

At this critical juncture of American history, I believe the story of my odyssey into, and out of, MAGA can help others who may be having doubts or remorse about staying in the movement and community.

When Trump burst on the political scene in 2015, I was a political independent, fully estranged from the two major political parties. To my mind, the Democrats and Republicans were indistinguishable from each other.

When I realized that both parties considered Trump a threat, I was all in. He seemed to be exactly whom I’d been waiting for: a disruptor who was willing and able to obliterate the established political order. His economic and foreign policy isolationism appealed to me, and I liked that he didn’t care what anyone thought of him.

I immersed myself in the MAGA media echo chamber. I got my news from Fox, Rush Limbaugh, and, especially, Breitbart. Before long, I was panicked that the US would turn communist if Hillary Clinton defeated Trump. Illegal immigrants were everywhere. I dismissed the national media as propagandists for Clinton and the Democrats.

I rationalized all of Trump’s behavior and remarks, be it his belittling of Gold Star parents and the late John McCain, or the Access Hollywood tape. I cut off contact with friends who supported Clinton or US Senator Bernie Sanders. We were in a war to save democracy from the pernicious forces of liberalism, and anyone not with us was against us.

I never took an hour off, which strained my marriage and created a chasm between my kids and me.

When the pandemic hit, I followed Trump’s lead and argued that masks were unnecessary. Over time, I felt he had botched the crisis, especially with his absurd recommendations to take hydroxychloroquine, or inject a “disinfectant.” I remained, however, loyal to him and MAGA.

My journey out of the movement truly began when the courts confirmed that Trump had lost the 2020 election. Yet, it was a very gradual process. I stood with Trump even after the Jan. 6 insurrection, adopting the MAGA line that Democrats, and anti-Trump Republicans, were hyperbolizing it as an attack on democracy.

The catalyst for leaving MAGA was August 2021, when my governor, Ron DeSantis, flip-flopped on Covid. After more than a year of vaccine and public health measures advocacy, he suddenly started promoting anti-vax nonsense.

That spurred me to step outside my information bubble. I returned to reading The New York Times, the Washington Post, and other mainstream media. As I learned more and my doubts grew, I went back and educated myself about what happened on Jan. 6.

I discovered that the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers weren’t irrelevant extremists, but rather were Trump’s — and by extension, my — allies. I felt complicit in the violence. I was overcome by rage and shame.

It still took me another year to fully sever from MAGA; I refer to it as my year of Heaven and Hell. My identity and social status were wholly entwined with the movement. MAGA had become my community, my family, my purpose. It was excruciating to consider walking away.

I spent many evenings in mental turmoil. It felt as if my morals were in combat with my dignity. Quitting would be an admission of a significant personal failure on my part.

The Republican response to the 2022 Uvalde mass shooting — the usual prattle about mental health and hardening doors — broke down my last bit of resistance. It hit me — and hard — that my idolatry of guns and the Second Amendment had made mass shootings like this more likely.

I left MAGA quietly, but I soon decided I needed to acknowledge my mistake publicly. On August 30, 2022, I published a mea culpa. When I left, I didn’t anticipate anyone caring.

Leaving MAGA helped mend my relationship with my wife and kids, and I reconciled with those friends I had cut out of my life.

I know many will ask: “It took you seven years to leave?” It’s a fair criticism. I don’t have a good answer as to whyI justified, over and over, the unjustifiable. I was always convinced that MAGA’s adversaries posed existential dangers. I bought into the dehumanization of our opponents. I succumbed to my fear.

Most people in MAGA are good, decent folks who have valid reasons for the choices they’ve made. I won’t defend ignorance, whether it’s mine or someone else’s; we are accountable for our actions and decisions. It’s also true, though, that we are all susceptible to being unduly influenced.

These two seemingly contradictory realities can harmoniously co-exist; that’s why I have empathy for MAGA Americans. We’re here to help them find their way to seeing how they’ve been lied to about so much.

For undecideds, they have their reasons for their uncertainty; I agree, and, disagree, with some of those reasons, but they are relevant to the voter. There is always a tension between the people and government; I do think this tension is a net positive.

Exhaustion from rancor and naked partisanship are valid reasons for unsurety. But as someone who was in the MAGA community, as a volunteer, activist and pundit, and was close to some who worked for former President Trump, he will only exacerbate this rancor and partisanship.

VP Harris, and Gov. Walz, have led the most inclusive, nonpartisan campaign in history; if undecideds want a President who will invite dissenting voices into the room, Kamala is their candidate. She has not merely said this—she shows this. I know this to be true because I serve as co-chair for Republicans for Harris in FL.

There is no major party presidential campaign who has ever had speak and serve—on a volunteer basis—on its behalf those not of the nominee’s party; in addition to this unprecedented move, Kamala has made clear that a Republican will serve in her Cabinet, and she has been quite comfortable campaigning with Republicans and Democrats alike.

For those who see today’s GOP as unrecognizable from the past, the Harris/Walz ticket will do more to create anew a party than Donald Trump ever will.

Let me preface by saying: NONE should construe anything I’m saying as reason not to vote; need to get registered, not sure if you are, etc.? DM me.

The reasons I have been publicly saying that this will not be close are: undecideds know, deep down, that Trump is unequivocally unqualified, and, I believe, will come to understand the harms of a second Trump presidency; single-issue voters (who will overwhelmingly vote blue); and, Republicans who will vote for Kamala (many of them quietly; some, quite publicly vocally).

Though progress in our nation's history has been more uneven than even, it is instilled in us, as a people, to choose correctly when on the precipice of a crisis. We will, again, choose correctly. Thank you. @LeavingMAGA