Time to Stop Yelling at MAGAts and Start Listening to Them
Make America Great Again. Depending on whose perspective you’re looking at it from, the United States was never really great. But that’s a separate conversation for another time. Still, MAGA followers take a lot of flak for their beliefs, and rightfully so in many cases.
That being said, there is a core dissatisfaction at the MAGA movement that may be worth taking seriously. This is a significant portion of America’s population who are trying to make themselves heard. Maybe it’s time we Lefties stopped mocking and actually listened for a few minutes.
Lefty Lefterson
Look, I’m about as left wing on the political spectrum as you’re going to find. I believe in the right to choose, human rights for everyone, and providing as many economical and societal supports as possible for those who need them.
I expect my tax dollars to be used for public schools, fixing roads, and medical care for quite literally everyone. If you’re a government using those same dollars to by guns over those actually necessary things, you can bet my vote is going somewhere else.
You wanna come to my country? I say get your ass in here. We’ve got more than enough space, resources, and more to go around. Plus, I genuinely believe the cultural diversity you bring to the table will only strengthen my home and its economy.
Yes, this is a long way of saying I’m Canadian. I also want you to understand the perspective I approach this conversation from, one I know many people, even in my own country, do not agree with. As such, I’m not immune to the influence of MAGA here.
Make America Great-ish Again
First and foremost, I f@#%ing love the United States. I really do. I’ve travelled around a lot of it, eating great food, seeing super cool things, and meeting marvelous people. I genuinely love that country and believe it still has the potential to be the greatest one on Earth.
Of course, it’s currently not. There are huge racial issues at its core, not to mention critical problems with both the educational and medial systems. Their government is completely ineffectual at every level. Well, unless you have the money to buy the politicians you need.
Trump becoming their president was a symptom of these problems, not the cause. He rode a huge wave of dissatisfaction among Americans called “Make America Great Again” all the way to the White House. The man galvanized a lot of people who felt left behind.
The problem was, and continues to be, that Trump is completely incapable of making America great again. He isn’t a competent leader at all, something many MAGAts are acutely aware of. But no one else is talking to them and Trump tells them what they want to hear.
Why aren’t Lefties Listening?
Yes, there are a lot of ideas and beliefs floating around MAGA land that are at the very least batshit crazy if not outright dangerous to the world. Jordan Klepper has been chronicling that insanity for years now. I’m honestly worried he’s gonna get stabbed at a MAGA rally.
At the same time, there are a lot of MAGAts who are just worried about their jobs, their kids, and how they fit into a changing America. There are very real situations across the country where the economy is moving on from communities with nothing left to replace entire industries.
Trump got these people on board by listening to them, or at least appearing to. He couldn’t give less of a f@#k about any of his voters. These are people dealing with real problems. So why aren’t Lefties listening to MAGAts? We spend a lot of time protesting them, yelling at them, and making fun of them. What we don’t do is try to see if a real point is being made.
There’s so much going on in the world that it feels impossible to have empathy for everyone. But it’s worth saving some for our neighbors even if they don’t share our political views. Try to get past their passion for insurrections and listen to what drove seemingly reasonable people to that point in the first place.
Sometimes, all a person needs to calm down is to feel heard and respected.
