We are hardly the only family struggling with that Trump Voter relative. And we’re hardly the only family who continues to ask that fatal question, “Why on earth would anyone vote for Trump?”
Indeed, I spent much of the four years since 2016 asking the question and searching for and finding a number of persuasive answers, such as the Dunning-Kruger Effect, the Need for Chaos Metric and my favorite, hypervigilance, i.e., the swollen amygdala.
A lot of us are aching to know whether our relatives still supported Trump through the January 6 insurrection attempt. That is, have past and current events changed their thinking?
But here’s the problem: some of us (including me) are too scared to ask. Some of us are desirous of, if not an explanation (I’ll stick with the ones I uncovered), an apology for driving us into tearing our hair out.
So, here’s a suggested brief statement of abjuration. Unlike the Catholic Church versus Galileo, we will not interrogate you, will not force you to your knees in recantation, will not ban your books or Facebook posts, and will not threaten you with life imprisonment or even death.
So would you consider signing onto what follows? We will all be very happy.
“I, like Liz Cheney, was a supporter of Trump in 2016 and, in spite of his bad behavior, voted for him in 2020. I even supported his “stop the steal” campaign. But, like Liz, I departed ways with his support of the Jan 6 insurrection.”