Letters to the Editor: Discounting the entirety of the MAGA base will get us nowhere

To the editor: While I 100% agree with guest contributor Robert Repino about calling out the MAGA politicians, pundits, sycophants and opportunists, I take great issue with painting everyone who voted for Donald Trump with the same brush (“As Trump’s reign implodes, tell MAGA ‘I told you so,’” Oct. 7). The people we need to get through to are the ones who are barely paying attention to politics, who are voting with the general consensus of their community or on their instinctive feeling that Trump is speaking to them, or the impression that he is a man of action.

MAGA is smart. They don’t call me stupid. They don’t imply that I’m corrupt. They say that I’ve been misled by radicals, shady politicians and opportunists. We need to follow their lead.

There are plenty of horrible, disgraceful Trump supporters whom we should attack with every rhetorical device we have. But we also need to recognize that difficult economic circumstances, changing demographics, evolving social mores and the inevitable march of time have made a majority of our citizens extremely vulnerable to a dangerous authoritarian. Call me condescending, but we need to meet those people where they live and reassure them they have not been written off as ignorant, selfish bigots, and that there is a better way.

John Bauman, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Kudos to Repino for giving us food for thought on how to influence MAGA loyalists. Wouldn’t it be lovely if “I told you so” worked? Heels will only dig in deeper. It’s easier to be offended by reality than face our shared economic pain. We are all vulnerable to bias.

We feed on feeling like victims. Studies by James Kimmel Jr. at the Yale School of Medicine found that revenge lights up the same areas of the brain as addictive substances. It’s a rush to pile on posts by social influencers rather than checking sources for facts. Social media is a misinformation gateway drug.

Can we learn from schools that are limiting phones in class? If we all want to live in the same country, what will work? Intentionally building relationships of trust is one way to find common ground. That takes effort, work and emotional risk.

Listening for what motivates the MAGA faithful helps. American psychologist David McClelland’s “three needs” theory posits that we are often motivated by the need for achievement, authority/empowerment or affiliation. We need to provide a healthy alternative that fulfills those needs instead of destructive revenge or retribution.

Amy Bennett, Encinitas