A third criminal indictment of former President Donald Trump continues to showcase the great divide between MAGA and everyone else in America, including Democrats, Independents, and more centrist Republicans. This divide is based mostly on politics with little regard for truth and the Constitution.
MAGA supporters are defending Trump in spite of overwhelming evidence that he broke the law in his multiple attempts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. The blind faith of the MAGA supporters is the result of how personal politics has become for many Americans - any attack on Trump is taken personally by his devoted fans.
What is lost in America is the ability to judge a politician on the merits of their decisions and actions. Unconditional support of a politician - in this case former President Trump - should not be predicated on party loyalty, it should be based on the actions of the politician. But that is not possible when it comes to Trump.
For many, Trump is the torch-bearer of the Republican Party and the MAGA Republicans view centrist Republicans with the same hostility as liberal Democrats.
During the closing arguments scene in the movie "A Time To Kill," Matthew McConaughey's character asked the jurors to close their eyes so they could hear the facts of what happened without seeing the skin color of the Black defendant, who was accused of raping a young while girl. The exercise was brilliant, because those watching the movie either closed their eyes too, or envisioned what it would be like if their eyes were closed as they heard the closing arguments.
Why can't we do that with Donald Trump? Everyone should put political affiliation aside and think about how they would judge anyone accused of doing what Trump is accused of doing.
What if President Obama had lost an election and insisted that he won and that the election was crooked? What if it was Obama who tried to convince his vice president that they had the power to reject the electoral votes when they did not? What if Obama aggressively attempted to convince officials in several states to break the law and fraudulently change the results of their elections? What if Obama knowingly lied to the American people, including his most devoted supporters, making them believe that voting machines were tampered with and that the company that owned and operated the voting machines cheated and Obama was the real winner? Those are only a few of the deceitful things President Trump did in his malicious attempt to overturn the outcome of a fair and legal election in America.
By substituting Trump's name with Obama's name, we encourage everyone to judge the behavior and morals of the man - not the Republican. It's impossible to imagine that MAGA supporters would have the same opinions about Obama if he did exactly what Trump is accused of doing.
I remind you that this is not criticism of all Republicans and all conservatives - it is only a judgment of Donald Trump himself. Trump is innocent until proven guilty - but the blind support of Trump by many Americans indicates that people are not judging character - but rather defending political affiliation.
Even one of Trump's most loyal allies - attorney Rudy Giuliani - has admitted that he was lying when he brought all of those cases to court to prove that Trump actually won the election. When it came to protecting his own ass, Giuliani admitted he was lying and knew President Trump lost the election. That's not coming from the liberal media, that's coming from one of Trump's closest supporters.
The collective inability of both Democrats and Republicans to call out their own is allowing politicians to seek shelter from their wrongdoing behind their supporters. As Americans we have a responsibility to judge all politicians - even the ones we voted for - based on their actions and not defend their lawlessness.
