Will MAGA Ever Protect Liberals the Way Liberals Protect MAGA?

I know how MAGA thinks. More than half of my family is MAGA. They believe themselves to be men of honor who would stand up to tyrants if one should ever threaten our country.They like to cosplay war. Growing up, my cousins loved to play “guns.” We’d get dressed up in camouflage and run around shooting at each other with caps. As we grew older, this evolved into paintball. We acted out films from the old West.They looked to the model of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. They considered themselves rough and tough but also with a soft heart deep underneath the hard exterior.Sponsor me for $5 a month / Sponsor me for $4 a month / Sponsor me for $3 a month / Sponsor me for $2 a month / Thanks in advance!One of my uncles used to offer to buy random kids a candy bar whenever he saw them at stores. He scared them because he was a rough looking guy. But people who knew him claimed it brought him great joy to do something nice for a child.Today, children all across America are about to go hungry because this regime has decided to halt SNAP funding.They’re making kids suffer.On the eve of the 2020 election, one of my cousins said that I had nothing to worry about. He was going to vote conservative, but he insisted that my fears about the increase in violence directed at immigrants were “overblown.”“If that happens,” he said, “you can come and live with me and I’ll protect you.”That’s how he thought of himself, as a “protector.”So, I have to wonder, will MAGA stand up to protect little kids? Will MAGA stand up to protect their liberal neighbors? Will they?If you look at the history of the United States, liberals have offered olive branches to MAGA in different ways. Liberals fight for higher wages. Liberals fight for worker protections. Liberals fight for better access to healthcare and education.There’s never any asterisk on any of these plans. There is never even a suggestion that these benefits will go to “liberals only.” They benefit everybody.MAGA talks about waste and fraud, but they end up punishing the innocent people who work hard. What about them? It’s not liberals that deny workman’s compensation claims or shut down food banks or cancel your insurance. Those are the cruel actions that are the result of invoking “fraud” as a justification for ending positive programs.The protections that liberals work to put into our government are for everybody. That’s the only way it works. If you restrict the access to healthcare or housing or food or education to anyone, you threaten everyone.Over the last fifteen years, the Republicans have told MAGA that liberals were “their enemy.” They’ve painted liberals as monsters. They’ve suggested they were violent.But growing up, my cousins always dismissed liberals as being “soft.” I was the first one to quit playing guns. They didn’t understand this. Being rough and tough with a hard exterior had become their identity by then. They couldn’t understand why I would choose to pick up a book.For a time, my cousins used to look out for me. If anyone messed with me, my cousins would put an end to it. They took pride in their status as “protectors.”When did that change?I look around my community and I don’t see any evidence of MAGA standing up to defend the people. Sometimes I see open hostility, but more often I see a kind of ashamed silence.Is MAGA embarrassed?I know that they like to think of themselves as the noble sheriff from the Old West. But how many videos of crying children with their hands bound by zip-ties do we have to see to realize bad things are happening today?What would my uncle think if he were still alive and he saw that kid? Would he get the same feeling of comfort that he used to experience after a kind act? Or would he feel sick?I’m guessing he’d feel sick.It used to be that we lived in a society where, even when we disagreed, we had a little bit of respect for each other. My MAGA uncle was married to a teacher. It used to be that if a kid misbehaved in school, the parents would talk to their children and sort them out. Now, MAGA is more inclined to march into the school and scream at a kind and underpaid person who is providing a tremendous service to their children.It’s all because MAGA has been told they must “hate the libs.”But what do they gain from this? Are prices lower? Is healthcare affordable? Do your children have access to a good education?For the last 15 years, MAGA has been told that liberals are their enemies. So friends have turned against each other, families have been torn apart, and cousins no longer speak.Will there ever come a day when MAGA starts to miss the warm feeling of being a “protector?” Maybe they miss it now? Maybe they’re starting to wake up to the fact that liberals are not their enemy.Maybe they’ll soon figure out who really is.Sponsor me for $5 a monthSponsor me for $4 a monthSponsor me for $3 a monthSponsor me for $2 a monthI'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe