Refugees from the MAGA cult

Kathy Bernier, a conservative Wisconsin legislator and former county election clerk, gives an interview about Trump’s 2020 election claims:

He is lying. He did not win Wisconsin. And he has provided no proof otherwise. .. There are several colleagues that have let me know they agree with what I say and what I do. They won’t say it. They won’t stand up and challenge, because it puts them in the limelight.

She is thinking of leaving the GOP, “because the conspiracy theorists have taken over the party.”

Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lawrence were long-time MAGA activists who went to the Capitol on January 6th, expecting the evidence that the election had been stolen to be revealed:

When he told us he had the evidence and the receipts, our expectation on January 6 was that not only were we going to see it, but the whole world was going to see it.

They became disillusioned when they realized that, instead, they were expected to do the stealing. It’s interesting to see how individuals caught up in a cult-like movement manage to step away from it. For some, it is some ethical line the cult expects them to cross, that is a step too far. That might describe Raffensperger, who was unwilling to conjure the votes that Trump asked of him. For others, it is some ugly action the cult commits. The absurd RNC censure of Kinzinger and Cheney demonstrates the degree to which the party still is in thrall.

While credit goes to all those who pull themselves away from the MAGA cult, it is tempered credit. The conservatives who showed the most integrity were those who stayed away from it. With something so corrupt, it is better to stay out than to get out. Yes, better to get out eventually, than to keep compromising downward.

The photo shows recently laid-off reporter Eddie Willis succumbing to the wiles of crooked fight promoter Nick Benko, in Bogart’s last film, The Harder They Fall. The story is how Willis eventually gets out.

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