Open Letter To MAGAts Who Just Realized They Got Conned
By: Ebony Edwards-Ellis
Tags: 2016 Election, Donald Trump, Bigotry, Trump Bigotry, Tax Scam Bill

note: This originally appeared on my blog on February 7, 2019.

Dear MAGAts:

We told you so. We told you once. We told you a million times. In a million different ways. On every social media platform currently available. We. Told. You.

We — the racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse motley crew of #TheResistance — told you that the GOP tax cuts that were passed last year were a scam designed to line the already filled-to-bursting pockets of the one percent. We told you that the tax cuts would raise your taxes…before it expired. We told you that the decrease on the corporate taxes would not benefit you at all. We. Told. You.

But you didn’t listen. Seeing dollar signs, and eager to justify your 2016 ratification of the Oval Office shit show, you applauded Trump’s decision. You ignored every economist who told you that Trump was pulling just another two-bit con job. And you looked askance at us when we pointed out that Trump, hardly a champion of the beleaguered working and middle class, was simply trying to lower his own taxes and curry favor with the swamp denizens that he claimed to despise.

You didn’t listen and now, for the first time since Trump took office, you’re finally realizing that the president isn’t doing anything for you, that he never intended to do anything for you, that he is utterly incapable of doing anything for you, even if he cared enough to try. In fact, he deliberately harmed you with this tax cut and now you’re mad.

While there are some members of #TheResistance who feel sorry for you and are eager to welcome you into the fold, I, myself, could not care less.

I’ve decided not to care because you decided not care about the overt bigotry that Trump displayed during the 2016 election. Why didn’t you think the remarks that Trump made about Mexicans on the day he announced his presidential run were immediately disqualifying?

Why wasn’t his call for a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the country not a deal-breaker for you?

Why did you overlook Trump’s well-documented history of anti-black housing discrimination? Didn’t it make you uneasy that Trump had publicly called for the execution of The Central Park Five, five black and Latino teenagers, who were later exonerated with DNA evidence? How did you rationalize Trump’s refusal to apologize? Why didn’t Trump’s threat to initiate mass deportations, deportations that would trigger a humanitarian crisis, chill you? Why didn’t Trump’s public ridicule of a disabled reporter — a reporter who debunked one of Trump’s lies — put you off? Why didn’t the Access Hollywood tape (and the avalanche of sexual assault accusations that followed its release) have you running to the nearest exit?

The way Trump treated his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton was even more revealing. He publicly called on Russia to find Hillary’s emails.

Didn’t it bother you that he publicly asked for a hostile foreign power to dig up dirt on a political rival? Didn’t it bother you to hear him calling her “Crooked Hillary” or leading chants of “lock her up” at his campaign rallies? And why the fuck didn’t his threat not to accept the election results unless he won not have you silently vowing to sit out this one election?

And to top off the shit sundae with a rancid cherry, Trump blatantly disrespected members of the miltary, veterans, and their families. Trump mocked John McCain for being captured…while fighting in a war that Trump avoided with questionable draft deferments. He insulted and feuded with the parents of Humayan Khan, Muslim Gold Star parents. He publicly stated that he knew more about waging war than most generals, insulting them by pretending that any moron could do their highly specialized jobs.

In short, Trump didn’t fake normalcy for the entire campaign only to start acting like a horrible person on November 9, 2016. He acted like a horrible person all throughout the campaign — and never took a day off. You knew what you were getting into but you decided that ignoring, minimizing, defending, or even encouraging Trump’s bigotry and run-of-the-mill assholery would pay off for you in tax breaks and the retrenchment of white male hegemony. You didn’t give a damn who got hurt if it allowed you to “own the libs.”

I could display just a small amount of empathy toward you but I am choosing not to. I’ll save that for the children at the border who are, perhaps permanently, separated from their parents. I’ll save my kindness and compassion for the Dreamers whose hopes for American citizenship have crumbled into dust. I’ll shed plenty of tears for the sexual assault survivors who are triggered by just about every misogynistic word that tumbles out of Trump’s mouth. I’ll pray for the law-abiding Muslims who have their religious beliefs and cultural practices questioned and ridiculed every damn day.

But I won’t waste any of my emotional energy on you. You knew what you signed up for. And the very next time someone tells you how bad they are, you damn well better believe them.

Sincerely,

A Resister With A Severe Case of Schaudenfreude