Supporters of President Donald Trump (Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard)
A psychotherapist with 20 years of experience pointed to a viral family exchange about politics that perfectly illustrates the ways that MAGA has trapped people into loyalty through fear.
Elliott Connie hosts his own show, executive produced by Tiffany Haddish, that deals specifically with solution-focused behavioral therapy practices. It helps people build on what’s already working in their lives and take practical steps toward specific goals, rather than taking a broader approach to analyzing their lives and mental health as a whole.
In a quick video, Connie pointed to the popular video podcast "The Necessary Conversation," where two children have a civil dialogue with their MAGA parents in Oklahoma and discuss their political cognitive dissonance. Earlier in October, cult expert Dr. Steven Hassan spoke with the family.
Connie explained in his video that so much of the MAGA philosophy is contingent on fear "that is used to manipulate the voting public." That fear helps create an identity to manipulate people into loyalty. In the clip, mother Mary Lou Kultgen explains that she's probably voting Republican even though all but one of the issues align with the Democrats. The one issue that doesn't is the fear of boys playing in girls sports.
"So if you're simply just voting on the ideals, then she would vote Democrat," Connie said. "But they have caused her to fear trans athletes. They've caused her to fear boys playing with girls, girls playing with boys. Now, I want to be clear. In all of sports, if you add up all of the trans athletes in sports, it is less than 1/10 of 1 percent."
The other issues important to Kultgen are pulling out of the war in Iran, the release of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files, universal healthcare and ICE out of communities. But she planned to vote Republican.
"So, clearly the issue of the war, the issue of the Epstein files, these are much bigger issues," Connie said. "But she's hanging her hat on this one thing that the machine of the MAGA cult has convinced her to fear. And that has formed her identity. And now asking her to vote for another candidate is like asking her to go against her identity."
He explained that it's what makes it so difficult to deprogram people in the MAGA world.
"That's why it's so difficult to get people to vote based upon the morals of the candidate and the ideals of the candidate because they've done a really good job of helping them to form their identity as being a part of the party, or in MAGA's case, the cult. You have to realize that this is happening and then work to fight against it," Connie closed.