In the MAGA era, real men don’t vote Republican.
Dear TAT readers,
Today’s essay is a mix of topics that I have dealt with in the past, but today I will weave them together to explain that Republican men in the Trump/ MAGA era, are endorsing bigotry, misogynism, cruelty and dishonesty, not their false claims of “family values.” This is not to excuse women who continue voting Republican in the MAGA era, but that will be a topic for another day. According to the GOP, to be a “real man” means to be like Trump, Hegseth etc. In other words, to be a committed and aggressive misogynist, up to and including, sexual predation.
To be blunt, gender issues are a large part of the GOP’s incessant culture wars. Seemingly, men must treat everyone but a white, Republican male, as a subclass of human beings. If they don’t, they also belong to that lower class of human beings. Let me put this insanity straight, so long as a citizen is law-abiding and pay their taxes, how they identify gender wise is their right, no one else’s. It is also, none of anyone else’s business. Last July, I wrote on this topic deeply, but today, I wish to help you understand where this toxic masculinity is going and where it comes from.
Maybe I’m old fashioned and still have my feet firmly planted in good ole’ midwestern common-sense. Today’s view of women held by today’s Republican Party dogma, looks more like the Taliban, than any American perspective. Like the Taliban, they view women with few rights and even less, protection from the toxic masculinity of Republican men. In short, the GOP is intentionally cruel, to anyone that disagrees with them, especially in the social issues that they use as diversions, from corrupt and immoral governing. The Epstein Files are merely one example of many.
Today I wish to make it perfectly clear to readers, that “real men” do not abuse others. They are not cruel, dishonest or cowardly, like ICE and their pals in masks, devoid of name tags, ID or in many cases, no warrant. These men, like any schoolyard bully are no men at all, but subservient slaves to a cruel master. This is why they run, when confronted by crowds, even though they are wearing more tactical gear than I ever did, on a couple of hundred missions in the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq. These so-called ICE agents, are so mentally compromised, that they don’t even understand, that very little stays secret for long in government. It won’t be long before their names and faces will be known to all, family, friends, neighbors and community. My parent’s generation and mine were fond of the saying, “they made their bed, now they have to sleep in it.”
First, a little background
Today, I will talk about cruelty as a requirement for voting Republicans, especially men. By their vote alone, they have enabled more deaths, cruelty and associated suffering, by any US president, not at war. They are not conservatives, let alone principled conservatives. The GOP as it is now, is in fact, a far-right, domestic extremist movement, executing a coup against our republic. Yes, I have the training and experience to understand what I am accusing them of. If only the media would buy a dictionary and begin using these words too. If they did, we would not be where we are today, at risk of losing our republic to mafioso wannabes.
Republican voters are adults and have experienced Trump regimes and movements, for over a decade, but still support him. This support leaves us, their family and friends, bewildered at least, disgusted at most. It’s no one’s fault but theirs, that they have been conned into believing what comes out of the southbound end of a northbound steer.
Most watch FOX, the most dishonest American cable news, although when in trouble, they claim to only be, “just entertainment.” They paid nearly billion dollar settlement due to their incessant and bizarre lies and conspiracy theories, revolving around “stealing the 2020 election.” They lied about COVID, masks, vaccines, their war on Christmas, that Christianity was under attack, all of their “masculinity and gender BS, and that stuffing oligarchs pockets with unearned and dishonestly acquired cash, was the answer to all of their complaints. Those lies and conspiracy theories contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans during the pandemic and even more now, with their ignorant uninformed USAID cuts. Their intentionally cruel acts are a very long list indeed. Of course, cruelty and chaos was always the intention. Why would someone claiming to be an honorable man, support such acts? Yes, it is a rhetorical question.
Now, Republican men support a man and a party, whose agenda is cruel racism and misogyny, even at the expense of the women in their own family. Here in Texas, the Republican Party’s draconian abortion laws have actually caused enough deaths, that even the Texas Taliban, a.k.a. the TX GOP, have recently made a couple of tiny edits to their vigilante abortion law. Will those tiny edits save women’s lives… who knows? Still, there are plenty of other laws to be concerned about regarding women’s reproductive rights in Texas. Across Texas, counties began making it illegal to drive on county roads, if traveling to get an abortion. The quote below, is from a small Texas town where my parents retired and where I lived just outside of town on a few acres for over a decade. Llano county is not an exception in TX.
"More than a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, many conservatives have grown frustrated by the number of people able to circumvent antiabortion laws — with some advocates grasping for even stricter measures they hope will fully eradicate abortion nationwide. That frustration is driving a new strategy in heavily conservative cities and counties across Texas. Designed by the architects of the state’s “heartbeat” ban that took effect months before Roe fell, ordinances like the one proposed in Llano — where some 80 percent of voters in the county backed President Donald Trump in 2020 — make it illegal to transport anyone to get an abortion on roads within the city or county limits. The laws allow any private citizen to sue a person or organization they suspect of violating the ordinance." - Texas highways are the next anti-abortion target. One town is resisting. - Texas Tribune - By Caroline Kitchener, The Washington Post - Sept. 1, 2023
Today’s male Republican voters, are clueless about the Project 2025 strategy to significantly disadvantage women and all gender roles, not purely white and heterosexual. How could they ignore what threatens their wives, daughters, granddaughters, mothers, nieces, aunts, friends etc.? My daughters and granddaughters are precious to me and I could never imagine sentencing them to the second-class citizenship, today’s GOP has designed for them.
" The numerous allegations of sexual misconduct—unwanted, unwelcome, often aggressive sexual behavior—levied against Donald Trump merit attention and redress. Despite obstacles to civil remedies, there has been some litigation, but it has mostly been unsatisfactory. The many allegations reported in the media have not been amenable to judicial, legislative, executive, or political resolution. Women, including women who allege Trump committed sexual misconduct against them when they were minors, have gene" - THE SEXUAL MISCONDUCT OF DONALD J. TRUMP: TOWARD A MISOGYNY REPORT - University of Michigan - Michigan Journal of Gender & Law - Ruthann Robson - 2020
This truly baffles me in regard to family and friends who still vote Republican. I have known and loved these people my whole life or for a very long time, never imagining that they could support what disadvantages or abuses the women in their lives. Yet, they continue to check the box R when voting. Honestly, who votes for a well-established, self-proclaimed, lifelong sexual predator like Trump?
"Project 2025 seeks to impose a hierarchal, gendered, patriarchal vision of society. It is particularly focused on enforcing a vision of the family that relies on fixed and narrowly defined gender roles and in undermining protections that enable women and LGBTQI+ people to thrive outside of a male-dominated, heterosexual family. It also seeks to reinforce racial hierarchies through a variety of mechanisms. Attempts to roll back civil rights protections and end the federal government’s efforts to achieve gender justice are embedded throughout the entire plan in five overlapping ways: (1) efforts to limit reproductive rights and penalize unmarried women; (2) attacks on protections against sex discrimination and other efforts to expand gender equity; (3) attacks on LGBTQI+ people; (4) gutting of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and other racial justice measures; and (5) efforts to reduce access to and investments in anti-poverty programs by prioritizing the interests of the wealthy over the needs of low-income families, who are disproportionately led by women." - Project 2025: What it means for women, families and gender-justice - National Women's Law Center - September 17th, 2024
It’s not just Trump either. His cabinet is full of those with similar sexual predation pasts. Hegseth, Linda McMahon, RFK Jr., Ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle and of course, early Attorney General choice, the infamous Matt Gaetz, has his own long track record of pedophilia, prostitution and drugs, allegations. Then of course, there’s the creepy, Stephen Miller, Deputy White House Chief of Staff. His election day quote below, is beyond disturbing. Today’s Republican Party, applauds aggressive misogyny. Real men do not subjugate the women in their lives to dominance by a political party, willing to use and abuse them.
"The MAGA movement’s main audience was also revealed by future White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, who tweeted on election day, “If you know any men who haven’t voted, get them to the polls.” In the sole act of bringing names of candidates who have been accused or found guilty of sexual harassment for consideration for top positions leading the government, a message is sent to the public that renders these crimes as insignificant in regards to service in the government, alongside broader approval that legitimizes crimes related to violence against women." - Stephen Miller quote - Council of Foreign Relations - Jacob Ware and Noël James - January 28th, 2025
The same applies to all non-hetero gender types either. I bet that not one Republican voter can explain why that they should have a say, in someone else’s gender identity. One of the criteria for bringing a legal case against someone, is to have had to be “injured” in some way. What is the injury to anyone if someone gay, or otherwise non hetero, walks by you on the street, lives across town where you never see them, but hear your friends talk about them? There is none, but today’s GOP, believes these people are some sort of national security threat that can only be mitigated, by an unconstitutional law.
Do you know who else made non hetero lifestyles political and deadly… Nazi Germany. Since the GOP administration has been in power, they are closely following the strategy and game plan of the Nazification of Germany after Hitler took power. This was called, “Gleichschaltung.” Project 2025, is very similar. Part of the Nazification of Germany, was to significantly diminish the rights of women.
"Women were central to the Nazis’ vision of the Third Reich and their future Volksgemeinschaft . Küche, Kinder and Kirche According to Nazi ideology, a woman’s place was in the home. In their approach to German women, the Nazis’ emphasised three traditional guiding principles: Küche, Kinder and Kirche (kitchen, children and church). Of these, Kinder was of particular importance and women in Nazi Germany were encouraged to marry and have as many children as possible to further the Nazis’ eugenic goals of building a strong German ‘ Aryan ’ race. To promote this, a law was passed in June 1933 allowing newly married couples to claim interest free loans of 1000 Reichsmarks . Each time the couple then had a child, 25% of the loan was written off. Childbirth and pregnancy were further encouraged by bans on abortions (which were made punishable by death), sterilisations (for ‘ Aryan ‘ women), and contraception . Work The First World War had increased the number of women in employment, and the postwar economic difficulties in Germany meant that many German women continued to work throughout the 1920s. In line with their belief that women’s lives should revolve around family and home, the Nazis actively discouraged women from having a profession and working. During a reform of the Civil Service shortly after the Nazis rose to power in 1933, 19,000 women lost their jobs." - The Holocaust Explained
Back in April, many of us recall Trump talking about increasing America’s birthrate and his ideas largely follow Hitler’s plans as well. With a declining birthrate common to many of the world’s largest and most powerful countries, there is logic in this, but not if the roles for women are like those declared in Hitler’s grand strategy for a 1000 year Reich; Kitchen, Children and Church. In today’s America, such a restrictive lifestyle doesn’t seem a very attractive alternative for women who’ve fought for a couple of centuries, for equality. Earlier this Spring, Trump actually said that he wants to be the, "fertilization president."
These are not just random musings by a deeply disturbed and unhealthy president. His subservient party, acts on his whims as part of that subservience. That party is now built around Project 2025, a cheap knock-off of Hitler’s “Gleichschaltung.” This is not me offering an just an opinion. Anyone who can read, will find the same correlations between the texts. The biggest difference is that Trump’s insatiable malignant narcissism puts his greed over even the ideology, that is serving that greed. Such a diagnosis also includes strong desires for revenge, in the most cruel way possible. All of this is on display, in everything he does. All one must do, is read some credible news and turn off cable TV, in order to see the truth.
Republicans still voting for their party, will not do this, due to be brainwashed. Their cowardice is our deep misfortune. The cruelty the women in our life suffer and will suffer, will be far worse than misfortune. It is a sentence imposed on them by the men in their lives, incapable of being the type of men, most were raised to be. They will continue to vote Republican while their party continues to whittle away the rights of women in their lives. When they finally realize what they have done, it will be too late.
Part of manhood as I was raised, was to be protective of my family, friends and nation. This is outside the reach of men who voted for Republicans this past election, or will be until they accept truth over ideology. Maybe then, they will begin thinking about their obligations to the women in their lives. AT the moment, that is a long shot.
Back on Friday my friends,
Paul