{"id":45945,"date":"2025-04-02T17:54:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T17:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/?p=45945"},"modified":"2025-04-09T17:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T17:09:11","slug":"objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"Objections We Hear: \u201cMAGA and Republicans Are Not the Same\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

We sometimes share <\/span>clips<\/span><\/a> showing <\/span>Builder-like behavior<\/span><\/a> from Democrats and Republicans from before the Trump era. This can lead to some liberal members of our community responding with objections like:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans back in the day were more respectful \u2014 but MAGA is extreme and not interested in reducing toxicity.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI can get along with traditional Republicans, but not these MAGA Republicans.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

(<\/span><\/i>See more messages<\/span><\/i><\/a>)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Some people on both \u201csides\u201d think getting along with and engaging with political opponents was perhaps possible in the past \u2014 but not anymore. For anti-Trump Americans, the rise of Trump and the MAGA movement represented a major surge in political hostility and a breaking of long-held norms and traditions of behavior. Trump, to many people, changed the game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These views help explain why many draw a firm and judgmental line between MAGA and non-MAGA Republicans. People\u2019s concerns are understandable; political polarization has deepened and our divides can easily seem insurmountable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But drawing such a firm line between MAGA supporters and traditional Republicans can deepen our division. Here are some thoughts on why this instinct can divide us and how to avoid adding to the division.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Where Is The Line Between \u201cMAGA\u201d and \u201cNon-MAGA\u201d Republicans?<\/h3>\n

One problem with such framing is that there\u2019s no clear boundary between \u201cMAGA\u201d and \u201cnon-MAGA\u201d Republicans. <\/span>For one thing, Trump was the choice of almost all Republican voters<\/span><\/i>. It\u2019s true Trump has had a major influence on the GOP; political parties are, after all, always shifting. This is especially true in polarized and turbulent times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, our political preferences these days are more about <\/span>our hostility toward the \u201cother side\u201d<\/span><\/a> than enthusiasm for \u201cour side.\u201d Many Trump voters aren\u2019t completely aligned with Trump or highly enthusiastic about him or all of his policies. They may have simply viewed him as the better of two options (just as that dynamic plays a role in some Democrats\u2019 choices). As we\u2019ve argued, we should <\/span>separate our views of politicians from our views of their supporters<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The reality is that the Republican Party, like any political group, is complex. Trying to draw a firm line between \u201cMAGA\u201d and \u201cnon-MAGA\u201d Republicans is difficult, if not impossible. The harsher we judge and criticize MAGA, the more we alienate and insult the people who voted for and supported Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump Didn\u2019t Create Our Divides\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Some people believe Trump is the cause of our toxic divides, but it\u2019s important to see that partisan hostility had been <\/span>growing for decades<\/span><\/a> before his election. Political scientist <\/span>Nolan McCarty<\/span><\/a> and others have argued Trump\u2019s rise in 2016 was a natural consequence of our escalating polarization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The angry rhetoric and distrust we see today are part of a long-running <\/span>self-reinforcing pattern of conflict<\/span><\/a>. In the early 2000s, and before that, you can find <\/span>extremely toxic and dehumanizing rhetoric<\/span><\/a> from people on both \u201csides.\u201d Going back decades, there have been many people who make arguments similar to those we hear now: \u201cThe \u2018other side\u2019 has become so extreme and crazy that we can\u2019t engage with them in good faith now.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We must see that this kind of thinking has been fueling the widespread hostility that got us where we are now. <\/span><\/i>If we want to break this cycle, we must try to <\/span>understand each other<\/span><\/a> and take more depolarizing approaches \u2014 even if it\u00a0 seems harder to do now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This Pattern Also Exists on the Other Side<\/b><\/h3>\n

The tendency to write off political opponents as \u201ctoo extreme to engage with\u201d isn\u2019t unique to anti-Trump Americans. Many Republicans say the same thing about today\u2019s Democrats: accusing them of <\/span>becoming too extreme<\/span><\/a>; seeing them as highly <\/span>toxic and insulting<\/span><\/a>. They\u2019ll say things like, \u201cDemocrats weren\u2019t so bad a few years ago; now they\u2019re too extreme to work with.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is how conflict generally works. Both groups are able to find a lot of <\/span>evidence of their opponents\u2019 badness<\/span><\/a>. People in both groups will think, \u201c<\/span>Why is it on <\/span>us<\/span><\/i> to take the high road<\/span><\/a> when <\/span>they<\/span><\/i> are so hostile and rude?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Understanding Matters<\/b><\/h3>\n

While Trump didn\u2019t create political toxicity in America, Trump supporters should be willing to see why people believe he amplifies toxicity, just as we ask anti-Trump supporters to reframe their mindset on MAGA. Writing off our \u201cenemies\u201d as irredeemable and unworthy of empathy and engagement plays a role in widening our divides \u2014 and creates the same patterns of behavior that bother us.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As we often say: understanding each other doesn\u2019t mean agreeing. It means recognizing the complexity behind people\u2019s choices and seeing them as people first, not enemies. <\/span>How we think about and treat each other<\/span><\/a> plays a role in breaking the vicious cycle of toxic polarization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Join the Builders Movement!\u00a0<\/i>buildersmovement.org\/invite<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We sometimes share clips showing Builder-like behavior from Democrats and Republicans from before the Trump era. This can lead to some liberal members of our community responding with objections like:\u00a0 \u201cRepublicans back in the day were more respectful \u2014 but MAGA is extreme and not interested in reducing toxicity.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI can get along with traditional…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":45946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"collection_feed":[],"type_feed":[77],"class_list":["post-45945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nObjections We Hear: \u201cMAGA and Republicans Are Not the Same\u201d - Builders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Objections We Hear: \u201cMAGA and Republicans Are Not the Same\u201d - Builders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We sometimes share clips showing Builder-like behavior from Democrats and Republicans from before the Trump era. This can lead to some liberal members of our community responding with objections like:\u00a0 \u201cRepublicans back in the day were more respectful \u2014 but MAGA is extreme and not interested in reducing toxicity.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI can get along with traditional…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Builders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-02T17:54:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-09T17:09:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Builders_HeroImage_Newsletter-4.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"753\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Zach Elwood\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/#\/schema\/person\/fa86211edc631829f62424ccba457d0a\"},\"headline\":\"Objections We Hear: \u201cMAGA and Republicans Are Not the Same\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-02T17:54:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-09T17:09:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/\"},\"wordCount\":805,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Builders_HeroImage_Newsletter-4.gif\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/\",\"name\":\"Objections We Hear: \u201cMAGA and Republicans Are Not the Same\u201d - Builders\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Builders_HeroImage_Newsletter-4.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-02T17:54:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-09T17:09:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/#\/schema\/person\/fa86211edc631829f62424ccba457d0a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Builders_HeroImage_Newsletter-4.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Builders_HeroImage_Newsletter-4.gif\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":753},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/2025\/04\/02\/objections-maga-republicans-not-the-same\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Objections We Hear: \u201cMAGA and Republicans Are Not the Same\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/buildersmovement.org\/\",\"name\":\"Builders\",\"description\":\"Rise Above Us vs Them. 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