MAGA Supporters Might Be Too Far Gone

Many Americans are struggling with how to deal with MAGA family members or friends in their lives. Is it worth maintaining those relationships, or should political and moral differences be dealbreakers? In this segment, Farron Cousins responds to a viewer question about cutting ties with Republicans and explains the difference between political disagreement and ethical incompatibility.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

I've heard from a lot of different people that, you know, I've got MAGA family members, I've got MAGA friends. How do I deal with these people? Do I deal with these people? What's the best way to handle them? And that leads me to another viewer question. This one comes from Chris, SJ four Nm, who says, I've heard you and many other liberal democrats say they have friends that are 100% Republicans and are with Taco. Personally, I cannot have a friend or associate that is a bigoted, mean, racist, sexist, hateful criminal. I am completely anti-everything MAGA and Republicans stand for. I don't hate MAGA and Republicans, I just don't want to be near them. I would never be in a situation where I could be judged by being with that kind of company. How can sane and decent Americans be close to these types of mags or Republicans?

Listen, the friend I have who is a Republican, uh, first and foremost does not like Donald Trump, but he's always been a little bit more conservative. Uh, we grew up in the Catholic church together, you know, uh, and so he, he's done that because he's just more conservative. And I will tell you this though, however, he's been watching Fox News since we were in college. You know, he used to tell me like, ferret, it's Bill O'Reilly. It's a no spin zone. This is just straight news. Um, so, you know, he kind of had a little bit of that. But at the same time, there is not a, a single part of him that has any kind of racism or misogyny or any of these horrible things that we see in Mags. This is my, my best friend on the planet that I, I, I will defend to the death.

He is the nicest, most down to earth, most giving, caring human being I think I've ever met, uh, to this very day and probably always will be. So I, I'm not gonna, you know, feel guilty for hanging out with him because he is a little more conservative than I am. Uh, that's, that's absolutely not somebody I'm willing to cut off because we can't just assume that every single Republican is racist. We can't assume that everybody that considers themselves on the right is maga. We, we can have differences with people. And I get what you're saying about not wanting to be around the bigots. I agree. I'm not gonna be around a bigot. I'm not gonna be around the racist and the misogynist ever. But, you know, you, you can't lump everybody in together because they're not all like that. Oh, but they voted for the racist in the bigot. They may have, but did they vote for him because of that, or in spite of that? Yes, there is a difference. And no, most of the time it doesn't make it okay. But, you know, don't, don't sabotage your life, don't sabotage your relationship just because you have differing political views. Uh, different ethics, however, is a totally different story. And that I think is where you're going.

You know, I think that's kind of what you're trying to ask. It's not about political views, it's about ethics, it's about morals. It's about basic human decency. So yes, avoid those people on those principles, not just because they have differing political beliefs.