Ex-MAGA activist tries to explain away racism of Trump's base: 'Mostly good people'

A former MAGA activist wants you to know the party he fled isn’t racist, they’ve just been “led astray.”

Rich Logis, a former right wing pundit now dedicated to dismantling the Make America Great Again movement, published a Salon piece on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in defense of the people he’d like to see leave their political fold.

“Anxiety about America’s dwindling white population does not necessarily mean those who are anxious are racists or white supremacists,” Logis argues.

“In my conversations with fellow MAGA members, I don't recall any that dismissed the abhorrence of slavery,” he adds. “There was, however, considerable apprehension about the increase in national conversations about anti-Black racism.”

Logis’ logic — which would separate away from racism MAGA anxiety over changing demographics and social justice movements — relies on a white trauma narrative he blames on untrustworthy leaders who play upon their fears.

“Politicians and pundits whom the MAGA community follow have traumatized their followers to conclude that the imminent minority status of white people also means they will become a marginalized group,” Logis writes.

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“I'm not defending ignorance,” Logis adds, “but MAGA-friendly politicians and pundits traumatize their voters and audiences, seeking to make them desperate and panicked that the visible changes around them are occurring too quickly.”

And while Logis details precisely the racial politics behind presidential hopeful Nikki Haley’s problematic Civil War response, he paints with broad strokes when it comes to former President Donald Trump and the fears of his followers.

“Many MAGA voters — who are mostly good people, and had some valid reasons for supporting Trump — don't see the contradiction about race that is directly in front of them,” Logis writes.

“Economic anxiety, I will remind everyone, was one of the primary reasons Trump won in 2016.”

What Logis' column doesn't explain includes:

• The Trump supporter arrested on charges she threatened to kill Judge Tanya Chutkan with language that included the n-word and “slave.”
• The Trump supporter arrested for attacking Black and Latino neighbors who authorities said had Nazi memorabilia in his home.
• The Trump supporter charged with threatening to lynch a woman because she did not return a shopping cart.
• The Trump supporter who went viral for spraying a black woman with watering hose.
• The Trump supporter sentenced to four years in prison for making racist death threats against Barack Obama and Maxine Waters.
• The political support Trump received from former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Dukes.
• Thirteen studies with 10,000 participants that found a significant increase in racial prejudice among Trump supporters during his presidency.

“If you’re a MAGA supporter reading this right now, know that I do not consider you racist, stupid, uncouth, evil or lacking in integrity,” Logis concludes. “You do not deserve ostracism, but you have been led astray.”