WHEN I BEGAN this blog, I felt the need to build bridges. In one of my earliest posts, I spoke as a conservative about the need to rethink the common misconception that political progressives were evil. And here we are again. But at this moment in US political history, I don’t feel that old drive to build bridges between people with contrary perspectives, and, while I’ve shied away from politics on the blog, I’m less inclined to do that right now, even though this specific post won’t delve into policy conflicts. Lately my personal FB account is a long string of public political posts that center on my objections to the Trump administration’s efforts to enact Project 2025. To be clear, I formally left the Republican Party in 2016 to become an Independent. Why? Because I’d paid attention to Trump’s behavior the previous 40ish years and because I agree with the First Presidency’s advice to elect ethical (or principled) leaders. That year, the Republican party elevated a moral reprobate. 

Everytime I mention the First Presidency’s advice, someone inevitably replies with, “You think Biden was ethical?” It’s wearisome but, putting on my Reality Cap, also valid. Somehow we’ve accepted that our presidential vote is for “the lesser of two evils.” Such settling has brought us increasingly unethical candidates. However, we have twice voted in the pinnacle of unprincipled leaders in Donald Trump. Those who won’t wear a Reality Cap miss this. Donald Trump isn’t just immoral, he’s amoral. 

Immoral: Not conforming to accepted standards of morality.

Amoral: Lacking a moral sense; unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of an issue.

An amoral man will never be a moral leader. He can’t be. He doesn’t know how because he is unconcerned with ethics. He doesn’t see any value in standards of morality, not in his personal life, not in his public life. No salesmanship is going to turn him into the Christian leader the right projects him to be.

Granted, most who enter politics, especially at a high level, become tempted into unethical behavior but that doesn’t inherently mean they’ve become emptied of all morality. An amoral person, on the other hand, isn’t tempted into unethical behavior because unethical behavior doesn’t exist for someone for whom ethics don’t exist. Unethical behavior is the norm to an amoral person. This is Trump, and, because I perceive the US Constitution as an ethical and legal mandate, he’s proving me right daily.

I’m not going to delve into the unconstitutional nature of his Executive Orders or the inanity of his many ignorant statements. If you’re still reading, you’re probably not MAGA and are aware of the things I’m meaning. Instead, I want to focus on why our efforts should be directed at building one another up as a community rather than trying to build bridges between MAGA and the rest of us. 

First, that kind of bridge building won’t work–and not because conservatives are stupid, immoral, or power driven. Conservatives are as human as the rest of us, and so it is to the norms of human behavior we should look in devising our path forward.

The human drive to belong is so intense that people lean into groupthink to avoid cognitive dissonance. Our species has evolved with an innate sense that not belonging is dangerous. In fact, the human drive to belong is so intense that it’s considered natural (though not healthy) to dismiss and even dehumanize people and their ideas which, if accepted, would alienate us from the group identity. This is why we see people change their long-held beliefs when the leader of their group changes their position. Latter-day Saints and those in other high demand religions are groomed for this.

It’s how we wind up with Reagan-loving Americans who championed the “Tear down that Wall” moment abandoning Ukraine in its battle for democracy against Russian tyranny. To ease the cognitive dissonance between the pro-democracy Reagan foreign policy that has long been the backbone of conservative foreign policy and Trump’s pro-Russia isolationism, Republicans are swallowing the idea that any cut in spending is a good cut and won’t undermine the interests of the USA. It’s how Republicans who’ve envisioned themselves as a fierce defenders of the US Constitution are now supporting the man who wants to dismantle that Constitution by transferring the power of the legislative and judicial branches to the executive branch.  

Have Democrats and third parties made similar abrupt shifts? Yes. It’s human nature. In this way, what we call hypocrisy may be tied to our evolutionary survival skills, and yes, every one of us should be vigilant in our self-analysis. We all think-to-belong, and, while that may not inherently be in our best interest, marginalization within our identity group is difficult to experience. 

The point is, politics compromises more than politicians, and I doubt any of us has escaped groupthink to avoid facing cognitive dissonance. It’s hard wiring that is difficult to change. That, it seems to me, is why bridge-building in this climate won’t be effective. Conservatives seem to be busily sanding the edges off their cognitive dissonance so that they feel valued by their bully president, so they aren’t one of the evil ones, the losers, or the woke. They’ve had eight years of sandpapering practice.

But don’t despair. Yes, we are, in fact, watching the rise of fascism and an attempt to destroy the Constitution. We are, in fact, seeing the United States abandon and threaten long-standing allies. We are, in fact, seeing Elon Musk, who is nothing to us, dismantling systems that will only make the government more inefficient, something that seems to be the true goal. But as a reformed conservative, I’m telling you we don’t need to coax anyone across some proverbial bridge to our viewpoint. Donald Trump is, at this moment, creating his own opponents within the Republican party. The cognitive dissonance he’s building up will require a helluva lot of sanding down and people tire. Republicans who held their nose and voted for him may still be holding their noses but that doesn’t mean their eyes are closed. More and more Republicans will join us as they discover their jobs are lost, their National Parks are crippled and losing government income, their benefits are under threat, the government business they need performed is slowed, and on and on.

If you read this blog regularly, chances are, you, like me, have experience with beginning to notice those proverbial cracks in the LDS Church’s facade. Chances are, your first response to this awareness was to go quiet. You felt your opinions shouldn’t be expressed. You didn’t want to make waves for the sake of your family. You hoped something would make it all okay again so you could proceed with your life as a believer in the way you always had. But that didn’t happen.

This is exactly where many of our Republican neighbors are. They’re beginning to see the cracks in MAGA, to understand MAGA in light of Project 2025. The dissonance is keeping them quiet as they try to ascertain if it’s safe to differentiate with their party, if it’s worth rejection and identity loss. Remember, the goal isn’t to make Democrats out of them. You can’t. You won’t. The point is to be there for them when they rise to take their party back, for them to feel safe with us as we all rise to keep the U.S.A. true to its sacred Constitution. 

We need to create an accessible community of individuals that is post-Republican and post-Democratic party. The most important step to creating this community is to make ourselves seen and heard, not as a polarizing tribal identity but as individual citizens who are noticing problems, contradictions, inaccuracies, illegalities and so on. Use social media and private conversation to factually relay what this administration is up to and provide your well-reasoned response to those facts. 

Avoid recycling talking points that come straight out of the Democratic party, using instead your own language, your own stories, your preferred terms. And if you aren’t comfortable with words, share the words of others. share anecdotes, quotations, clips, and speeches that are meaningful to you. Share the stories of the people who are laid off and are explaining the vital nature of their work. Point out the problems of erasure  caused by ending DEI programs. Share the responses of our allies, leaders and commoners alike. Amplify the voices of resistance coming out of Canada, Mexico, and Greenland. Say something.

But work against the us v. them paradigm. Don’t villainize your conservative neighbors. Don’t establish the Democratic party as the political version of “the one true church.” It’s not. Yes, be clear about your ideas, and yes, be firm in your expression of them, but salvation from Trumpism isn’t going to come from the Democratic party. Biden’s presidency and Harris’ loss demonstrate that. Overcoming the toxic identity politics of today requires a grassroots coalition of neighbors, spread throughout this nation, who are not beholden to any party even if they favor one, who are not about sides but who seek unity against the loss of our constitutional way of life. This is what the American Resistance, in this moment, must look like. This is who we are.

We need a network of individuals who are informed and welcoming, who will speak consistently and clearly, not from one side of a bridge or another, but who stand like Lady Liberty, welcoming all, regardless of where they come from. 

But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth (Luke 11:17).

Be sure to like and follow Life Outside the Book of Mormon Belt on Facebook by clicking here and on Instagram here