Do you really want to know why some people are MAGAts? Read my story.

[Martin Eden]

82. Thank you for sharing your story

I too am a white male born in 1957, but I had the benefit of a very different upbringing. My parents also grew up during the Depression, and they were very left of center. Both worked full time when I was growing up, so I was raised to some extend by my mom's older sister who lived with us.

Aunt Kate was the most compassionate and ethical person I ever met, having devoted her life to helping people as a labor organizer. She was active in the Communist Party of America until it was revealed how monstrous the Soviet regime had been. She spent 10 months in jail during the height of McCarthyism when they tried to deport her, but the little Croation village where Kate was born had no record of her birth.

In my household the N-word would have gotten me into big trouble. MLK's assassination was a very sad day. I was staunchly against the Vietnam war.

What I'm trying to say is that children need love and ethical guidance. As a society this is our biggest failure. MAGAts were made, not born.

Where I am now is how I was raised. Your journey was much more difficult and painful. I respect and admire how you overcame your disadvantages.

Twenty or thirty years ago I would have hated your guts, but after reading your heartfelt story that hatred is more on me than it is on you.

There but for an ethical upbringing go I.

It's easy to dismiss MAGAts as idiots and assholes, but most of them are simply the product of their early life experiences and/or emotional trauma. How many can overcome the big lies at the core of their beliefs?

Not many, I fear. You are extraordinary.