Sarah Mitchel had driven two hours from Dalton to Atlanta in November 2024. Her truck was filled with hand-painted signs: ' TRUMP 2024', and MTG-FIGHTER FOR GEORGIA. She knocked on doors till her knuckles were raw, made hundreds of calls, donated money she couldn't really spare from her paycheck at the carpet factory. They won. Both of them. Overwhelmingly.
Now, thirteen months later, Sarah sat in her living room watching her phone blow up with notifications that President Trump had called Majorie Taylor Green, her congresswoman, a traitor, Green!
What the hell is happening? Her husband, Tom, muttered from the kitchen.
Sarah didn't know how to answer. She scrolled through Trump's social media posts, each one angrier than the last. Greene has gone bad; she was a traitor for wanting Epstein files released. Her numbers were plummeting; he'd support whoever ran against her
The same president who praised her, MTG just a year ago.The same congresswoman who had fought harder than almost anyone in Congress.
Sarah had watched it all unfold over the last few months. First, Greene started questioning why Trump was spending so much time on foreign policy when her neighbors couldn't afford groceries. Then she pushed for extending health subsidies."-Sarah's own insurance premiums were about to triple. Then the Epstein files... blew up again the stain that permeates the DC swamp still.
Standing up for American women who were Raped at 14, trafficked, and used by rich and powerful men should not result in me being called a traitor, Greene had written.
Sarah had thought about her own daughter, who turned fifteen.
Now Greene's Resignation video was playing on every channel. Eleven minutes after her Congresswoman, the woman she believed was fearless, was explaining why she couldn't endure a hurtful and hateful primary against a Trump-backed challenger. I refuse to be a battered wife, hoping it all goes away and gets better. Green sai
Tom came into the room and said So let me get this straight. Trump's mad because she wants to release files about a sex trafficker? And because she's worried about our healthcare costs?
I guess so Sarah said quietly.
The same Trump we voted for because he was going to drain the swamp and go after the Elites?
Sarah didn't answer. She was reading comments from other voters in the 14th district. The anger wasn't directed at Greene-it was confused, scattered, and defensive.
She is still fighting for us even if Trump won't support it.
I can't believe he'd turn on her like this. She was his most loyal defender. even when no one else would. She took a huge amount of abuse from everyone and stood her ground. Why would a President fight so hard, even ridding himself of his most loyal fighter? To not listen to those around him, we see those WH meetings where everyone carefully pitches into a carefully choreographed script.
Why does standing up for abuse victims make her a traitor?
But then there were the others, the ones who had already adjusted their realities to Trump's new narratives
"She was always against him".
"Good riddance. We don't need her kind of conservatism."
"If Trump says she's a traitor, that's good enough for me."
Sarah felt sick. She had spent years defending them both. Trump and Greene-from family members who called them extremists, from coworkers who rolled their eyes for cable news that mocked them. She'd been called a fool and a fascist, worse. Shed endured it all because she believed they were different. They couldn't be bought. They'd fight the establishment. They'd remember people like her.
Now, the President was threatening the congresswoman for what exactly? Wanting transparency about a child sex trafficker? Caring about Healthcare costs? Why would anyone be so reluctant to stop a movement to save slaves and people who have been feeling betrayed and abandoned these last 4 years?
Her phone buzzed. A text from her sister, whom she had not spoken to since Thanksgiving 2020: The pandemic shut down that divided family and permanently destroyed lives forever.
"so....You still think you're on the right side/"
Sarah put the phone face down on the coffee table.
I don't get it. Tom is still watching the news. We donated to both their campaigns. We believed they were going to shake things up together. Now he's destroying her because he... what cared too much about Epstein's victims?
Don't forget, Sarah said bitterly, he also said that she called him repeatedly.
To correct Sarah, Tom said MTG stated that she never called him, and Trump said that he didn't want to talk to Margaret.
They sat in silence for a moment.
You know what bothers me most? Sarah finally said. It's not even that they're fighting. People disagree, whatever. It's how easy it is for him to just... erase her. Like all those years of loyalty meant nothing to him. One month of disagreement, and she's Marjorie Traitor Greene, who's gone bad?
What are we supposed to do now? Tom asked, Primaries next year. Do we vote for whoever Trump endorses against her? Even though we think she's right.
Sarah thought about the stack of hand-painted MTG campaign posters and signs still in their garage. The photos from the victory party. The certainty she felt that they were part of something bigger than politics-as-usual. An outsider who can't be bought,
I don't know, she admitted. I voted for fighters. I voted for people who'd take on the powerful. Even if it was uncomfortable. Even if it made enemies.
Yeah, but Tom trailed off... But I didn't realize that included him. Sarah finished.
On the screen, Trump was telling NBC that he could patch up differences with anyone. That Greene was a nice person who should take a little rest, as if she were a child who had misbehaved, not a member of Congress, he'd just spent days publicly destroying. More messages from people who'd been at those rallies with her. who'd donated with who believed the same things as she believed.
Everyone was asking the same question, What do we do now?
Some were deciding to pick Trump, others were picking MTG. Some pick neither. Picking different rationalizations for why this all makes sense. The fractures were forming in real time
She didn't know what the right answer was anymore. But she knew that watching your political heroes devour each other while both claimed to represent you was the loneliest place in the world.
I'm going to bed, turning off the TV, Sarah said.
In the darkness of the living room, her husband's voice said Did we back the wrong people?
I don't know if we backed the wrong people Sarah said slowly, I think maybe there were never any right people to back. Just .....People. Right now, I really don't know, and that was the most disillusioning realization of all.
This is only a story....So many folks are feeling a great loss, not only for MTG, who I am positive has her heart firmly on what's right and wrong with our political system morally. It seems that all those Lady MAGA firebrands have been invisible since the last election. Maybe this is a really good reason as to why the back-and-forth dialogue doesn't seem to happen anymore, as it should in a group of leaders. When one person is making all the decisions. The energies are the same. One Brain..Limited Ideas.A battery of brains...Greater power and energy
MTG was for our country. My reason for MAGA and Trump was to bring our government back from a tragedy. This president has put us on a better path to see egg prices going down and gas prices dropping. I looked at a package of beef roast like I grew up on,$45. My sister had to use an ambulance service a month ago. $3000 to go 2 miles. It's pathetic in the Land of Opportunity to see folks hungry, homeless, aging, as I put food back because the huge taxes put on us from bidens crew. That shadow still hangs on folks who were MAGA or even Republicans who would enjoy Texas and happen to be a minority in a blue state.
Many Share MTG's concerns. Peace in the world is a truly wonderful utopian dream. I mention the idea of Shangri-La myself. What I hear from my Boomer Fiends is more of Marjorie's efforts. Not and out to illegals now trying to take own our country with citizen sympathizers. A major split in the Republican right now is foolish. We don't need anyone, bottom to top, throwing a Hollywood temper tantrum. Our country isn't a Game show. Either we fight as one with ideas and temperaments to work together, or the show will also end ot us all next election if anyone still thinks it's a reality show. So, from a MAGA Republican to the powers that be: respectfully pull your head out of that dark space and work together.
Till next time, folk, please keep the faith. Pray for the best and prepare for the worst because no one is coming to save you
YOURS RJP
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