To the editor:

Dear MAGA loyalists,

I’m optimistic because – like Malcolm Gladwell – I believe everyone has a tipping point. Everyone. I believe at some point you will start to wonder if President Trump is really telling the truth. If he’s really going to “make America great again.” Or, if it’s been great for 250 years, if you don’t count the scars and recent move towards authoritarianism, Constitutional neglect, shifting power to the ultra-rich and trying to “whitewash” American history.

Before you reach your tipping point, I believe you’ll seriously consider if:

• The economy really was worse under the previous administration

• It’s acceptable to subvert due process to remove “rapists, thugs and murderers” from America even if innocents are removed, too

• Tariffs are going to make America wealthier like he says or make you poorer like he denies

• Tax cuts for the wealthy are going to trickle down, even though they never have

• He really is hiring the best people (or ever has)

• The size of the national debt really matters

• A convicted felon, sexual predator, pedophile, racist, draft-dodger, adulterer, misogynist, bigot, fascist, dictator-coddler, ally-disparager or bad-mouthing bully could ever truly “make America great”

Tipping points vary, but most of you – who likely are hard-working, decent, Constitution-following people – will realize this making America great again thing was just a ploy to increase the power and wealth of the Chief Con Artist and his loyal servants. Will realize it was merely code for making America more white, more racist and more greedy than it ever had been. Will realize it was a way to create unjustifiable fear so you’ll do things you otherwise wouldn’t.

I’m confident that whatever I write won’t move you closer to your tipping point. That’s a personal journey.

I also believe in the “pendulum principle.” The notion that politics are like a pendulum which – when swung too far to the right or left – fall back towards the center. Optimistically, the apex of the swing back towards the center is in sight. As the chaos, lies and insanity continue to be spotlighted, more move daily towards their tipping point. When enough reach theirs, the ruse will end. The chaos will subside. The healing process will begin.

When will the pendulum swing back? When will enough people have had enough? Each of you the power to determine that. What’s your tipping point? Only you know.

P.S. FYI, one of the tens of thousands of lies the Chief Con Artist has repeatedly told is that from the 2024 election he received an “overwhelming mandate” from U.S. voters. The truth is … of the approximately 244,000,000 eligible American voters in 2024, 36% didn’t vote, 31.6% voted for him, 30.7% voted for her and 1.7% voted for others. In other words, 68.4% of eligible voters didn’t vote for him. And he received 3,979,933 fewer votes than Biden in 2020 even though more Americans were eligible to vote in 2024, than in 2020. Even more interesting perhaps is that of the 59 Presidential elections in US history, the 2024 race was the 5th closest popular vote margin in history. An overwhelming mandate, not even close.

Alan Shaw

Lake Placid