I first posted this guide to win me over at the bottom of my impressions after attending my first protest rally blog post, about the Hands Off rally at the state capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota on Saturday, April 5, 2025. After I advertised my blog post in Facebook, my friend Jeff channeled Joseph McCarthy by calling rally participants and me communists.
Jeff is wrong, but he made me think about messaging. Why did Trump win in 2024? Hint: it’s not because everyone who voted for Trump is part of a cult. So I added thoughts about how to reach people who might now regret choosing Trump. But this really needs to be its own blog post because (1) it’s a different topic, and (2), more content keeps flooding my brain.
The 2024 Election
The Hands Off movement won me over before it ever started. As a conservative Christian, leading up to the 2024 election, I did not like the Democratic alternative, but, especially after Jan. 6, 2021, I saw Trump as even worse. So I voted for Kamala Harris and posted why on Facebook. Here’s what I said, edited here for formatting.
If you agree with Trump when he says…
- Immigrants poison *our* blood,
- Trump is your retribution,
- *They* steal jobs from *us*,
- *They* rig the system against *us*,
- *They* weaponize the DOJ to prosecute *us*,
- *They* are the enemy within,
- *They* hate *us*,
- *They* stole the last election from *us*,
- *They* destroyed *our* country,
- *They* are coming after *our* families,
- *They* undermine *our* religion,
- *We* will protect women whether *they* like it or not,
and you believe…
- recruiting a bunch of fake electors in 2020 to replace real electors,
- sharing classified defense plans with your Arabian buddies,
- inciting death threats against election volunteers counting votes,
- summoning a mob to Washington DC to overturn an election you lost,
- two years later, advocating terminating our constitution to overturn the election you still lost,
- prosecuting Google for displaying search results you don’t like,
are all okay,
- and you want to hand Ukraine to Putin,
- and presidents should be above the law,
- and we should study injecting bleach to cure COVID,
- and the only way Trump can lose again in 2024 is if the election is rigged,
- and you want a society where the leader pits groups at each others’ throats,
then Trump is your guy.
As for me, I disagree with those things. Leaders should lead, not pander. American leaders should respect our constitution, our elections, and our laws.
If Trump wins in 2024, he will have gotten away with more criminal activity than any other president in American history. And 2024 may be the last free election in the United States.
That’s why I’m voting for Kamala Harris in 2024.
I urge Trump supporters to open your eyes to who and what you’re really voting for, and strongly consider what kind of society you want for your future. Dig deep. Do it honestly.
A few short weeks after inauguration day, 2025, I may disagree with the Hands Off organizers on several issues, but we share common ground about the greatest danger the United States has faced since our founding.
How to Fail to Win Me Over
Many conservative Christians voted for Trump because Trump pitched a compatible set of beliefs. But many of those conservative Christians see Trump for what he really is and would not let Trump anywhere near their families, especially their daughters. Yet they voted for Trump anyway because they saw the alternative as even worse. Whether or not Trump believes the values he pitches himself, whether or not he routinely violates them, is irrelevant. Democrats should do some serious reflection about that.
Beliefs
My view of the world mostly aligns with other conservative Christians.
Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Capitalism works as long as nobody abuses monopoly power. Owning my own property is better than everyone collectively owning my property. Low taxes are good. High taxes are bad. I like most decision-making close to home, not in Washington, D.C.
When people borrow money, they should pay it back. This includes student loans. Handle predatory student loans via bankruptcy.
I don’t want to control anyone’s body or reproductive choice, but I like to adapt a sixth-grade Civics lesson this way: a woman’s right to choose should end where her baby’s right to live begins. Obviously, we need flexibility in those rare cases of life-for-life tradeoffs, incest, and rape. We need provisions for in-vitro fertilization. We don’t need Congress inside the delivery room in those cases.
I am no biologist, but I’ve only seen human beings with either male or female sex organs. I don’t like putting minor children through sex change operations, and I especially don’t like government shutting parents out of those decisions. However, I also don’t like stigmatizing children who identify as something different than how they were born biologically. Even the smartest biologists realize we haven’t learned everything about how our bodies work. A little kindness in these situations will go a long way.
We need a strong national defense, we need to stick up for our friends, and we need to kick our enemies’ butts when they attack our friends. We need to lead the world defending Ukraine. On Oct. 6, 2023, Hamas brutally murdered more than 1000 Israelis and kidnapped more than 200. Israel retaliated, killing thousands of Palestinians and turning Gaza into rubble. War is never sanitary.
Our government really is too big. Remember when jaws dropped at hundred billion dollar deficits? Now we run trillion dollar deficits. We crossed $1 trillion in debt when Reagan was president. Now our debt is around $36 trillion and climbing. This has to stop. But we need a better way to shrink the Federal Government than Elon Musk’s chainsaw.
A Few Issues
Trump swore an oath to support and defend the constitution in 2016. He broke that oath in 2020 and 2021. He broke it again when he called for terminating our constitution in a Truth Social post in 2022. Trump gave the finger to every American law enforcement professional when he pardoned those Jan. 6 rioters. And he broke his oath again with a flurry of illegal executive orders on his first day in office in 2025.
Trump supporters love to trot out Christian Nationalism. But Christian Nationalism is a lie. Benjamin Franklin was no Christian. George Washington was a Mason, Thomas Jefferson produced his own Bible by cutting all of Jesus’s miracles. John Adams really was a Christian. Our founders’ religious views were diverse, just like today.
Elon Musk and DOGE introduced massive conflicts of interest because Musk oversees decisions about his companies.
The people at the top of the Trump administration disregarded the most basic security protocols and used Signal over public telecom providers to share military secrets.
How to win me over
My conservative Christian friends who like Trump, at least the ones who haven’t stopped talking to me, still give me grief about my voting choice. Jeff calls me a communist. Others have more colorful names. I don’t care. In their world, Trump is their only viable champion because he defends their values against all attackers. To win over this group, stop attacking conservative values and start showing how their champion will lead them to ruin. And offer something better.
Stop tilting left and focus on our common ground. Trump is riddled with issues that should outrage conservatives – real conservatives, not Trump cult members. Earn trust by focusing on my reasons for attending the Hands Off protest rally. Call out Trump lies and correct the record with facts. Real facts, with names, dates, and places, not opinions dressed up as pretend-facts.
Make America great again by making facts great again. And then let’s make America, America again.
Win me over and let’s overcome MAGA madness together. We can argue later about issues that divide us.
More Thoughts on how to win me over
My friend Jeff said:
We must point to Christ Jesus and plead with people to listen to Jesus voice in the Bible.
I agree. So will many MAGA supporters. Win me over with questions like these. If I’m honest questions like these will make me stop and think.
- Do you believe rounding up immigrants and sending them to prisons is a good way to persuade people to listen to Jesus?
- Do you believe embracing Christian Nationalism lies will persuade people to listen to Jesus’s voice in the Bible?
- How about purposely creating a recession that might rival the 1930s depression?
- How about giving the finger to law enforcement by freeing right wing rioters, including the ones who plotted insurrection?
As for me? I want to live in a country where I live and worship the way I choose and my neighbors live and worship the way they choose. We might disagree, but we find a way to get along. I like a country where we all respect that 6th grade Civics lesson that says, your right to punch my nose ends where my nose begins. I’m willing to use my voice to work for that world. Especially when somebody threatens it. I’m also willing to put up with people who call me communist and other names. It’s worth the price. Freedom is not free.
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