The MAGA Republican triumphalism unleashed by Donald Trump's return to the White House has extended, unsurprisingly, to many of my most antagonistic correspondents. They urge me to bow down to the president and accept his victory as a mandate against all they despise about the progressive left: its insistence that centuries of racial and gender discrimination will not magically disappear without intervention, that women should be able to control their own bodies, that all Americans should have health insurance, that the very rich should pay their fair share of taxes and that we are — proudly — a nation of immigrants.

They want me to pretend that we have an alien invasion at the southern border and that deporting those who are here illegally will somehow make everyone else's lives better rather than impose a reign of terror and raise the cost of goods and services. They want me to agree that keeping Russian aggression in check by helping Ukraine's defense is a waste of American treasure. They want me to believe that climate change does not pose an existential threat.

Often, they accuse me of aping Democratic talking points. I am a registered Democrat, but that is the extent of my relationship with the party. I've also been accused of being a "socialist," which I suppose I am if they mean that I avidly support Medicare and Social Security. Even the short-lived "tea party" movement embraced socialism in that sense, as evidenced by the comically misguided slogan "Take your government hands off my Medicare!"

Essentially, my critics want me to admit that I was wrong to oppose Trump and his policies because he won.

I never will. And at least half the country, including most of California, feels the same way.

"There is no mandate," UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck said Thursday during a Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior seminar on "Hate and Politics." (The institute's "Open Mind" program offers free, remotely accessible hourlong seminars that explore a wide range of mental health issues with experts in various fields.)

The last few presidential elections, Vavreck said, have demonstrated that the electorate is "calcified," with "rough parity" between the numbers of Democrats and Republicans. This means that a relatively small number of voters who identify with neither party have become pivotal.

"The 'out' party seems like an attractive option" to these voters, who are unhappy about the state of the country, Vavreck said. Thus, Joe Biden likely won in 2020 largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Trump likely won in 2024 mainly because of inflation. In any case, Vavreck repeated: "There is no mandate."

My political views and deepest ideals do not change because a slim plurality of American voters elected a man who is trying to orchestrate a return to a time when rich white men ruled the world, when there were only two acceptable genders, when gay people could not marry, when women could not serve in combat and when the United States could behave as if the rest of the world did not really exist. My parents — one religiously devout and the other an atheist — taught me better than that.

I'm never going to stop criticizing the cruel, inane policies of a president who cannot bear being publicly admonished — by a woman of God — to be merciful to the powerless without descending into a tantrum more suited to a toddler than a 78-year-old man. Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde's plea to Trump during a prayer service at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday brought to mind his criminal "hush money" trial in New York last spring, when he was forced to remain silent as witnesses testified against him and a jury convicted him of 34 felony counts. He wore the same disgusted face on both occasions.

Trump is rarely a captive audience; Budde courageously seized the opportunity to demonstrate what true spiritual leadership looks like.

"I wasn't demanding anything of him," Budde later told the New York Times. "I was pleading with him, like, can you see the humanity of these people? Can you acknowledge that … people in this country are scared?"

MAGA world's response? Off with her head !

"She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "She and her church owe the public an apology!"

The bishop declined to oblige, saying, "I won't apologize for what I said."

Over the next four years, I will stand with all the "nasty women" (and men and nonbinary people, for that matter) who yearn for a country whose leaders, like the Rev. Budde, embody empathy, compassion and grace.

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Bluesky: @rabcarian.bsky.social . Threads: @rabcarian

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