For those Americans who glance at President Donald Trump and only see a raving lunatic, little is more confounding than the millions of MAGA adherents who discern a force for good. Reconciling these differing viewpoints feels nearly impossible. Dismissing this conflict as just politics misses the visceral intensity of the emotions embraced on each side of the struggle. What is often labeled polarization fails to capture the utter futility of efforts at persuasion. Onto this battlefield has stepped a nascent deprogramming initiative, “Leaving MAGA”. Its unlikely founder, Rich Logis, devoted the better part of a decade reaching for ever more influence as a Florida-based podcaster to the MAGA world.

It was only a gradual recognition that the MAGA movement is ”…built on a foundation of lies,” which led him to write “One Betrayal Too Many: Why I Left MAGA.” Several weeks ago, he visited the Denver Press Club. An audience of perhaps 30 arrived to share their stories. While Logis points to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol, the Uvalde school shooting and Florida’s flip-flopping pandemic policies as key to seeding his own doubts, a majority of those attending his book signing were troubled by painful ruptures in relationships with MAGA zealots among their friends and families. The Leaving MAGA website offers Zoom links to friends and family support groups. Logis urges welcoming and empathetic dialogue as a jumping-off place for discussion — a genuine search to “…understand why they believe what they believe.” Rich continues, “Deep down, most MAGA supporters are good people. They would stop to help you change a tire.”

Unfortunately, many have embraced MAGA as a kind of second family that offers an emotional community they’ve lost, as Logis recalls it. This makes it hard for them to leave, even as their doubts grow. The MAGA worldview is premised on the notion politics involves an existential war between good and evil. Loyalty develops from a constant drumbeat of fear and anger that produces a constant sense of panic. Logis acknowledges he became addicted to rage. MAGA expects its supporters to limit their information sources to friendly social media and right-wing outlets. The message they transmit is a need to “…crush your enemies before they crush you.” Parents alarmed by sons who have become “angry young men” shaped by the so-called manosphere lamented they became misogynists who believed liberal feminists were intent on emasculating them.

When I asked Logis why the blatant corruption in MAGA world didn’t precipitate more alarm, he indicated denial is easier than confronting cognitive dissonance. It was Don Jr., after all, who declared their financial goal was to become the wealthiest family in America by 2029. Although Leaving MAGA isn’t shaped to function like Alcoholics Anonymous (A. A.), it’s still a program designed to reverse addiction. Now that Logis has started to receive more press attention, he faces two challenges: (1) Can they make their program go viral, and (2) if the answer is yes, how can they manage to grow their programs into a 50-state network? Leaving MAGA will soon place billboards inviting members in 20 of our largest cities, together with displays along the approaches to Mar-a-Lago.

During the two years between his personal decision to leave MAGA and the founding of Leaving MAGA in 2024, Rich started to expand his media diet. “For the first time in many years, my stress level fell. I could think clearly and make decisions based not on pure emotion, but on logic and facts,” he explains. He is not your typical citizen, who pays occasional attention to politics and then tries to vote regularly. Logis became a prominent influencer while committed to MAGA, and now, although he has a family and presumably financial obligations to them, he has chosen the path of becoming a leader in the effort to shut MAGA down. His success will, of course, hinge on developments beyond his control. Will Trump finish his second term? A recent straw vote among Republican political consultants found 30% predicting J.D. Vance will be president before 2028. Even if the cause were a natural death, can you picture the “Who Killed Trump?” paranoia that would arise?

Speaking of Trump, Logis writes in his book, “He had seduced about a third of the country, including me. He had turned America away from democracy.” If Leaving MAGA can attract more than the current trickle of MAGsters to consider whether quitting is the right choice, his organization will be providing a service for all of us. Why would anyone want to be a member of a political party (in this case the Trump party) that accuses its opponents of hating America, their leaders of treason and their voters of being communists? That’s crazy talk. Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand was the judge who called our state governments “the laboratories of Democracy” nearly a century ago.

American voters ignored the admonition that principles must be placed before personalities, or, in this case, before parties. Simmering anger is an exhausting way to live in a democracy. Why not simply elect a good man or woman in 2028?

Miller Hudson is a public affairs consultant and a former Colorado legislator.