GOP Hypocrisy

Woman Heartbreakingly Describes How She Lost Her Brother to Trump…Her Brother Chose Trump Over Her

If there’s one thing that can drive friends and families apart, it’s politics. I can remember my dad and our neighbor nearly coming to blows. Ralph, our neighbor loved George McGovern, while my dad was a Nixon man. He grew to regret that later on but it was the first time I’d ever seen my dad so fired up.

Now the same sad story has happened between a brother and sister over Donald Trump and it’s one of the saddest situations I’ve read about in a while.

In a “My Turn” column for Newsweek, Carmen Presti writes about how her brother, “beginning in 2016,” changed from “a sweet man with a passing interest in politics, to a full-blown ‘Trumper,’  a Donald Trump devotee with everything from an outsized Trump flag, Trump shirts, socks, to a ringtone with Trump’s voice from The Apprentice.”

Donald Trump exits the stage after speaking during a rally hosted by the former president at the Delaware County Fairgrounds on April 23, 2022. Photo – DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES

I’d be appalled by that too, I just know it.

Carmen writes that she and her brother are Cuban immigrants who over time seemed to have their ups and downs.

“As children growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, my brother and I often had skirmishes, typically brought on by frustrations with living with economic struggles and instability,” she notes. “Over the years we grew closer as we both matured and had families of our own, and shared holidays and family gatherings. Admittedly, we both have strong personalities and there were times we didn’t see eye to eye, but our differences never got in the way of our love and respect for each other.”

So as they both grew older and now had “stable lives and incomes” Carmen found herself increasingly conflicted after Trump entered the scene, and she writes that “I was stunned at how much had changed between us, and in such a short amount of time.”

She noted her brother is just three years younger than she is, and her family was very “close-knit” and said they have “always remained close as adults, sharing holidays and gathering regularly for family meals at his home, which had become the family gathering spot.”

But now his enthusiasm for Trump has driven a wedge into their relationship. Carmen has considered herself a die-hard liberal ever since she was a teen and writes she was “used to being misaligned with my conservative Republican family — but it had never before caused a rift, never mind an altercation between us.”

But the clear differences between Carmen and her sibling really opened up during a recent family gathering when they were arguing about COVID-19 vaccination rates and “the disparities among political lines, a phenomenon that’s been well-documented by mainstream news organizations and research institutions.

“As an advanced practice registered nurse working in COVID-19 units, I spoke from experience about seeing this disparity first-hand, and wishing more people would get the vaccine to protect themselves from the ravages of the pandemic.”

That’s not how her brother saw things, however.

“My brother claimed the disparity didn’t exist, and that I was making up the data about the rates of vaccinations,” Carmen writes. “The fact that we disagreed was no surprise, but the nature of his verbal attacks and the argument that followed, shocked me. My brother ridiculed my education, My doctoral preparation and even my descriptions of how I had been affected by the tragic loss of life I’ve directly witnessed for more than two years. He then showed an intensity of aggression that I hadn’t seen since we were children.”

In the months that have followed, he hasn’t apologized and she said they haven’t spoken. Now that’s pretty sad, and I really don’t understand how Trump can have such a strong appeal to some folks. I really don’t understand that. But for Carmen, the situation has provided little more than pain and sadness.

“I can still see his face, screwed up in hatred. It seemed to me that my brother became consumed by Trump, and even when we tried to steer clear of political conversations, he seemed to obsessively want to discuss his love for the 45th President and hatred of Joe Biden.”

Carmen Presti says her relationship with her brother changed after he became a fan of Donald Trump in 2016. Photo by CARMEN PRESTI

Trying to reason her way through her brother’s sudden change, she noticed he continually attacked her education. Out of all her five siblings, she is the only one so far to go to college and have a postgraduate degree, and her brother “claimed I was looking down on him and judging him because of his lack of formal education.”

“My brother,” she writes, “is a self-made, intelligent man that has achieved great success as a highly-skilled technician, a fact about which I have always been proud. Yet his anger echoes the critique, popularly echoed by those on the right-wing, that all folks on the political left are ‘elitist.'”

Carmen also understands her brother isn’t the only fanatical Trump supporter out there, and that people are “still under the Trump spell, seemingly no longer thinking for themselves. She wrote:

“Trump may not be in office, but his influence is still strong today.”

I don’t really understand why so many people fell under this man’s influence. I have to think most of them are not terribly bright, but who knows maybe some are.

And of course, she remembered her brother’s angry face as January 6, 2021, unfolded and she sees this very same hatred on these faces as the Roe v. Wade case now faces a reversal by the Supreme Court.

“When it comes to abortion rights, multiple polls indicate that the majority of Americans favor upholding Roe v. Wade, yet as a society we seem to have slipped into zealotry with no middle ground for rational decisions based on fact vs. dogma,” she notes. “Although abortion rights and vaccines are separate issues, I see these separate events as interwoven.”

Indeed, these views have become interwoven into the fabric of American society. Trump has brought out a more radical element in this country that has been long hidden in the woodwork and now we have a country marred by racism and Christian viewpoints that are more harmful than anything else.

Trump supporters aren’t often the most reasonable people to talk to and discuss issues. Especially when it comes to their Dear Leader.

She has only one wish with regard to what she would like to say to her brother.

“What I wish to communicate to my brother is the same thing I want to communicate to Trump supporters everywhere: Let’s not allow extremist ideas to fracture our ability to keep talking and have relationships. See the women and girls that you love, and protect their right to control their own bodies, regardless of your party. Let’s unite and put women’s rights—and their physical safety—before politics.

“Anything less is a tragedy.”

I think there are going to be more tragedies. These people can’t seem to look past their own ignorance. Really, I’m just not optimistic in this situation.

meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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