It does not matter why they went MAGA.

NeverTrump writer Nick Cataggio has a cottage industry of trying to psychoanalyze why his former comrades on the right betrayed principle in the service of Donald Trump. One of his central themes is this question: are they just mouthing MAGA platitudes for cynical ends such as their political careers, or are they true converts no less fanatical than your typical zealot camping out for days for a glimpse of their Anointed One at the next rally?

Here, for instance, he tackles Sen. Marco Rubio as a case study. How much of Rubio “truly” believes in what Trump commands him to believe, given how it goes against his old principles, and how much of this is an act, one he would discard if Trumpism ever went away?

You could ask the same about any Trump flunkie, from those who are quite obviously reluctant such as Nikki Haley to his most submissive devotees such as Sen. Mike Lee. It’s the sort of thing I’ve asked myself: how many MAGA people join up out of hatred and cruelty, and how many join up simply for the opportunity to better themselves and their career?

I’ve wondered in these pages about their motives for succumbing to MAGA, whether it was cynicism, racism, sexism, fear, hatred of liberals, sexual submission to Trump, or simple psychotic rage.

But I stumbled upon the final realization: it does not matter at all.

The question is purely academic and is no longer of any interest to me whatsoever. I could not care one whit what truly motivates Marco Rubio any more than I care one whit what motivated Victor Emmanuel III to name Mussolini prime minister.

All that matters are the results. All Republicans of any standing worth mention — without exception — will back Trump in anything significant he desires. Anything.

When Trump fires everyone in the federal government and replaces them with corrupt, incompetent loyalists, Marco Rubio will be firmly behind him. I don’t care why he will be behind Trump, and neither should you. All that will matter to you and me is that the FBI is now rounding up dissenters against Trump, that the national park system is falling apart because the new leadership doesn’t care about it and positions down to the most junior forest ranger are doled out as sinecures and patronage slots — and that Marco Rubio fully supported it.

When the Trump detention camps mushroom up, Marco will be there to cut the ribbons. When the senior generals and admirals of the military are replaced with traitors like Mike Flynn, Marco will be there to admiringly cast a confirming vote. When Trump pulls America out of our commitments to protect democracies such as Taiwan, thus allowing for the outbreak of World War III — Marco will be writing the strongly worded op-ed in support.

When the 2028 election is fixed for Trump or Trump Jr., Marco Rubio will do his part to stuff the ballot boxes. Who gives a crap why?

Maybe he believes in this. Maybe Trump has blackmail material involving Marco and young male Senate pages. I don’t care. Nothing could interest me less. All that matters to me is that Marco Rubio is a loyal, unswervable foot soldier of the darkest evil this country has witnessed since the Confederacy, or arguably darker if Trump succeeds where Jefferson Davis failed and destroys this country for good. Let God, or perhaps a future international tribunal, be the one to worry about the state of his immortal soul.

I do not care anymore why Nikki Haley went MAGA. I do not care why Ted Cruz went MAGA. I do not care Mike Lee did, or Ron DeSantis, or any of the other erstwhile, temporary opponents of Trump, and I do not care why your coworker or your uncle on Facebook went MAGA, either.

Because it simply does not matter.

Perhaps it will be of interest to future historians, but even then, here’s the thing: we already know full well why people turned to the worst evils of human history, from the Nazis to the Bolsheviks to the Maoists to the Khmer Rouge, none of whose infamous leaders could have possibly succeeded without an army of converts. People as intelligent and educated as Rubio, Cruz, and Haley know and read their history. They know they are following in the exact footsteps of all those who previously allowed and promoted evil for their own personal benefit.

So no, I don’t give a damn about their specific rotten reasons and respectfully, neither should Nick Cataggio.

Edit: here is another post psychoanalyzing Trump backers, this time from the Atlantic. And this writer, too, badly misses the point. It does not matter why they are MAGA. Yes, they are awful people, every last one. But why they are awful people should be of little interest to anyone but criminal psychologists. For the rest of us, all we need to know is that these are people to avoid.

“I have struggled to understand how to view individuals who have not just voted for Trump but who celebrate him, who don’t merely tolerate him but who constantly defend his lawlessness and undisguised cruelty. How should I think about people who, in other domains of their lives, are admirable human beings and yet provide oxygen to his malicious movement?“

You see his categorical error? Trump supporters are by definition not admirable people “in other domains of their lives” just as the bro at work who is quick with the jokes and who remembers everyone’s birthday does not somehow become admirable despite his habits of embezzling from the company’s accounts and framing someone else.

But most of all: it does not matter why he’s an embezzler and it does not matter why he votes for Trump. He’s a piece of shit either way, and that should be the final analysis of anyone besides their therapist or their God.