Before I ask the two questions, I would humbly ask that non-Trump supporters stand back and let the people that these questions are directed to answer the questions uninterrupted by critique and/or attack, and I would also ask that you refrain from answering for them. There are plenty of threads out there for that type of response, but hopefully this isn’t going to be one of them. Thank you.
Question #1: Why do you support Donald Trump?
Question #2: Under what circumstances would you stop supporting Donald Trump?
Come on man. It’s going to be the same answers - “Because of all the great stuff he’s doing!” The other thread had a huge list of “accomplishments” that a poster cut and pasted from somewhere.
Let’s try to keep this on track as thread where Trump supporters have a space to explain their POV and others can engage in dialog. Debate and discussion will happen, but let’s leave breathing room for Trump supporters to speak for themselves.
Anything really insulting or contentious can find its way in the Pit.
IANATS, but I can tell you what one Trump supporter told me.
I had a long discussion this past weekend with my brother, a firm Trump supporter. He is convinced that the alternatives would have been far worse. He was surprisingly willing to admit Trump’s failings but is un-shakeable in his belief that the alternatives would have been disasterous.
Stephanie Wilkinson, the owner of the Red Hen, Lexington asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave. Certainly it was her right, but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents,” - Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.” - Hillary Clinton
The University of Berkeley cancelling conservative speakers over threats of violence.
These aren’t the actions of rational people or people I care to be associated with. These are the people that motivated Trump supporters to go out and vote when otherwise they might have stayed at home. These are the people that shoved many of the undecided voters into the Trump camp because they share my opinion of these examples.
Most importantly, these are the people that are going to double down and give Trump a big boost in 2020.
Then I’d encourage you to get out of your bubble (something like 43% of the country supports Trump). To that end, I offer a partial list of my reasons for supporting President Trump:
[ul]
[li]He’s the most pro-2nd-Amendment president we’ve had in my lifetime[/li][li]He has a list of fantastic choices for the Supreme Court[/li][li]He has given me a tidy little tax cut[/li][li]He does appear to be actively working to shrink the size of the federal government[/li][/ul]
If he abandoned these positions and reversed himself, for example by picking Merick Garland for SCOTUS, or pushing significantly for gun control or to raise taxes, he’d lose my support.
Aren’t we seeing a uuuuuuge reason for question #1 right now with Kennedy retiring? I suppose one could argue that you’d get the same result with another Republican, but we don’t have another Republican president and I think many of the Trump supporters still think in term of Trump vs Hillary (or some other Democrat).
Maybe because Trump supporters got tired of the abuse. If you feel like asking “what abuse?”, you can find my list on another thread.
Actual debate is possible in some exceptional places, but even places claiming to be about debate descend into insults. When the free exchange of ideas isn’t even allowed on college campuses, some people will give up trying.
I didn’t like Trump at first, and I still don’t love him, but he is far, far better than any of the alternatives who had a chance. I will vote for a better alternative if one comes forward and has a chance of defeating the candidates that stand against what I live for.
I agree with RiverHippie’s friend, in that I don’t like Trump but the alternative was unacceptable.
I don’t like him as a person and I wish he’d STFU on Twitter, but I think his administration is doing a good job. Unemployment is done, especially among African Americans. Tax rates have been cut, and I got a nice little bonus from my employer as a result. He stared down North Korea, who appears to be blinking.
We’ll wait and see. I’d say I’m cautiously optimistic.
