How has the disgraced, CONVICTED FELON, former President Trump pissed you off today?

[Kimstu]

@Akaj

I joined the Dope in 2017 and found most Dopers to be intensely anti-Trump. Was the pre-administration vibe truly open to giving him a chance, with you and a few others the only holdouts?

I think even in 2015-16 most of the Dope was strongly anti-Trump, although not necessarily pro-Hillary. But during and after the 2016 race there was a fairly well-represented minority of those a) taunting disappointed Democrats with Trump’s victory and/or b) pooh-poohing Democrats’ fears that he would really be “that bad”.

The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making, December 2016

I gotta admire the prescience of Stranger_On_A_Train’s post #120 in that thread, though:

@Stranger_On_A_Train

Look forward to more restrictive laws on abortion and availability of contraception, denial of climate change and an expansion of drilling and hydraulic fractioning for petroleum versus investment in developing renewable and synthetic energy sources, eviceraton of educational standards and the ability to teach non-science like creationism as “an alternative” to science, reconstituting the Supreme Court with heavily conservative justices who will take a “strict” (e.g. non-progressive) reading of Constitutional law, and removal of protections if not outright persecution of disfavored minorities. Trump has shown the radical right that they can have everything they want if they are just audacioiusly upfront about it and appeal to bigotry and fear. And this is a lesson that will persist long after Trump is playing his golden harp.

Whatever Trump and his administration does in the next few years is nothing compared to the longer term impact on politics and governance in this country. The presidency has been allowed to become a powerful position by fiat, and we’ve largely depended on the fundamental decency and benevolence of a president not to be a raging asshole. Even with the worst of presidents in the modern era there was a need to be seen as being even-tempered and judicious in the exercise of power, but Trump has violated these preconceptions even before he has taken office.

The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making Part Deux (Part 1), June 2020

I’m gonna have to pit all you butt-hurt snowflakes, January 2017

(Though I say it myself, I wasn’t too far off in post #165 there, either.)

One thing all those threads illustrate is how deeply and repeatedly many conservative Dopers embarrassed themselves with their credulity about the good faith of the American conservative establishment. It’s become a sort of conventional wisdom of ressentiment on these boards that a lot of conservative Dopers were “driven away” in recent years by a heightened atmosphere of “intolerance” on the part of liberals, etc.

But the truth is that a lot of those conservative voices (the ones that didn’t bring an outright suspension or banning on themselves with board rules violations, at least) are still around, lurking and/or in full possession of posting privileges. They’re just not posting anymore because they know we can all see the stupid things they said, and don’t want to be reminded of what asses they were.