Trump Voters - have any of you changed your mind?

Politics & Elections
1

I’ve been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks, but I’ve been too busy. Things just keep getting worse.

So my question is for anyone who voted for Trump in 2020. Seeing all that is gone on since the election, have any of you changed your mind about supporting Trump, or regret your vote?

If so, what was the thing that convinced you?

If not, why not?

I would prefer if non-Trump voters would refrain from the urge to pop in and Dem-splain the behavior of conservatives and Republicans. I want honest opinions from the right. I am genuinely curious where the line gets drawn.

I mean, even before the horrifying insurrection and even ignoring the lies about election fraud and the legal challenges to to results, there were other, “quieter” issues that should have been signal flares.

  1. His abdication of any involvement in fighting the pandemic. Sure he initiated Project Warp Speed, and pushed the development of new vaccines in record time. But after the election he was silent on the pandemic. He did nothing to try to curb the growing spread in the holiday season. He literally skipped a pandemic summit with other leaders to play golf. And his administration bungled the vaccine roll out, failing to have any plan to perform the vaccinations, and they lied about holding back a reserve of second doses.

  2. He sabotaged national security by withdrawing from the Open Skies treaty used to get access for surveillance aircraft over our enemies, and he canceled the aircraft programs and ordered the aircraft scrapped, so Biden would have a harder time restoring it.

That last one should have had conservatives screaming from the rafters. I mean, sabotaging National Security on your way out the door out of spite?

Then we add back in the progression of the election denial.

Claiming massive election fraud without evidence, and continuing when recounts and court reviews proved it false.

Pushing lawsuits with no evidence and lying about what the lawsuits even claimed and about the court decisions and their reasons for ruling against the cases.

Pressuring state election officials to overturn their results and either not certify or send alternate electors.

Pressuring the Governor of Pennsylvania to change the election results by “finding” more votes, and threatening not to was illegal.

Telling Mike Pence to single-handedly and unilaterally reject the state-certified electors.

Stirring up his followers to hold a massive rally on Jan. 6, then inciting them with bold language about fighting, being strong, trial by combat, and telling them Pence let them down, then sending the crowd marching down to the Capitol. Where the crowd broke onto property grounds, rioted against Capitol Police, broke in to the building, injured several police and killed one, erected a gallows and called for hanging Mike Pence, marched through the building, trashed offices, deficated shit in the building and spread feces shit all over, and got one of their own shot dead.

So what finally got your attention? Or are you still proud you voted for him?

2

You may be speaking to an empty or almost-empty room here. The last Trump supporter I can think of was Tim R. Mortiss, and he got banned.

3

Of the five or six I know on FB two have kept posting nonsense and the others have gone silent. I think that’s about as close as they can get to admitting that they fucked up. But I am probably being charitable. Introspection is not even a thing in their circle afaik.

4

True of my group of friends, as well. No MAGA hats, no bumper stickers any more. Avoiding talking about politics now (huge change).

5

I voted for him in 2016–anybody but Clinton–and again this time.

I do wish he had done a little more regarding Covid. However–unlike most Democrats–he recognized that when it comes to matters of public health, state and local governments have the lion’s share of the power. The federal government is largely limited to coordinating efforts and giving advice. He couldn’t have done all that much more than he did without running afoul of the Constitution.

I never did like his attitude towards trade. But he balanced that by (1) trying to get the rest of NATO to pull their own weight, (2) moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and (3) killing Qasem Soleimani

I was hoping he would get re-elected, partly because I knew that he would not lose gracefully. But I underestimated just how ungracefully it would be. His behavior since Biden won has been an utter disgrace. I’m thankful for the good that he did, but I no longer support him.

6

And that would be…?

7

This is just so wrong, I just don’t know where to start.

To begin, do you think maybe he could have encouraged people to follow the advice of their local health authorities, instead of tweeting "Liberate Minnesota, Liberate Michigan and Liberate Virginia", encouraging those who were fighting their state governments covid preparations?

He actually encouraged people to IGNORE or FIGHT the local health authorities.

8

  1. Blathering about wanting NATO members to spend more on US military equipment. Did not accomplish much.

  2. Good for Israel. Had little impact on US Citizens.

  3. I’ve never been fond of extra-judicial killings, no matter who does them. For example, when Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by elements of the Saudi government, I did not like that either. But Trump was silent.

9

I think you’ll find that Trump supporters will frequently fall into the alternate reality camp:

  • Those things you mentioned never happened. Fake news. The fake media made them up - they know this because the media they like told them so.

  • Trump won the election, but it was stolen by the terrible, satanic socialist baby-killing Democrats. The judges never got to hear the evidence because the terrible, satanic etc. Democrats prevented this. Trump won. He won he won he won he won.

  • Everybody is against Trump. This proves Trump is right.
    Democrats, Judges, the supreme court, the joint chiefs of staff, Mitch McConnell, Pence, all those other Fake Republicans in those states, those former staffers of Trump, Trump’s friends and relatives, scientists, the Deep State, the FBI, the CIA, Homeland Security, all the Intelligence agencies every diplomat… all against him. They are all lying, and Trump is the only one telling the truth.

10

Ok, I know a few trump supporters. One seems to have quieted down since the insurrection, but does use whataboutism. (Portland is the popular refrain like that was anything close to destroying Democracy), Larry Correia said “never really liked trump anyway”, one just isnt posting much but did post how you can get a fake Medical Mask exemption ID, and said a week ago he was leaving FB for good, one is complaining about the fact that Twitter and Fb blocked “friends” and a hateful screed about Obama (???), but only one has sorta said he aint backing the orange Bozo no more.

11

Sheesh. @Euphonious_Polemic, I largely agree with your points, but I think the OP was trying to make this a space where Trump-voters could express themselves without fear of dogpiling. There’s dozens of other threads detailing Trump’s every little sin. What you’re accomplishing here is chasing away any potential Republican/conservative/right-wing commenter that may still be perusing these forums.

12

Well, to be fair, it’s a one-man dogpile so far (probably just ran out of ETA time), but yeah, OP did explicitly ask the rest of us to not come in to Demsplain why the Trumpists were wrong. To which I thought to myself: now watch them be unable to resist coming to say “but we MUST! we CANNOT let them off easy!!!”

13

Guilty as charged.

14

BTW thank you for stepping forward, and for being straightforward about how you saw things and what you saw as your deciding issues. I do know people who are in the same boat.

15

Are wakes? I feel like all of those stiffs have cheated us out of an open-bar…

16

First, thank you for posting. I’m glad to hear that you have stopped supporting Trump. But this is interesting to me.

You voted for him partly because you were afraid of what he would do if you didn’t (not do to you personally but to the country). I wonder how many other Trump voters also felt a bit terrorized by him. I hadn’t thought of that.

17

To an extent the Trump movement has seemed like 70 million people standing in a circle with guns pointed inward and with directions not only to shoot the first person who leaves the circle, but also to shoot anyone who doesn’t shoot the first person to leave the circle.

Leaving a cult is terrifying.

It looks to me like January 6–Epiphany–was a day where a lot of Trump cultists started to realize what was going on. Realizing what’s going on, and processing what’s going on, and internalizing what’s going on, and admitting what’s going on–these are all different steps in the process of leaving the cult.

A lot of people are still processing. A lot of people will need awhile to process. It’s really difficult to realize that the people you’ve considered your enemies were actually right about your leader. It’s really difficult to realize you were complicit in a great harm to the nation. It’s really difficult to realize that history will not judge you kindly.

As awful as these folks’ actions were, I think it’s critical that we make it easy to leave the cult. We need to welcome people who are leaving. That doesn’t mean they escape responsibility, that doesn’t mean we gloss over their misdeeds; but the right choice right now is to make it easy to leave the cult.

18

Bootb, thank you for replying.

I mentioned in another thread, I live in Trumpville. Four of my neighbors were big supporters, three with signs and banners and stuff. Now all three have taken down their Trump stuff. One still has his Gadsden flag and banner with a machine gun and “Come And Take It” slogan. No, I don’t talk to any of them about politics.

19

I think @octopus, @agzem, and @UltraVires may have voted for Trump the second time around. Just @-ing them so they know about the thread.

I think @UltraVires was pretty turned off by the post-election vote shenanigans at least, but I don’t know if he regrets his vote.

Anyway, I’m hoping more Trump voters join in, and I further hope that we can let them speak without Demsplaining (love it!).

ETA: also @eenerms may have voted for Trump.

20

Moderating:
All of you who are posting to say how bad Trump is. Don’t hijack the thread. The question is directed at Trump voters and asks if any one them now wishes they voted differently. Anything else is a hijack.