They didn’t do it because of anything Clinton did or didn’t do, because she was wasn’t a Republican. She doesn’t factor into this question at all-if they didn’t vote Trump, they would have voted for another Republican candidate, not her. They are the primary cause he got the votes he got. What made Republicans think that Trump was a suitable candidate for the top job in the country?
Are you asking everyone, or just Republicans? Because I suspect you’ll get very different answers.
Personally I think people voted for Trump because they liked the story he told. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” was his version of Obama’s “Hope and Change” - when you dig down into it, it doesn’t mean anything specific, but it was something people could project their desires and fears onto and pretend that the candidate shared their views on everything. Clinton didn’t have that kind of narrative, and coupled with her general lack of charisma and the endless negative stories was unable to rouse much enthusiasm. She could talk policy until the cows come home but she didn’t have that “hook”; the best she could muster was the whole “first female president” thing and that wasn’t remotely enough for most voters.
America is all about stories, not truth. The person with the best story will win over the most people. This time, Trump was that person.
It’s right there in the title of the thread and several places in the OP-Why did Republicans vote for Trump? Clintonblame has nothing to do with this.
I think it was more of a case of the sane voters splitting among the candidates like Christie, Bush, Rubio, and Kasich while the batshit voters coalesced quickly around the eventual nominee. Sort of the reverse of 2012 when Romney got all the sane vote and the batshit vote was splintered. If any of the four mentioned candidates went one on one vs the eventual nominee, then we have a different result. But they all stayed in too long and by the time Kasich was the sole survivor, the momentum was unstoppable.
I’m not blaming Clinton for anything. If anything, I blame the people who voted for Trump for Trump.
Czarcasm’s point was that the answer to the first question you asked, “Are you asking everyone or just Republicans?” was clearly stated in the title of the thread.
Literally.
If you’re asking about the primaries, or the reasons Republicans chose Trump over some other Republican candidate, I think there weren’t any particularly strong Republican candidates this time around—no one who had anywhere near universal respect within the party. So I think a big part of the answer to the thread title’s question is “They didn’t have anyone else they could feel good about voting for.”
It’s not difficult is it; the voted for their party, their tribe.
I know a number of life-long Republicans who fought against Trump in the primaries but ended up voting for Trump in the actual election because he was the only viable candidate who had a chance of winning against Hillary. He was also the only Republican on the ballot.
I don’t think you’re right. I think a lot more Republicans would have voted for Biden had he been the nominee. Many, many Democrats don’t “like Clinton”. Multiply that by a factor of 1,000,000,000 to get the sentiment most Republicans feel towards Hillary. Hell, it would appear lots of Democrats couldn’t be bothered to vote for her.
So what? The topic of this thread is about the Republican vote only.
I think you need to clarify your question: **Why did Republicans vote for Trump instead of ____________?
Instead of other Republicans in the primaries?
Instead of Clinton in the general election?
Instead of a third party candidate?
Instead of staying home on election day?
I’m a Trump voter. He was certainly not a suitable candidate.
In the primaries, I started out supporting Rubio. But he dropped out fairly early. I half-heartedly supported Cruz for a while, but it became clear that he was having a hard time against Trump, so I eventually, and very reluctantly, switched to Trump.
There is ample precedent for this.
“In a choice of Evils let them take the least – Jefferson is in every view less dangerous than Burr.” – Alexander Hamilton, 1800
“If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.” – Winston Churchill, 1941
If the Democrats had had the sense to run almost anybody other than Clinton, I would not have voted for Trump. However, I did feel somewhat better about him after the debates.
And I must say, that so far, even though it’s extremely early in his term, I have been pleasantly surprised. With the possible exception of the TPP (which I support), every one of Trump’s executive orders so far is exactly what you would hope for from a Republican president. He’s reining in the loathsome EPA, taking steps against abortion, and so forth.
The only reading of the OP that makes sense is discussing the primaries so I’ll assume that’s what he’s referring to but some clarification would be nice.
Either and/or both would be satisfactory.
But there’s a huge, perhaps biggly, difference. The primary voters are the few, die hards. They may have voted for Trump because “He’s the bestest!!!”. In the general, as is often the case, it’s the lesser of two evils (from the perspective of the voter).
As for your comment to my earlier post… If you want to ignore why Democrats didn’t vote for Hillary, that’s your choice. But it would seem that if one really wanted to know why the natural enemies of HRC didn’t vote for her, it might be helpful to know why so many of her natural friends didn’t. YMMV.
There are already approximately eleventy hundred other threads discussing the “Hillary” thing and why Democrats did or didn’t do something or another. In this thread I’m narrowing the focus just a wee bit to the topic in the OP.
I think it’s a meaningful question to ask about the general election as well. People who dislike their party’s candidate have the option of voting for the opposite party’s candidate, voting for a third-party candidate, or staying home, and if I remember the numbers correctly Democrats were MORE likely than Republicans to do one of these things, even though their party had nominated a mainstream, qualified candidate who was knowledgeable about the government and capable of acting like an adult. If you flip the percentages of Democrats-who-didn’t-vote-for-Clinton and Republicans-who-didn’t-vote-for-Trump, we might very well be looking at a Clinton victory.
Are you actually looking for an answer? If you don’t know, how is it that you are sure it wasn’t because of Hillary?
Regards,
Shodan
Because I’ve seen nothing of substance that indicates a significant number of Republicans that voted for Trump would have voted for a Democrat if that Democrat wasn’t Clinton. I always thought party loyalty was a big thing for Republicans.
Am I wrong?