If you’re asking about the general election, you’re either asking “Why did Republicans vote for the Republican candidate?” or “Why did Republicans not vote for the Democratic candidate?”
You’ve shot down efforts to answer the latter. And if it’s the former, why are you asking? What do you want from this thread?
Because maybe they thought the country was heading in the wrong direction, and Clinton was more of the same?
Don’t you have to offer some kind of evidence to support your assumption?
“Republicans, tell me why you voted for Trump, but don’t tell me it was because of Hillary”. Do you have other unfounded assumptions that you don’t want to hear? Heaven forfend anyone should answer you if the answer is not to your liking - hence my question.
Regards,
Shodan
And here I though I was asking a simple question of a specific group of people to find out why they did what they did.
What do I want from this thread?
A discussion about the topic in the OP.
But you can’t eliminate the Clinton aspect. I think it is a valid argument to say “I voted for Trump because as bad as he is Clinton was worse.”
As for the primaries, there were really only five serious contenders: Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Bush & Kasich. But the problem is when Colorado had its caucus Bush was out. While I could have voted for Rubio and Kasich it was effectually a battle between Trump and Cruz. And that is something the OP needs to consider, who was running at the time you voted in the primary.
So why did I support Trump in the primary? First of all, I would never vote for Cruz because I want the Constitution to run this country, not the evangelical version of the Bible. Secondly at the time I thought that Trump was at heart a moderate (look at his political history) and that he was trolling the Pubs. The sad part is the more he trolled the more successful he was. I realized before the general that it wasn’t an act and voted Johnson but I will say this, had my only two choices been Clinton and Trump I would have voted for Trump because I thought he would be more ineffectual at being a shady president than Clinton viz. Trump as President means his VP or the SotH is really running the country 
You must be a Democrat.
It seems to me that you are attempting to poison the well. You ask why Republicans voted for Trump, and then you dictate to them why they could not have voted for Trump???
If you’re going to answer your own question, why ask the public for THEIR reasons?
I don’t suppose you or Shodan would be willing to just answer the question?
As I’ve said, I have seen nothing in the media that gave an credence to the idea that the only thing stopping Republicans from voting for the Democratic candidate was the fact that Clinton was the candidate.
[del]Now I can spring my evil Democratic trap, ha ha![/del]Thank you for your response.
And if their answer is “Because Hillary would have been worse”, then what?
Then a simple followup would be “Which viable Democratic candidate would you have been willing to switch parties for?”
edited to add: and perhaps “What viable Democratic candidate would have convinced a significant number of Republicans to switch sides?”
And there have been approximately the same number of thread asking Republicans to “defend themselves” or “explain Trump” or “why are you voting for Trump”. Not sure why you think this one is special, but whatever. If you’re not interested, you’re not interested.
Nobody’s twisting your arm. I have participated in some of the threads that ask the broader questions, and the discussions in those threads lead me to start this narrower thread topic.
Why don’t you just tell us what you want us to say, since you discount most responses up front.
Because you reject the answer?
I’m a Republican, but I didn’t vote for Trump. I, like most Democrats, assumed there was no way he could win. I resigned myself to another fucking Clinton in the White House and another 8 years of stagnation and corruption. I voted, “None of theses candidates”, and went home.
However, if I actually thought there was a chance of keeping her out of the office, I would have voted for Trump, or Cruz or Hitler’s Charred Ball. But I also would have voted for any other Democrat before any of those.
So, if you don’t want to hear that Clinton is the answer, either don’t ask or tell us what you want to hear.
I thought people would understand that “Why did Republicans vote for Trump” meant “Why did those Republicans that voted for Trump vote that way?”-sorry If that was unclear. Would you actually have voted for Bernie?
ISTM that you have already told yourself what the answer is. Republicans voted for Trump because he was a Republican. Period. It had nothing to do with Hillary - you have already ruled that out.
If you are happy with that, fine with me.
Regards,
Shodan
Yep. Anybody except Trump*.
*Unless it’s Hillary.
In an effort to bend over backwards, my question to you is if you are a Republican and voted for Trump, why did you do so(any answer is acceptable).
Even if he was a socialist, communist, wanted to raise your taxes and borrow more to give to people to whom you know do not deserve it?
I am thinking that once his 90+% tax rates and overall redistribution ideals had hit you, you’d be running from that so fast, you’d smack right into Trump.
Not really into debating the different candidates in this thread. If he says he would have voted for Bernie if there was a chance he could have beaten Trump, I’ll accept that answer.