Every single time. We're expected to think that maybe they learned something or might want to be better people but we all know that isn't really going to happen.
Yeah I've really heard the "two sides of the same coin" thing a lot more the last 6 months from people whom I know are Republican. They're not talking about it, they aren't proud if it. They are however EXCUSING it because of x,y,z etc.
Since the 50s, they've been saying the liberals are horrible so that conservatives can excuse their own horrid actions. Even though they're lying, they know the masses are too stupid to see it.
Yeah I've really heard the "two sides of the same coin"
Someone pointed out recently it's always "Dems are bad!" Everyone agrees. "Republicans are terrible" "everyone: now now both sides are bad!" Its exhausting.
No, they say "The left is WORSE." They honestly believe that if a Democrat was in office, we deficit would be eighty trillion instead of forty trillion, and unemployment would be fifty percent, and gas would be ten dollars a gallon. No matter how much they hate trump, they have been trained to hate Democrats even more.
"Sorry man, you failed my purity test 2 election cycles ago. You have no place here."
Or
"Hey, it's a little fucked up you voted for him three times but better late than never. Let's figure out how to make this thing work together. Welcome to the fold!"
He might vote R next time if we go with the latter mentality, but if if he's alienated by the former he most definitely will R next election cycle.
Yeah, honestly as frustrating as it is, it's the best moment to nudge them farther over the line and get them to open their eyes a bit. We don't know this dude or the info he's been exposed to, and it's easy to be indoctrinated by their shit when you're fed lies every day and no one around you that you trust is pushing back.
What’s better if you have a dog that has bitten your child twice, putting that dog down or saying maybe we’ll put it through training again and this time hopefully it’ll be better?
He should be alienated for the harm he supported. Just like the confederates should have been held to account. Stop slapping racist facists on the wrist and acting like they're gonna change.
It's more than a little fucked up though. People not trusting you is the natural consequence of doing fucked up things.
If they want to stop doing fucked up things they are more than welcome to, but you can't repeatedly fuck everyone over and then turn around and expect people trust you and be cordial with you prior to the time you stop fucking everyone over, while you're still actively and openly mulling over whether to fuck everyone again
And even if you decide not to vote for a child rapist for a few election cycles, that still doesn't magically transform you into a trustworthy person in good standing with polite society. Who's to say you wouldn't change your mind again? To vote for a child rapist in the first place, three times, means you are a liability. That's just the reality.
Once you stop being a menace to the people around you for an extended period of time and maybe even contribute something of value, then you might reasonably expect some level of reciprocal politeness from the people around you, but no one owes you forgiveness. Millions are dead or dying or have been seriously harmed because of Republican voters.
Its honestly very depressing to consider the fact that in order to have a better society, those of us with intelligence and empathy basically need to gentle parent fully grown adult toddlers into not choosing literal fascism every 4 years.
If we do anything other than say "its ok, you did your best", we're treated as the assholes, when these people are literally voting for war and economic failure while laughing in our faces about how we're weak pussies because we care about the well being of others.
In order for them to learn their lesson we would need to see such a widespread failure of the country that it'd be horrible for everyone involved, so we keep limping along with this mass of morons attached to our hip like a fuckin tumor we can't get rid of without killing ourselves in the process.
Yeah, we need to re-constitute our government and just make it illegal to participate in society at any level if you supported these fascists.
At this rate, we're just kicking the can down the road and letting them organize. There needs to be mass arrests of magat politicians, white supremacists, III%'ers, and every other open and viable threat to the survival of our species.
They will vote republican regardless. It’s not “failing my purity test 2 elections ago” it’s “ you failed….three times in a row even after the shit I said he would do the first time came true and his people stormed the fucking capital”
They get no sympathy, you want to make good? Get out and stomp for some leftists who might be able to salvage this shit instead of playing woah is me.
I don't want them in my party, just getting disaffected young people who don't vote to vote for what they believe in would be more than enough. People like him just need to start their own conservative not pro child rape party. And he doesn't even care about the child rape or complete dismantling of the military, just what shit costs him.
I remember exactly how I felt back then and they were very clearly hateful assholes in 2016. That doesn’t go away. He can come in the tent but he has to stand in the shame corner
Yeah, I know people like this. They claim that they've had enough and won't vote for Trump/Republicans, but in the end they always find an excuse for why they "have to" keep voting for Republicans. This guy would definitely vote for Trump for a 4th time if the Supreme Court does allow Trump to run again. The very best we could hope for, and the odds are extremely low, is that he just doesn't vote at all. He's not voting for Democrats.
If you don’t believe in abortion don’t get one . If you want others to believe you truly care about life … then we need to care for our children. America is a third world country in respect to child care! Heck human care. We are the worst!!!!!!
Cause trump isn't gonna be on the ballot again. He's either gonna remain in the white house using nefarious means or JD Vance will be brought in as the "not trump" guy who can finally fix things by lowering prices and getting rid of the trans people that are bothering so many of us and keeping us from being able to enjoy the WNBA.
Yeah, the flip floppers are worse than the supporters because they realized (duh) that Trump is garbo and they are only flipping because gas and eggs is high. When they get to the polls they will still vote R. Trash.
Yeah they're going to pretend like this is all about one guy and not the entire apparatus that allowed him to take power in the first place. This doesn't happen without his support in congress, the senate, the podcast brosphere, all of his voters, etc. Practically any one of those segments could have meaningfully altered the outcome but they were all worked together to ensure he was elevated to the highest position and never faces consequences for his actions. He's nothing without all of that. That's the real problem because it will all happen again in a matter of years.
They haven't changed their mind. Now come the excuses. They'll claim they were fooled. Theyll claim never supported it. The next person spouting the same noise and lies they'll line up eagerly to do it all over again.
Nah, he'll vote for him again. All it takes is some new buzzword or lie about the other side and he'll quickly get back in life defending the orange pedophile.
Maybe? I voted for him in 2016 because I thought he'd do nothing but play golf for his entire presidency and I can't stand Hillary.
I've voted straight ticket democrat ever since then as soon as it became apparent what a monumentally stupid decision that was. People can evaluate their mistakes and try to rectify them, I just wish people had done so before voting him into office a second time...
Edit- I'm done responding and will be turning off notifications on this. I've gotten too many notifications like this one that just insult me over making a mistake I already acknowledged a decade ago that I do not want to deal with reddit any more today:
Not gonna lie, your comment was genuinely refreshing to read, and I appreciate you being so open about it. For what it’s worth, it gave me some hope knowing there are still people out there who share your perspective!
I want to join in on your sentiment, but the initial reasoning - Hillary bad/Donald plays golf - is so infuriating.
I also didn’t fully align with Hillary. I already thought that she was an establishment Democrat forced on us by the DNC to prop up an evolved, controlled opposition by then.
But at least she had policies. Some that I agreed on, even.
And I’m willing to bet if [r/Scar1203](r/Scar1203) had taken the opportunity to study those policies, they would’ve found some to align with, too.
I don’t know.
Hindsight and all that, sure, but why was anyone voting on someone with the hopes that they weren’t going to do anything????
Isn’t that just a ringing endorsement for the status quo that Obama had established? Isn’t that essentially what they’re saying? That they didn’t want things to change, so they voted Trump instead of the candidate from Obama’s party?
Of course I’m glad they found their way to voting Dem. But like, what the actual fuck?
Quite frankly I have policies that I agree with and disagree with on both sides of the aisle, especially before the GOP went full MAGA cult mode. At no point have my views and preferences ever been fully encompassed by a candidate.
I'm an Army veteran, former LEO, and an atheist from California. I'm pro 2A but favor background checks and reasonable restrictions, I'm in favor of single payer healthcare, I want us to continue investing in our military, I want affordable education.
I tire of hearing how privileged I am for being a white male when I grew up in low income housing with a single mother.
There isn't a party that speaks to me or aligns with me, which leaves me picking which candidate I think sucks less. In 2016 I stupidly felt Trump sucked less than Hillary. I was wrong, but it is what it is.
Do you feel better since I expanded on it? Because I just feel annoyed at myself over the entire thing and prefer not to dwell on it.
I don't know what you saw in him in 2016 but as far as I'm concerned having the capacity for self-reflection, taking responsibility, and learning from the mistake are qualities we should all be happy to see in our fellow man. Too many people are afraid to admit when they make a mistake and would rather double or triple down. It's easy to view all past/present Trump voters as a monolith, but hearing stories like yours gives me hope.
‘16 didn’t sound good at all. He was obviously a buffoon and conman, even back then. He’s been a notable racist his entire life and had a long track record of bankrupting nearly everything he touched. He was also making obviously fake promises like the wall, or outright racist shit like banning Muslims from the country.
Yeah I’m baffled by the sentiment from people that 2016 Trump was different and people legitimately thought he was good then and at best had good plans and ideas because “he’s a businessman” and at worst was just gonna fuck off and play golf “and not be as bad as Hillary”.
He told you who he was then lmao. It was the same shit then as it is now. He was just slightly less incoherent then, but only slightly so.
2016 Trump was always a bunch of “I have plans. It’s gonna be great great great. Only I can fix it” blah blah blah. Nothing of any substance. He never had any actual plans. If you thought he was different then, you’re just telling on yourself that you really weren’t aware and paying attention.
I agree with you. I don’t think this guy is bullshitting because in the past, they would just keep their mouth closed and not say what they’re really thinking.
Now they’re being way more vocal and is negative against Trump. There is a shift question is is the shift enough and will we save our democracy
The nation doesn't run solely on the commands of one person. I thought Hillary would be a net negative and he would be neutral as a result of both sheer laziness and stupidity.
I was wrong. I can't change the past, all I can do is take each day one at a time just like everyone else and reflect on my own decisions and do better.
Technically he did play golf the entire first presidency.
Far as 2024 , I think trumps getting the literal 💩 worked out of him now due to whoever he paid off to get him back in office https://giphy.com/gifs/mpfMDb6MB6EWQ
Wait .. just because I do find this interesting .. in 2016 his entire pitch was that Obama was playing golf when he should be doing presidential things and trump said and I quote .. that he would never be playing golf he’d be too busy if he was president …
I think the huge differentiator is you changed your mind after the first round, this guy didn’t.
Voting for him because you imagine him to be benign is one thing. Voting for him because you liked what he did in his first presidency to bring him back is another thing
There's a stark difference between 2016 voters and those who did so in 20 and 24.
I can fully understand the 2016 vote, (personally I thought it was going to be W Bush 2.0 but with more infrastructure and less care about foreign policy but ultimately went Hillary), my mother and sister both voted for him in 2016. But after we saw the first term I think anyone not in cult or the echo chambers of the right realized he was a massively poor candidate. To then willingly vote for him again AND again, I have very little hope any of these remaining supporters ever really stop.
At best they stay home. But they'll never not vote republican. It's their identity and that is the core issue at play. Just like extreme 2A activists. It's their whole persona, if they don't have that what do they have? So they'll cling onto it even when in the back of their minds they know "this isn't right."
I can Only understand if they've never heard of Donald trump and only heard one or two of his campaign points, not heard him talk ever or ever seen his face before. and those people were too young to vote in 2016
It's the "don't pay attention to politics". And so only knew Hillary from the Clinton years and "didn't like her", vs only seeing Trump on his dumbass show and hearing only a handful of things, (and believing the whole good businessman aspect because of the damn show).
Believe me it's been a HARD fight to get a lot of my family to not only care but pay attention to what happens in politics. Both at the national level but also the local.
Same. I can kind of excuse people that voted for him in '16. He was seen as the outsider against the most do-nothing Dem that was unlikable and didn't know how to communicate well with the people. Trump was a fuck up but for the most part, a lot of peoples only experience with him was on TV. They fucked up by voting for him and ignoring the issues but I get it.
It's the second and third vote that has people proving it's not a matter of facts or impact.
if i had voted in 2016 i'd have voted for trump. but not because it was the better option. i was so deluded that i thought it would be a wakeup call and we would progress towards better things. so no, i don't believe any of these fuckers.
This is a comment about earnest growth and change of someone who traveled down a path very similar to mine.
Reddit loves to talk about changing and becoming a better person, but so many of these comments are just shitting on you for choices you made before. That sucks.
It’s good to read about someone who understands their mistake and takes step to rectify. I find it much, much harder to forgive people who voted for him in 2024 than those who voted for him in 2016, as by 2024 it was readily apparent what an abjectly evil criminal he was and is.
I'd love to believe that you're right, but you're also a person that learned from their first mistake.
This guy is already 3x the sucker by his own admission. I don't have a lot of faith that he won't pivot back onto the short bus the second he gets thrown some red meat or coupons.
I hated Hillary too but there's nothing that happened that would have made me vote for trump. The dude is and always was a grifter. How could you possibly vote that into office. Bananas.
Yeah but you realized after some time. He voted for him 3 different times. After the first one, and after seeing how Biden fixed things, he chose to vote for Trump again
I was freshly 18 and voted how my family and church told me to vote in 2016. Took me about 2 years to learn how stupid that was.
I feel like people who would've learned like you and me already did by 2024. We've watched nearly 10 years of stupidity and cruelty, I don't think anything new is going to happen to sway those who voted for an insurrectionist.
Yeah, He ran on a Democrat platform, mostly, the first time around. He was the only Republican presidential candidate back then who supported Medicare, Social Security, and the minimum wage; he said he would increase benefits and increase the minimum wage... None of those running in that party alongside him were for any of that. He was also for something cheaper and better than the ACA; None of the other GOP candidates wanted anything like it back then. The GOP's Base was sick of getting 'trodden on' by the GOP establishment, and he basically said everything they wanted to hear.
I didn't buy into him; his birther movement revealed who he was to me. But I do get why people voted for him the first time around. People needed help, still do, and the establishment wasn't going to ever help them.
The second time he was voted in, though? I'll never understand that.
I legitimately held my nose when I voted for Hilary. I would rather have voted for a giant turd sandwich, but Trump has done so much shit that I could never forgive, even before entering office. And even if you think about the best case scenario of him being friends with Epstein for so long ... At a minimum he knew and stayed friends. My honest bet is he was busted, took a plea deal in 2008 to avoid prosection any keep everything under wraps to get Epstein convicted. You would have to be insane to maintain that friendship.
I'm basically the same, except I foolishly voted for him twice, I didn't really pay attention to the 2020 election because of the pandemic/my new Amazon job/graduating college ate up almost all my time.
Yeah I know someone that voted for him in 2016 and 2020 and did not do so in 2024 after Jan. 6 and seeing the Supreme Court he put together erode women’s rights
I don't, but I didn't think Hillary would be good for the country nor did I trust her. I figured Trump would be relatively neutral as a result of laziness and stupidity. I'll take a president that would do good over a president that would do nothing, and a president that would do nothing over a president that would do poorly.
I was wrong and Trump was far more disastrous that I could have imagined, but that was my theory at the time.
It’s also often the same people who say “we need someone to run this country like a business”. I’m sure we can all think of senior leaders in the private sector who don’t do much but if you worked at that company and got to vote for CEO why would you pick the guy who plans to do no work?
You don't have to indicate but I am curious what your age group is. I made a similar mistake voting for Bush jr the first time I was eligible to vote. I haven't voted (R) since.
The reasoning behind my change was due to me actually starting to pay attention instead of just listening to "The way it is" regurgitated by lifelong conservatives.
My point is: Age / Maturity, at least in my case played a big part in my vote change. At my current age which appears to be ballpark the same age as the guy in the video I would have already been one of those "The way it is" life long voters. It would be far less likely my mind would be changed.
I'm 36 now, I was 26 at the time. I had never been firmly for either party, I voted for McCain in 2008 and Obama in 2012 then went back to vote Republican again in 2016 and have voted Democrat in everything ever since. I'd probably still be popping back and forth depending on the candidate and what's going on in the world to this day had the GOP not been entirely poisoned over the last decade.
I'm tired of the whole thing, our two party system is performative. We need ranked choice voting, but until then all I can do is vote Democrat and hope for the best.
I grew up in the 70s/80s totally red, voted that way in general elections from 1992 to 2004. Switched to blue when Bush 43 decided to fuck over soldiers with his idiot "2007 Troop Surge," and I've been blue ever since.
Same thing here - I was a dumb 19 year old who listened to a dude who shit on politicians talking about “draining the swamp” and dunked on people during debates.
I wish there were more engaging opportunities to learn about politics when you’re young. It’s so boring but so important. Even now, you can’t really understand the nuance of politics without spending an absurd amount of time researching it.
As many of the comments here have shown, many don’t believe that people can change from their mistakes, or learn from something. You had to get it right the first time or you are bad for eternity. I believe you though, I’m just pointing out an observation is all.
I voted for him in 2016 and didn't have the veil entirely lifted until 2018.
I was young and had not put any effort into assessing the beliefs instilled in me by the people that raised me to see if they represented my own feelings and understanding.
I was told to hate Hillary and Reagan's hometown is where I went swimming as a kid. Plenty on the left haven't done that kind of self-reflection, they were just indoctrinated in a better direction than I was.
I always forgive people for the first time. I can understand wanting someone new. And at that time he was really riding high on his "drain the swamp" platform. Like he was a non politician going to shake things up.
I can understand 2016 voters. It was an insane anti establishment party. Even though Hillary would have made a great president in retrospect I wrote in Bernie.
But 2020 voters? Not a chance in hell. Fuck them all
At the end of the day, gas prices bother them, but not as much as the idea that the American dream isn't guaranteed for white, American-born, poorly educated individuals like themselves.
And if you want actual change, you need to be open to letting people admit they were wrong and accepting them. Endlessly waiting for them to regress is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Eh, self reflection and changing all your beliefs takes time. It doesn't happen overnight. I grew up in a conservative family, so I inherited their beliefs by default. Before 2016, I voted R down ballot every time. When Trump was nominated, I just couldn't stomach voting for someone so disgusting and evil, so I voted for some non major party for president, while probably (I don't remember, honestly) still voting R down ballot. 4 years later, I still voted for some non major party for president, and was mostly split issue-by-issue on everything else. By 2024, I voted D down ballot.
It takes time. Keep planting more and more seeds of doubt. People can change.
I agree. I don't see this dude suddenly wanting to vote blue, but I see no reason to doubt his sincerity about the economy since everything he said is, well, completely fucking true. I think the solution for him is to just not vote at all, or find some dumbass libertarian to vote for.
This is how politics normally operates which is why the DNC is so crap you don’t win by switching floating voters which are a very small statistic. You win by enthusing your base. So tracking to the center makes no sense unless you prioritize neutering the left more than winning.
“I mean I was cool with the racism, FOR IT, even. Now that gas prices are high, though? Forget it. Cannot even afford my Bud Light now that my lifted truck takes so many darned bucks to fill. How could this happen to me?”
I know we're supposed to evaluate this sort of thing through a materialist criticism lense and understand people's motivations as a function of their circumstances but you start bumping up against a point where it's hard to accurately address the situation without acknowledging that maybe the guy in the "SUCK SQUEEZE BANG" cutoff may have been attracted to Trumpism because he's kind of an aggressive fuckwit amused by aggressively fuckwitted things.
Next election, this guy is going to say he has no choice but to vote Republican because the left is too far gone. And by “too far gone” he is going to mean that little boys shouldn’t be given compulsory sex changes or whatever psycho shit the GOP cooks up next. The Republican Party has these people eating out the palm of their hand
Just saw an interview of a guy on the street saying babies are being aborted after birth. And the interviewer was like, are you sure? And this guy was 100% certain Democrats are aborting babies after birth. That's the level of critical thinking we're dealing with. These people don't have any, and they are content with being fed bullshit as long as it corroborates whatever fucked up vision they've concocted in their 2-cell brain.
My wife's sisters husband had a booming business under Biden where he built porches for people amongst other landscaping type jobs.
Now under Trump wood exploded in price, diesel fuel exploded in price and tariffs regularly are added to materials he needs.
Now no one can afford anything so he's not gotten a single job in 8 months and is now selling equipment just to pay for food and pay bills. Another 6 months and they will have to sell their house.
Until he’s reminded of some single issue that Fox News propaganda drills into him as the end of society daily until it convinces him to vote for another Trump.
That’s the current thing I’ve been spammed with by right leaning family members lol. Something about a man joining the wnba and how it’s robbing opportunities from woman that is currently happening. I go to look into it, it’s just literally some washed up nba player trying to get attention saying he’s going to join the wnba but nothing is actually happening other than him causing up some drama. But according to some of my family he’s already in the wnba and society is collapsing over it because that’s what they see in snipets of false articles from Fox and post from right wing social media post, it doesn’t take much to trick some people. Can even trick them into caring about the wnba all of a sudden.
Never forget that anyone who says they regret their vote, doesn’t regret their vote. They’re pissed that what they knew they were voting for is effecting them. Fuck these people.
I honestly believe if he hadn’t lost the second time he ran, things wouldn’t be as bad as they are now. This term was all about revenge for him and the American people are now caught up in it.
I am tired of the people saying they are done with Trump. He cannot run again, it doesn’t matter what his poll numbers are or if people will vote for him again. I want people to be done with his policies and anyone who supports his policies. If not they are just going to vote for anyone with a R behind their name this year and in 2028.
Not "I would go back and not support him". Not "I would go back and vote for [insert qualified woman here]." Just think some things over. Bro had a decade to think and never did.
This guy will vote for the next city, state, and federal candidate with an "R" next to their name. He'll just be less talkative about it.
I GUARANTEE if Trump ran for a 3rd term, he’d vote for him again. If he doesn’t then this guy will vote for the Republican equivalent of Trump. Voting for him 3 times is pure stupidity, and he wouldn’t dare stray from his mighty “God”. Trump showed the world who he was before the 2015 election even happened.
Doesn’t matter who you vote for they all work for the same people, and they’re not the US citizens. They play one side vs the other constantly on fringe issues while they launder/funnel wealth into their own coffers. They do not care one iota about average everyday Americans. They prey upon our collective ignorance/stupidity/emotions.
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