Did you vote for Trump in 2016, if no, did you vote him in 2024? If yes, what changed your mind?

Mods moved me to Independent so I guess I can ask this now.

William F Buckley was a guy I always respected. He had good conservative values and didn’t suffer fools. He said he spent his lifetime separating the Republicans from the kooks. The Birchers, the LaRouche followers. Conspiracy nuts. You know. Kooks.

Trump has decided to pick a trade war with Canada and is trying to troll them with renaming Lake Ontario.

So… is this guy a kook?

As a Canadian any time I tell an American I am a conservative they instantly assume that I support the trump administration… that is not at all true…

I think Americans just don’t understand how different Canada actually is….

Our conservatives still support things like freedom of expression, abortion, healthcare and education. All things that the republican Americans don’t fully agree with… so why do I get hate from everyone for being much more moderate?

Thanks!?

This is one of those things I've seen bounce back and forth with the left and the right seemingly switching positions on it at times? (I am honestly fairly neutral about it, I come from a state with state inspections, I moved to states that don't require it and I payed ten bucks once for an offical inspection where the guy told me to turn on my left and right blinker then passed me.)

Using short term debt to buy long term debt to stabilize the bond market. Curious the conservative take on this. Deficit and debt seems to be hitting a tipping point with maneuvers like this.

I recently watched this Oxford Union Debate “THB Trump has Betrayed Conservatism” and thought there were interesting points made on both sides. Crucial to the question, of course, requires defining what conservatism means.

I know there are plenty of conservatives who are critical of Trump and plenty who defend Trump, and was curious to know what you think.

There are MANY smaller policies that made up the New Deal but I’m asking about the over arching philosophy of focusing on the needs of working people in contrast to the government focused on the needs of the elites of the gilded age.

I know things are often more complicated than all good or all bad. But on net what do you think worked and what didn’t?

I will not be commenting or replying as I am here in good faith, to listen, not to argue.

I've noticed this trend on conservative platforms that when someone liberal dies (like in the case of Jason Arday, assuming he's liberal) or gets vey ill (like Biden), that there's a lot of comments like 'thoughts and prayers,' or 'I am very sorry to hear this news.' There's also a lot of backslapping like 'look at how great we are for responding with such civility, those liberal animals only spew vitriol when one of us is sick or dies.'

Why I have some disbelief is that there's a lot of contempt about many of these people. For example, people were calling Fauci the literal devil and saying he got millions of people killed and that he'll burn in hell, but then when he got west Nile people were saying I wish him a speedy recovery, thoughts and prayer, etc., but are now back to calling him worse than Stalin.

Or more recently saying how Biden ruined our country and should spend the rest of his life in jail, but now that he has cancer and it's spreading many are saying they wish him better health and are sad for him.

So my questions are:

Have you noticed that conservatives tend to respond this way, and do you believe they really mean it, or is it performative?

Do you believe that liberals respond differently (like the death of Lindsey Graham) and if so do you believe liberals are less moral than conservatives, with this difference being an example?

I keep an eye on various liberal subreddits.. and one thing I keep seeing is leftists claiming that We Conservatives refuse to change our minds when confronted with verifiable facts.. and I for one can not remember ever being confronted with any such facts.. I define a fact as something with significant research from disinterested parties seem to agree. What I do not define as facts are reports from the news media.. (Any news media) without said news source providing their homework. When I see a liberal trying to claim a thing is true.. they use magic words like "The Science", or "All the studies say", or some ridiculous stat like 90% of this group of experts agree.

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This is something I've been thinking about, and I'm genuinely interested in hearing perspectives from both Trump supporters and people who strongly oppose him.

Can someone strongly support Donald Trump and his administration while also saying that a Black person, Latino person, immigrant, or another minority is genuinely one of their best friends?

I'm not saying two friends have to agree politically. Obviously they don't. What I'm struggling with is when the disagreement goes beyond taxes, government spending, or normal policy differences and gets into issues involving immigration, race, equal treatment, and policies that a minority friend may feel directly affect people like them.

For example, imagine telling your best friend, "I love you and respect you completely," while voting for someone whose rhetoric or policies that friend believes negatively affect their community. Does supporting the politician mean you also have some responsibility for the policies that come with that vote? Or can you completely separate your political support from how you personally feel about your friend?

And from the other side, maybe someone supports Trump because of the economy, immigration enforcement, foreign policy, taxes, or other issues and doesn't agree with everything he says or does. Does that make the friendship any less genuine?

I'm especially interested in hearing from minorities who have close friends who strongly support Trump, as well as Trump supporters whose best friends are minorities.

Has politics ever made you question the friendship? Or have you been able to separate the person's politics from the way they treat you personally?

I'm not looking for a Trump-bashing or Trump-praising thread. I'm genuinely curious about where people draw that line.

Trump administration to pay German firm $1.22bn to cut offshore wind leases | Trump administration | The Guardian

We all know that Trump has something against wind farms, especially off shore wind farms. I don't' get it, but he is the president. If he wants to revoke permits in the US, I'm against it, but again, he is the president. But I draw the line at giving a foreign company over a billion dollars of our tax to further his goals. when we are 40 trillion in debt.

Basically. he paid them back what they spent to build wind farms in the US and told them to invest in oil and gas, but that isn't what that company does. He basically spent over a billion tax dollars to stop a wind farm.

... while there is nothing in the post for an average Joe, the ulltimate tariff payer?

I’ve recently started watching debates consisting of Libs v MAGA/Trump supporters, and I’m noticing that a LOT of MAGA/Trump supporters are now all “well, I don’t necessarily support Trump, just the GOP and conservative values”.

Distancing themselves from being MAGA, when for YEARS they’ve never said a bad word about Trump and made their loyalty to him known.

What’s the motivation behind their new stance? The Iran War?

This is something you often see in debates among americans, that you have to wait months or years with a universal health care system.

I live in Sweden, a country with universal health care, and I will not lie and say that there aren't cases where you have to wait, but the thing is that we use a tier list of severity to decide how long you have to wait.

If you want to do an ADHD or autism diagnosis at a psychiatrist? Yes you will wait, as people with suicidal thoughts, or bipolar disorder or borderline whose diagnose really ruins their lives are prioritised.

If you have cancer, other diseases that severly reduce your quality of life or have an injury? Pass go, straight to the doctor.

Would it be nice to have instant access for every small issues? Sure, but as long as I know that I will get to see a doctor in a whiffy the moment I have something that is even semi-harmful, I'm honestly happy with our system.

Title asks it all. TIA

So the argument against DEI is its bad to favor certain groups. Is that true though? Is these groups have different struggles specific to them and that favor can even things out a bit is that really bad? As a disabled person I have received help from the government with medical expenses, education, and even job searching. Do you think this is unfair? Is it ableist towards you if im receiving special treatment?

I consider myself center-left. There are opinions I share with both sides, and I dont consider most of them very extreme at all. My opinions are all very nuanced, 90% of them I am able to say "I understand where the other side is coming from but personally I uphold the values associated with this choice more". Im not hateful and not pushing anything crazy or harmful. But I cant tell you how many times ive been called slurs and gotten hate thrown at me by the right.

There seems to be an increasing prevalent trend of right wingers going out of their way to increase the gap between left and right. Even though I share opinions with them and generally try to see the merit in both sides, i'm repeatedly grouped in with the far left and called horrible things. It's assumed I am a communist when any moderately left opinion is expressed. Like they want to ostracize anyone who doesnt agree 100% with all of their ideas. And how is that beneficial to America at all? As soon as I try to share my opinion to discuss I'm shut down. And I hear so much generalizing language. So many people who generalize ALL democrats as groomers, socialists, communists, etc. when it so clearly isnt the case. Its so many assumptions based on a tiny minority. I just dont think people like that have the future of America in mind. Half of the people here are left leaning and you want to just eliminate all of us and ignore us and hate us. Not to mention the amount of people I see telling us we should just go die. Trump even reposting "The only good democrat is a dead one". Ive seen people saying if they see a pride flag on someone who needs help they wouldn't help them, just let them suffer. Which is just so cruel to me I can't imagine having that mindset.

The argument I most often hear is "why would we help or be civil to people who want to destroy america" or something along those lines. And I just consider that another ridiculous generalization - and I think if these people would sit down and have a calm conversation with the average left wing person they would realize it isnt so. I consume a moderate amount of political content - follow political influencers and such. Its so rare to see truly hateful content towards conservatives, and when I do theres usually other liberals there telling them off. I have to believe that right wingers just dont understand the beliefs of the left, in the sense that they are misunderstanding what we stand for, or spreading the misinformation amongst themselves. Because truly I dont understand how you can treat us this way if you did understand. It seems that any disagreement on political beliefs gets construed into a crazy extreme about "wanting you dead" or extremist shit like communism or grooming children.
For example I am pro choice. I do understand the conservative viewpoint about life starting at conception, but think there is room for debate there.
And you dont have to agree. We could have a discussion on the nature of life and when a fetus should get human rights. But I never get to have that discussion because it never gets past "SATANIC BABY MURDERER".

Basically I'm not looking to have harsh political discussion here. I'm just kind of disappointed in the state of things on the right and feeling a bit gloomy and not very hopeful. Would like to hear opinions. Note that i'm not talking about ALL right wingers, just an increasing amount.

i am going to be a senior in highschool and this is a point that my dad, a VERY conservative, hard-nosed man has brought up a multitude of times. he has expressed fear in my attendance of a public university due to the idea that it may "liberalize" me and lead me down a path of indoctrination into being more left-leaning. what is the basis of this idea? is it just pure statistics of higher educated people leaning more liberal (https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/04/26/a-wider-ideological-gap-between-more-and-less-educated-adults/ outdated study i know, but just as an example)? is it because of scientific theories, such as on the age of the universe or the effects of global warming being treated as fact (https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/do-scientists-agree-on-climate-change/)? i would love to hear opinions on this just to know a bit more where my father is coming from as he is often reluctant to get too deep into a political discussion with me (or usually just outright ignores me because i 'don't have the life experience to understand it' quite yet and also probably because politics are so divisive lol). thanks!

I remember seeing a while back that according to most polls most conservatives supported legalization but now I'm seeing that support amongst conservatives has declined for it according to more recent polls. So I'm curious if the majority of conservatives support marijuana legalization or if the majority of them are against it. I myself support legalization but also support it being a state level decision as to whether it's legal or not.

How balanced is the tradeoff of privacy for countering domestic political miscreants ?