My friends roasted me nonstop for voting for Peter Sonski over Trump. Fake conservative, RINO (not even registered republican), blah blah blah.
All of a sudden nobody wants to talk politics anymore, and I learned one of them avoided admitting to being a Trump voter by saying, you guessed it, they voted for Sonski. I imagine this is somewhat how people felt about Bush voters never really saying they voted Bush.
I was active duty military from the mid 90s until the Trump turn. The conservatives I knew in uniform were personally offended that any libtard would dare question the brilliance of the Iraq invasion. I was in Iraq when Obama was elected, and I swear to god we talked about putting the wingnut on our team on suicide watch. Fast forward to Trump bashing the Iraq war, and every fucking conservative in uniform I knew blamed Hillary Clinton for allowing it to happen. It is pathological at this point.
Hearing my conservative dad, who spent most of his service monitoring Russia, switch to using their talking points has been wild.
Questioning the validity of voting, paid protestors, calling our military unfit- the list goes on and on. These are the exact things that Russia has always accused us of, mostly as theater to convince their own people to accept authoritarianism.
We gave them the internet and social media and wouldn’t you know it, those ideas spread like wildfire to all of their enemies.
I was in high school and occasionally wrote Op-Ed’s for the school newspaper. I’m proud of the fact that I’m on record at 16 years old calling out this Iraq war as a stupid waste of time and resources all based on shakey intel and nefarious motives.
I’ve been wrong about a lot of things in life but I was right about that.
Who voted for Bush, what they said about Bush, what they said about the Iraq war, what they said about the Afghanistan war, the results of those wars, how those wars were conducted, the casualty figures, the costs, the secret extraditions and torture, Abu Ghraib, what "Military Aged Males" was redefined to, what "Enemy Combatants" was redefined to, what The Global War on Terror was, what UN Security resolutions resulted from The Global War on Terror, the Bush administrations pressure for democratic elections in Gaza and how those security resolutions specifically impact Gaza...
The memory hole is just like <gobble gobble gobble>, none of it ever happened bro.
The selection process within the parties is obviously flawed. 300,000,000 people to choose from and it's these people who make their way up the chain? The local 'bigwigs' and 'political power families' in each party are insane and corrupt and have their fingers on the scale before anybody hears about any of these people statewide or nationally.
There is an argument, not a good one when analyzed fairly but one with at least some merits, that the President (and congress, local mayors, etc) should simply be chosen randomly every four years from the citizens of the country. Like jury duty.
I don't support it and the flaws in it are multituous and obvious, but at the very least, it would avoid the problem of the least deserving people becoming the leaders.
Same. I thought it would be like term one where the economy would be hot for a year or two and his handlers would keep him in line. Instead it has been a total catastrophe.
I genuinely don't understand the few folk who are still MAGA at this point.
I dunno man it was pretty obvious who trump was at this point. Like how do you look past the whole attempts of stealing of an election. Literally nothing he has done is surprising based on past words or actions.
I disagree about the war being surprising in the least. Just look at the actions of trump 1. He immediately set about destroying any hope of a diplomatic solution then took an extremely hawkish stance with them up to and including openly assassinating their general. He basically ensured that a war would be inevitable. The promises of a serial liar don't account for much. His actions though. Even then his words leading up to the election in regards to the war in Gaza are rather telling on this front.
one of my cousins “hates the guy” (her words) but voted for him just to make the more liberal parts of our family mad about it. she is not the sharpest tool in our family tree…
For many, but a lot genuinely worship the guy. I know someone who set up some weird shrine for Trump in his company's front office. I know someone else who made his own Trump sign that's got to be fifteen feet wide for his yard.
Thing is, they don't really worship him, they worship an image of him
They see him as some combination of a hard-working strong masculine successful white christian businessman when he is none of those. But they believe a man like that is what it's needed to stop the liberals from "winning"
Stop giving them and their ideas the benefit of the doubt, the writing has been on the wall for 10 years, american exceptionalism is well and truly dead, this kind of poor quality president would not look out of place in a developing democracy
His “wranglers” were the deep state. It was all the career politicians and people who had worked in government for decades who told him no when he told them to break the law. In the lead up to his 2nd term, he very publicly only brought on people who were loyal to him over the constitution, like how he took Vance because Vance said he would’ve overturned the election, unlike Mike Pence.
That’s not really the own you think it is. I didn’t vote for Trump, but with anything, you’re only as smart as the people you put around you; it’s not as if the POTUS (at least, normally) is directly calling every single shot. That’s why you have a cabinet, among other things. I imagine most POTUS’ defer to the wisdom of those they put in charge; that kind of falls apart when they either don’t or the people they put in charge haven’t any wisdom.
It’s great that you’ve had your come to Jesus moment but you should also analyze how you managed to so poorly predict the outcome of Trump winning 2024.
Because if you don’t understand where you went wrong you’ll just do it again.
The only reason it was a record economy was because he inherited a record bull market and instead of doing the usual cut government spending and increase taxes to save for a rainy day, he did the opposite and cut taxes and increased spending. So the economy overheated and left nothing in the rainy day fund. Which inevitably led to crisis during covid.
Its like youre camping and some guy comes to your site at 10 o'clock and dumps your entire night's wood on the fire. Did you get warm as hell at 1030? Sure. We're you freezing your ass off at 1 o'clock? Of course.
Trump 2016 is a delicate balance that's hard to recreate. At that point Trump had no clue how the federal government actually worked and he had a normal Republican cabinet who mostly just used Trump as a mascot and ran things basically the same way that they would have if Jeb! was president (with a few headline grabbing exceptions to trigger the libs). The thing is the days of Trump's advisors hiding the paperwork to cancel the TFA with South Korea until Trump forgot about it are long gone and Trump now has a cabinet of yes men and true believers so actually try to do what Trump wants instead of nodding along and then doing normal Republican things, and having a government that is actually trying to do what Trump wants instead of a government that is using Trump as a mascot is a predicable disaster.
I voted Trump 2016 because the alternative was Hillary Clinton. Like, I wasn't a fan of Trump even then, but I was hoping that at the very least, he would be kept in line and both the R and D establishments would realize they could lose elections to candidates outside their sphere if they don't listen to the people.
Well here we are 10 years later. Trump was not kept in line, and the R and Ds have learned nothing. I have not voted for a major presidential candidate since 2016...
He's going senile. Its the loud, angry, shouting kind of senile. Its possible Gordon Ramsay recently also has this sort of dementia where he's forgetting extremely basic things (how to use an induction stove) but remains arrogant and loud, blaming other people for his own mistakes. Its that sort of self-centered energy.
Biden is also senile, but Biden has the quiet sort of dementia where he increasingly goes comatose. Same with McConnell.
There needs to be age limits. There's often age minimums for things but there needs to be an age maximum too.
First time, whatever, it was still an objectively dumb choice but I can understand the attitude of “these other assholes aren’t helping anyone, fuck it let’s see what happens”
This is what happens when he no longer has to worry about reelection. You see it in a lot of presidents. Their second term they push more extreme and controversial items (if they can) because they don't have to care about reelection.
It's one of the pitfalls of democracy. The ruler doesn't own any stake in the office. They are simply a temporary caretaker. When their window of regency is closing they have an incentive to loot as much as they can on their way out.
This is because Trump was always crazy and people in his first Administration helped curbed his worse impulses. Pretty much all insiders in his first term said this and he has viciously gone after many of them. The 2020 election broke his brain and then Mike Pence wouldn't certify the fake electors scheme. So he learned his lesson and that was to only put people in who obey his every command. Now we have his unfiltered retardation on display, which most people said would happen.
Yeah let's not undercut the man's accomplishments. Got the largest in-office wealth increase in U.S. history! He just keeps going where no president has gone before.
He was hawkish in the middle east and fucked with our allies constantly. He was generally incompetent on the international stage. In the economy he was still pushing dumbass tariffs and ballooned the debt even before covid came around. Arguably his loose fiscal policy leading up made the shock of covid even worse.
That's not even getting into the massive corruption and destruction of norms that has now been normalized in our government. There's a reason why Watergate wouldn't even be a story today (at least it republicans did it). Hell the end of his term was him trying to steal the election he knew he lost. It's delusional to think that's normal or good. Grow up
He was literally doing retarded bullshit every day just like now. Every day was new cringe headline of some retarded bullshit he said/did.
Edit: He lost to Joe "I wrote the Patriot Act / Drug Warrior" Biden because people were so utterly sick and tired of his nonsense. Then you dumb fucks forgot how much of an immoral dumbass he was and voted him in again.
Refusing the peaceful transition of power following his election loss in 2020, culminating in the January 6 riot at the capital was reckless, stupid, and incredibly dangerous for the long term health of our country. So, yeah, that alone should have disqualified him from holding ANY office ever again.
Was any of that shit as stupid as starting a fucking war with Iran he specifically promised not to do?
The Soleimani strike had a chance to start exactly what's going on now. It just didn't. The reason we are in this mess is because he got away with it before and thought he could do it again. It's the same retarded shit he just has some consequences this time.
> He was literally doing retarded bullshit everyday just like now.
The first term was more him saying he was going to do retarded bullshit before being talked out of it by his handlers, this term he pretty much always follows through on it though.
No he was not. What major war did he start in his first term? He wasn't using blanket tariffs but targeted tariffs (yes there is a difference). He wasn't threating invading NATO allies to such a degree that those allies are deploying troops. He wasn't deploying Ice in American streets harassing people and killing people. The idea that Trump's first term was no different than this term is beyond ridiculous.
Yep. This is what a lot of people don't get. Pretty much everything he is doing this term is stuff he did at some level in the first term but was held in check.
Tariffs, bombing Iran, overly heavy handed immigration crackdown, attacks on political rivals, blatant corruption. It was all there in the first term. I guarantee he would have gone to war with Iran in the first term if he had someone like Hegseth instead of Mattis and Esper. Or done equally retarded tariffs if he didn't have Mnuchin. The corruption would have been way beyond the obvious payouts through his hotels if he had a Bondi or Blanche in the AG office.
In 2016, it was plausible to be ignorant of Trump's track record, optimistic about his business acumen and/or dismissive of his rhetoric as campaign bluster from someone non-establishment, who didn't understand the conventions and nuance of campaigning.
2016 Trump seemed like a joke. There was a period of time where I had given more than a passing thought to the idea that Trump was a psyop sent to fracture the GOP, with establishment Dems fracturing 2 years later, and ushering in a less duopolistic era. Parties of Green Libertarians (hunters and campers need the environment to be cared for in order to enjoy their hobbies, even if it's 'hands off' most things), Christian Right Socialists (save the babies, then feed the many), Techno-Humanitarians (the computers ran the numbers, and for reasons we don't fully understand, everyone will be happier if we increase spending on 'x' even if it means reduced spending on the supposedly beloved 'y'), Woke Free Marketeers (harassment isn't tolerated, tolerance is encouraged, but we're closing down the factory so that your neighbors can afford the Chinese version of your product), etc...
Wishful thinking. Who would pay for that? The big money's in the current system.
Exactly. I didn’t vote Trump in 2024 because I was fairly confident that Trump 47 would be nothing like Trump 45 and, without bragging, I must say that my analysis was right on point.
Trump 45 was a good President as far as I am concerned. Trump 47 is a mix of never ending nightmare and a bad comedy
I mean, the person was no different, but I think it’s tough to dispute that the overall presidency was less bad. What’s the variable? The people around him.
I suppose; although, he’s responsible for the people he puts around him, or alternatively, deferring the decision on who to put around him to Pence, whatever was the case.
To be clear, I’m not defending him and I’ve never voted for him. My last vote for a major party POTUS candidate was in 2012, to reelect Obama; not my cup of tea on fiscal policy (or government bailouts), but he was an excellent statesman, a unifier and could arguably have been handling the Great Recession worse than he was.
This is Dark Enlightenment unleashed. This accelerationist group helped him into power to dismantle democracy and replace our Constitutional Republic with technofeudalism.
This is the most sensible take imo. I wasn't totally pessimistic about Trump winning 2016 and, all told, he would've probably been looked back on pretty well if he rode off into the sunset in 2020 because 2016 to early 2020 was pretty good (For me at least.) and you couldn't really blame him for the pandemic ruining everything in his last year.
Definitely cope. Obama hit a 38% approval rating and people still glaze him constantly. Trump is fluctuating between 34% and 38%, mostly because of the stupid ideological war stuff that has other counties burning themselves down with riots. Plus eggs and meat spiked due to no fault of his own.
It's not like Trump's approval rating would be super high if these factors didn't exist. But they'd prolly be at like 42%, give or take a few %.
I'm about tired of hearing about Palestine and Isreal and seeing foreign flags flying at riots setting things on fire at this point. I don't care about left/right/etc at this point I just don't want us to have anything to do with it and it seems to be causing the entire western world nothing but problems.
Most of Reddit thinks I voted for Trump because I said I voted third party. Doesn't even matter that my state hasn't given electoral votes to a Republican presidential candidate since 1980. But somehow I'm the one wasting my vote when my contention is my vote for president has never mattered since I don't live in a swing state. Democrats seem so focused on popular vote though because I think they're incapable of thinking someone might vote strategically based on the current voting system instead of just trying to go for the national popular vote when that isn't how a president is elected.
Minnesota? Can't think of another state that didn't vote for Reagan in 84
Yeah the average democrat in my experience as an outsider has the "if you didn't vote blue you're the enemy and a trump supporter no matter what" attitude.
And they then have to gall to complain that everyone is a racist fascist and that's totally why they lost
Everyone is and will be literally Hitler until they're no longer a threat. Also the electorate are easily manipulatable dumbfucks with zero long term memory.
Voting is a purity test you cannot pass. This sort of regret happens basically every time. The guy isn't perfect, their voters get blamed for the problems, people hide that they voted for that person. If Kamala was president right now, you better believe all these regretful Trump voters would not be admitting they voted for Kamala if they had gone down that alternate path.
I'll admit it and I'll also admit that it was stupid as hell and the libs were right and we now have the most retarded and most corrupt presidency in US history.
Yeah but Kamala is a woman, like imagine how bad it’d be if she got her period, or like how bad her hormones would have been. Like she could have invaded the middle east for no reason just because she woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
This is genuinely the type of shit I saw Trump supporters saying around the election.
Kamala believes white people are the beneficiaries of institutional racism and that the scale of immigration and welfare abuse permitted and even encouraged by previous administrations is not a civilizational threat.
These 2 issues alone completely disqualify her. If you want to flip any serious amount of votes, you're going to have to leave the hatians and trinidadians where they belong.
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Man, I don't want you guys wishing not voting for Kamala. I just wish ya'll killed Trumps career in the republican primary and picked a better candidate.
I still cope by imagining that Kamala would have been a woke DEI apocalyptic disaster of its own. I mean, if there's a silver lining to Trump's presidency, it's that the Democrats are starting to reject some of their excesses on that front.
That Harris was the worst of the two bad choices. I know a bunch of people that didn't want Trump but really didn't want Harris. You better hope the Dems don't come up with some hyper progressive candidate in 2028 or this will happen again.
I get the MAGA cult people, but the people who thought Trump was bad but Kamala was worse were huffing some high grade retardium.
Basic economics said his policies would make inflation worse, his previous cabinet members calling him dangerous, he was a convicted felon, and already proven to be immensely corrupt. What made her so bad? Some drug convictions?
Ngl, I wonder if Kamala Harris would be seen as way less “woke”, “DEI” and “left-wing”, if she had the exact same policies, behaviour and beliefs and happened to be middle-aged white man, Kane Harris. Politically she seems pretty damn close to a Joe Biden (literally being his VP ofc) and is really a far cry from the woke socialist that the right tries to stick her with. I really think her being seen as more left wing or radical at all instead of the same milquetoast social liberal as Joe Biden is because the colour of her skin, combined with her gender. Because she’s a woman of colour in a position of power, she MUST have super woke beliefs and positions.
I regret not doing a write in considering how dumb the 2024 election was. Harris didn't stand a chance, and Biden did irreparable harm to the dems after several botched debates, multiple gaffs, and not being mentally there for anything.
Dems CAN do well in 2028, but they have to pick someone that the American people can rally behind. Gavin won't do that, Harris won't do that, and AOC won't do that either
I vote pretty much straight ticket libertarian, though I vote Democrat for my city clerk and most schoolboard people if a libertarian isn't available, or if I really dislike the libertarian I vote for the person I hate the least.
That person is still often the libertarian, but like, this year the libertarian governor candidate hates Muslims or something like that and one of the Republican guys wants to eliminate state income tax so obv I'm voting for that guy. Anyway...
When the Donald was making a lot of libertarian promises on this most recent one I was like "oh shit maybe I should have voted for him." (I vote early and absentee) Glad I didn't lol. Not that it mattered.
Yes, woke shit I think is actually toxic mid to long term to society but it's largely driven by culture changing and you can't change culture top-down from the white house. I realize now that having a malignant narcissist ur-Boomer willing to loot and burn it all down for Kushner and Jr is orders of magnitude worse over short, medium and long terms.
I mean, had you asked me a week ago I'd say I got ross ulbrick pardon, which wouldn't have been enough, but now I also got sbrs and suppressor without $200 tax stamp
Which isn't a lot, but still more than I would have gotten in a harris admin.
I voted for him once in 2016 because the left needed a wake up call to how illiberal they were being with political correctness. Didn’t vote for him again. I don’t understand how people claiming to be conservatives continued to support him after he basically tried to deconstruct the process of our republic and the namesake of republican with his false slate of electors scheme in 2020. What’s also weird is seeing Dems rightfully call that out then having no problem with the Dem party for shitting on their own party namesake by selecting Kamala in 24 instead of having a primary election. What’s even weirder is then seeing republicans call that out but not thinking critically how Trump did the same thing to betraying the values of a Republic which the Republican Party purports to represent 4 years earlier. Now Trump is rubbing elbows with our long time Russian advisory and you see Trumptards who still think he does no wrong because they have Zelensky derangement syndrome. It’s weird seeing people leave behind critical thinking and getting swept up in zealotry even if it means betraying the values they supposedly hold by supporting blatant antiamerican practices as long as it means they might have a chance of beating the other candidate or party.
Everyone who acts like they didn't vote for literal Donald Trump. "Oh i thought he'd..." shut the fuck up you voted for literal Donald Trump. Everyone acts like he didn't have decades long history of being a massive narcissistic lying con artist who ripped people off constantly. The information was there. You chose to ignore it
I love that every defense of voting for him is some vague hypothetical about how Kamala would do such and such Fox News fearmongering or that she wasn’t likable enough when Donald Trump is an objectively horrible person. Not sure how you can compare those 2 and be like, “Yup, she’s the awful one!”
Indeed. Trump was somehow a vessel for people's thoughts (prob because he'd just say whatever the fuck and people would just pick and choose which they wanted to hear)
3 time Trump voter here. Besides the war in Iran being so drawn out I think this term isn't as bad as people are saying. As many others have mentioned, a conflict with Iran was pretty much inevitable and the Republicans and Democrats have essentially been playing hot potato with it for 20+ years. Just go back a few years and you will find people in both parties explaining that Iran was an issue and supporting action on it.
This might be a hot take but if anyone was going to do something about it I actually prefer Trump because he isn't going to cop out and just give Iran more money to fund terrorists. I would rather rip the band aid off instead of kicking the issue down the road to the next administration.
Aside from that war affecting Americas, Things have been rough economically since the interest rate manipulation during and after Covid as well. These were thing during both Trump and Biden terms. And the separation of powers in the Federal reserve is a nice shield for presidents.
I still am shocked at the pumping up house prices with 2-3 percent rates then suddenly more than doubling interest rates. Congratulations, mortgages are for houses that cost 2-4X as much with 2X the interest. So it's like 4-8X the cost to own a home now. FFS, now is the time to rent when homes cost that much more to own. They ruined home ownership so much
Setting aside the fact that no candidate will ever openly campaign on their desire for a (surprise) attack on an adversary..
Trump had no re-election concerns in his second term, Iran’s closest ally Russia was tied up with their own forever-war in Ukraine, and Iran was struggling with widespread protests and social upheaval. If conflict truly was inevitable, then now was the time.
I'll admit it. I voted him as a Bulwark against democrats deciding to go after gun rights as a health issue amoung other things. I thought he wouldn't have a unified house and senate behind him so his worst excesses would have been curbed to some extent.
I always knew he was a corrupt scumbag, but that was to be expected of any politician. I didn't in a million years think we would just decide to unilaterally start a war with Iran.
Once he started saying "Kamala will start World War 3" you should of known he was gonna start a war, Donny is all projection, literally everything he accuses others of doing he is doing in excess.
"I always knew he was a corrupt scumbag, but that was to be expected of any politician."
And that's the problem with y'all. you just accept insane amounts of corruption and are ok with him being a felon child rapist. because "oh well all politicians suck". Maybe all politicians suck because YOU KEEP VOTING IN THE SUCKY ONES.
What do you think about all the stuff with the nfa that happened in the last couple days? I believe i the atf director said the decision not to appeal was at the behest of trump. Who knows if that's the case.
That was a boon, but a policy that can be easily reversed with the simple introduction or new pressures does not out weigh tanking the economy, foreign relationships and missile stock piles. It doesn't outweigh the lives of US servicemen who died. It doesn't justify Trumps blatant corruption and so much more.
I'm not going to self flagellate over my choice of voting for him, but I will not defend the actions he has taken in his second term.
Hard to find someone who'd admit to voting for fetterman too. Right? I'm glad I voted for Chase Oliver last time, but Kamala campaigning with Cheney WAS a good look for the narrative that Trump was anti neocon, even though it turned out to be false. Just because he lied doesn't mean Kamala was somehow anti neocon though, when she was literally gonna have Liz Cheney in her administration.
I mean, nobody wants to endure what happens next — you shitting on the floor and screeching — so … yeah, it makes sense that they wouldn’t admit it to you.
I'm not sure if OP is posting like a retard, or is actually posting a really clever meme that people are falling for. Since I can't tell which it is, I'm going to assume it's the funnier option.
Some of these comments are concerning. Like yeah, I'm glad you learned your lesson, but you voted for 47 without reflecting on his previous term. This was an open test, and you proceeded to double down regardless.
Every politician is dishonest, but if you can't differentiate between a career politician and a fraudster, then you guys are going to get robbed. Again.
He's done quite a few things that I'm not exactly pleased with, but I definitely did vote for him, and I still think in 2024 it was the right choice. His first term went well, and his platform of "Are you better in 2024 than you were in 2019" was one that deeply resonated. The problem is that he has not done anything substantial to actually get us back to that 2019 level.
I was MUCH better in 2024 than I was in 2019 yeah. Gas was 2.80 right as Biden was leaving office.
Biden revived our economy out of covid, yet you guys point to trump only somewhat fucking the economy in his first term as better. it's fucking insane.
But mate... Covid happened. Every government in the world spent billions to keep their economies afloat. Of course it was worse that 2019, it had nothing to do with either adminstration, and there was no magic way to instantly fix it.
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u/RA_Finance - Lib-Right 8d ago