The Trump Regretters

[TGHusker]

 

 

I think there is another level to this that we can all talk about. I couldn't stand Clinton but I truly understood why people held their nose and voted for her. Totally get that. At the same time, I understand why people voted for Trump. Most who did, did so not out of blind loyalty but because they had loyalty to either a party or to a philosophy - conservative politics. In the case of conservative politics, Trump did a good job of deceiving people that he was a conservative. He is neither conservative, moderate or liberal. He is all about expediency. Whatever works to gain him power. He has no deeply felt political convictions or understanding.

So the deeper level for me - No blind loyalty to a party. Since the election, my only hope for good with Trump would be that the 'mature guys in Congress' would help guide and set Trump on the straight path. Well, that boat sunk some time ago. It doesn't matter if a person has an D or an R behind their name - they better be honest, do what is best for the citizens and standup for ethical behavior in congress and the WH. The repubs have shown me their inability to rule, to get things done and move the country forward. They have squandered their opportunity while having the house and the WH and they refuse to aggressively take on the investigation of this president. Yes, there are committee meetings etc, but verbally - besides a very few, who is calling this administration to task for its pre election and post election behavior. So we talk regret towards the president, but I also regret my false belief that I could trust congress to do the right thing. I say this as a still registered republican. Looking to change to indep before the next election.

[Kiyoat Husker]

I voted for Hillary, but would have preferred Bernie. I consider her to be too tainted with "Washington insider" disease. Both Bernie and Trump claimed to want to remove some of the corruption from Washington, which is a big thing for me, and I assume many of those who voted for Trump.

 

I had some hope in defeat that Trump actually would have paid more than just cheap lip service to that goal.

 

I knew I was wrong the moment he started to fill his cabinet.

[StPaulHusker]

 

 

 

Considering Trump as the alternative, I wouldn't have regretted voting for Clinton. I would have voted for her a million times out of a million without question.

That's because you can't see where I was/am coming from. I don't see it that way, doesn't mean either one of us is wrong or right, just means our perspectives are different.

 

I'm the only liberal in my family. I know exactly where you were coming from. But I didn't enjoy voting for Clinton. I made a logical choice on who I believed could be more diplomatic.

 

I'm not a conservative, I'm not a liberal, I'm an independent, I don't lean one way or the other. I've voted for both parties several times in the past so my line of thinking doesn't necessarily fall into either party lines thought process. In fact I'm probably less apt to get along with someone if their thoughts are extreme in either direction because things get a little bit too blue or red for me and I can't wrap my mind around those extreme thoughts.

 

I didn't claim you were either party. Or none. But being the only liberal showed me the complete hate and distaste for Clinton my conservative family members had and how it blinded them to vote Trump. And be proud of it.

[Fru]

 

 

Considering Trump as the alternative, I wouldn't have regretted voting for Clinton. I would have voted for her a million times out of a million without question.

That's because you can't see where I was/am coming from. I don't see it that way, doesn't mean either one of us is wrong or right, just means our perspectives are different.

 

I'm the only liberal in my family. I know exactly where you were coming from. But I didn't enjoy voting for Clinton. I made a logical choice on who I believed could be more diplomatic.

 

 

This.

 

One candidate was a First Lady, US Senator and Secretary of State. The other was a reality show TV star who wants to f*ck his own daughter. The 2016 election wasn't about electing Hilary because she was everybody's favorite candidate. It was about not electing a dangerously incompetent person to the most dignified office in the world.

[Enhance]

I think it's somewhat common for some voters to regret their decisions, but many are often unable to admit it to themselves or others. I think it takes a lot of fortitude for humans to step back and say they believe they did the wrong thing.

 

Even my future in-laws, who I've mentioned on this forum before because of their heavy Trump favoritism, have begun showing signs of wear and tear with the way he's doing things.

[BigRedBuster]

Almost every single time I mention to people that I don't like Trump and didn't vote for him......everyone says...."Well, there was no way I was voting for Hillary".

 

It's like people instantly go from either you support and voted for Trump or you're a Hillary lover. They just can't fathom that there are other options.

[Moiraine]

Q and others, ya, it was known he did that before.

 

But even I thought after he became the leader of the free world he would quit being an ultra a-hole because he'd won the universe. He could start acting like a president and wouldn't need to bully people on twitter or get hurt over a picture of his inauguration crowd, because he freaking won.

 

I thought he would change, and I couldn't stand the guy. So of course some of his supporters who regret their vote are surprised by some things.

 

It's still annoying he won the primary though.

[StPaulHusker]

Q and others, ya, it was known he did that before.

 

But even I thought after he became the leader of the free world he would quit being an ultra a-hole because he'd won the universe. He could start acting like a president and wouldn't need to bully people on twitter or get hurt over a picture of his inauguration crowd, because he freaking won.

 

I thought he would change, and I couldn't stand the guy. So of course some of his supporters who regret their vote are surprised by some things.

 

It's still annoying he won the primary though.

I could see where people thought that since he won, he would be different.

 

But then he realized he was being emboldened by his voters so why stop?

[Enhance]

Almost every single time I mention to people that I don't like Trump and didn't vote for him......everyone says...."Well, there was no way I was voting for Hillary".

 

It's like people instantly go from either you support and voted for Trump or you're a Hillary lover. They just can't fathom that there are other options.

We're constantly manipulated into believing everything is binary in elections: it's him or her, her or him, that guy or this guy, this woman or that woman. There's no middle ground and you must choose a side.

 

That goes against the entire point of a democracy.

 

I didn't vote for Hillary or Donald and I knew full well my candidate wasn't going to win, but I still made a choice. I also don't personally levy much blame at the feet of people who chose not to vote. If you go to the fridge and don't like what you see, not eating is always an option. I don't necessarily agree with the decision not to vote, but I can understand and respect where they're coming from.

[funhusker]

edit: already covered....

[Danny Bateman]

Considering Trump as the alternative, I wouldn't have regretted voting for Clinton. I would have voted for her a million times out of a million without question.

 

Bingo.

 

Voting for Trump, for a lot of folks, was a leap of faith. Sometimes you make it to the other side, sometimes you plunge into the abyss.

 

I'd say we're all still in freefall.

[NM11046]

So what are we gonna do about it?

 

Trying to poke the bear here - regrets a plenty, now we each need to formulate a plan, make commitment's to step up. Where we are is not acceptable. No matter who you voted for I think all agree. Remember how a bunch of guys on a softball field got shot not too long ago and how all the elected officials held hands and promised to partner? What happened to that?

 

Our nation is full of lazy (myself included), disengaged people. Everybody has a very strong opinion, yet what do they do? I admit I "followed" politics previously, (my key issues only until this election) and now I'm more engaged than ever. I know my representatives, they hear from me weekly, I've been to a town hall, my community is organizing many local initiatives that I'm involved with (getting women into office, engaging younger voters, working toward getting to be a recognized city of refuge etc)

 

So here are my commitments - hold me to them:

 

• I WILL know every person on every ticket moving forward - not just their party affiliation. Treasurer? I'll know ya. City Water Inspector - I'm going to understand what you do.
• I WILL research my vote. AND trust my gut.
• I will better try to learn how to interact with those who I disagree with so that I can better understand their views.
• I will contribute monthly to the ACLU.
• I will not shy away from political discussions.
• I will do at least 1 thing weekly to engage politically (i.e. phone calls, letters, faxes, marches etc)
• I will make it easy for others to join me in doing more.

What are you doing?

[JJ Husker]

 

Listen, if you want more folks to have dialogue in here besides everyone agreeing with one another these are the approaches that push folks out of here except for a core few. I created this thread with the hopes that the finger pointing and told you so wouldn't start. I still don't like some of the things Obama did in his last term and how society has changed, we've got plenty of threads about that stuff in the past, I'm not really interested in rehashing some of that history. I disliked those things enough to vote for Donald Trump, let that settle into your mind for a second. I'm not a radical individual, I'm not a republican, I'm not a democrat, I'm an average American who was duped. Wagging fingers in my face obviously isn't a constructive approach to someone who is wrapping their mind around things.

 

I'm not trying to discourage dialogue, I welcome it. But I do think it is important to point out that a lot of the exact things being listed for this Trump Regret were readily apparent before Election Day. I'm sorry you feel duped. You weren't the first and won't be the last; Trump is conman.

 

 

It's not as simple as people knew these things beforehand. I didn't vote for either one of them so yeah, I reached my last straw with him before the election. But I was still hoping that he wasn't going to be near as bad as things have turned out. It's way too easy to sit back now and say "told ya so, why didn't you see it like the rest of us". Sure there were indications, some very glaring, but for people who were not enamored with Obama and who for the most part disliked Hillary even more, it's not very productive to throw that up now. Just be glad that some are coming around. It took me a few months after the election to get there. I still wouldn't vote for either one of them, but now it's a much deeper seated never with Trump. And it's not necessarily that he duped or conned anyone. When a person is hoping for something different and a different direction it doesn't mean they were duped, it just may mean they had misplaced hopes.

[BIGREDIOWAN]

So BRI (I join all those complimenting you on your honesty and mature look back). Do you get the sense that others you know that voted that way are feeling similarly? Based on the polls we see you're an outlier. My conservative family members & I are not able to discuss politics, and there are very few open red folks out my way so I don't feel I've got a sense of what the real pulse is. Obviously there are a lot of us here that lean liberal, and we talk a lot - don't feel like conservatives really want to discuss openly.

I have several neighbors that are republicans, they mostly laugh at what's going on. I have several co-workers that are republicans that seem to know what's going on is a problem, but aren't ready to admit this guy is out of control. I haven't personally met anyone who's voted for Trump that's willing to come out and say, "I made a mistake....."

[Danny Bateman]

I remember a very illuminating point about Trump that I picked up from a Todd N Tyler interview, of all places.

 

They're pretty good friends with Lewis Black and had him on. They tend to focus on politics talk since that is more his realm, and most of his interviews with them just devolve into angry rants and vent sessions.

 

Anyway, he's from New York. So needless to say he has a decades long familiarity with Trump. The way he described it, most everyone in New York realizes how much of a pompous, hyperbolic a-hole Trump is. He said New Yorkers know Trump's shtick and think he's a "gasbag."

 

It kind of clicked for me after hearing that that if people from his home city/state knew that's who he was, that's who he truly was. He was able to pull the wool over our eyes as a nation once because nationwide we as a people weren't familiar enough with him in that way. Obviously a lot of folks are starting to become aware.

 

Here's the podcast if anyone wants to hear it. Relevant bit starts at about the 7 minute mark.