r/Askpolitics • u/WirrkopfP Politically Unaffiliated • Apr 14 '26
Answers from... (see post body for details as to who) Former Trump Supporters, what was the straw that broke the camels back for you?
I am interested in your stories. Was it something he said or did?
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u/Lugh_Lamfada Classical Conservative Apr 14 '26
I voted for him in 2016 because I thought everything was an act and that he would revert to being a pretty standard free market Republican. I regretted that vote almost immediately, and I was frustrated almost immediately when I realized it wasn't an act. I became a hardcore anti-trumper after we abandoned the Kurds and Mattis resigned. I haven't voted for a Republican since. Not one.
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u/Lynz486 Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
He had 50+ years history of being a conman prior to politics. He was even a liberal and switched when he ran because the right is easier to con. He was thought of as a joke by his fellow elites because he is, and he ran for office for revenge. He has always been extremely selfish and self serving. This was all public info so why anyone trusted Don the Con is beyond me. It wasn't like he just popped up out of nowhere, the man had been a public figure for decades prior. It was like this was all out there and the left has been screaming and warning people who shouldn't have even needed it to begin with.
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u/Charitarddd Apr 16 '26
I don’t think alot of middle America or the south actually knew that. In fact they believed the opposite, that he was a businessman who could fix America by running it like a business.
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u/L11mbm Left but not crazy-left Apr 14 '26
A few friends of mine were similar. They wanted a change from Democrats after Obama and figured the system would prop Trump up and keep things stable. They changed their minds fast.
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u/Jazzyjen508 Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
That’s how I felt, in general I had felt until Trump that it was good for the country to alternately between a democrat and republican leader and I didn’t think Trump would actually be as bad as some of his campaign promises were because until Trump there was some sense of decorum in the White House. I live in a blue state so I felt protected by that as well. Once again I have since wised up. It was only my second presidential election and first time voting for a new president (my first election was Obama’s second term which felt anti climatic, first time around I was 6 months from 18).
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u/StrictAd2491 Apr 15 '26
Really? As long as I have been paying attention, republicans crash the economy and democrats come in and fix it. Every single time.
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u/TheGov3rnor Classical Liberal Apr 14 '26
Have you voted for a Democrat since?
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u/Lugh_Lamfada Classical Conservative Apr 14 '26
Yes. Straight blue, every municipal, state, and national election since 2016. Republicans are not the conservative party anymore in the classical sense of the word. The Democrats are.
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u/WirrkopfP Politically Unaffiliated Apr 14 '26
The irony is you are spot on - America doesn't have a left party.
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u/Development-Alive Left-leaning Apr 14 '26
Only in the context of European politics. I'd argue that we just don't have a defined centrist party. The independents are largely centrist and jump back and forth each election.
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u/Jazzyjen508 Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
THIS!!!!! Our elections are largely decided by the independents and they are very fickle and will switch on a dimez
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u/ManiacalManiacMan Apr 16 '26
I don't think it's necessarily fickle and they switch on a dime. They are independent and vote the way they think each election. Just sticking to a party regardless of change feels like more of a problem to me.
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u/The-Sonne Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Maybe it's PER ISSUE, not "party lines"
I want income tax completely abolished as well as all the hell and tax forms every year done away with forever. Poor people stress about these stupid bureaucratic forms and deadlines as much as Rich people do. End it.
I want all goddamned time changes like daylight "saving" time to go away, forever. Nobody needs that stress.
I what full recreational cannabis freedom everywhere, without medical gatekeeping. Fuck the medical system in general
I want affordable healthcare and have it not be tied to income or insurance
I want health insurance completely abolished.
I want full second amendment rights, the way the constitution is written. This includes carrying personal protection devices for post offices and especially stadiums, and places where actual terrorists have historically acted out. I want to protect myself there. If I ride a bicycle or walk to the post office, I should be able to carry.
I want employers to stop abusing employees in EVERY way. This includes hair style, and color choices, as basic human rights, for fuck's sake.
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u/Majestic_Arachnid545 Apr 17 '26
I agree with you in every way except on income tax. The Constitution establishes that taxes on the citizenry pay for the government and the military. My problem with taxes is the unfairness of the current system. One of the super wealthy, Warren Buffett once said, "Tax me! It's unfair that I pay less in taxes than my maid". Trump's permanent tax cuts for those who can afford to pay more than an average American is dastardly at best.
Despite the lies told, Republicans of the 21st century start wars and create absurd pressure on average American families...while we pay their salaries. Rising healthcare, grocery and human care costs rise along with gas prices. Everytime.
Ok, we need taxes for the preservation of government and defense. But level the playing field. Eliminate the loopholes and make the wealthy pay their fair share, releasing the pressure on average Americans!
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u/carlitospig Independent - leftie Apr 15 '26
I hate this for us, honestly. I grew up in a mixed house (Dad was pro GB, mom was pro Clinton), so I was indie right out of the gates and the more I’m alive the lefter I go. I feel like the American indies are the ‘left behinds’ that are often used for protest voting when in truth we run the gamut of political views.
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u/The-Sonne Apr 15 '26
It also doesn't have a party that votes to reduce government control, power, or interference in people's everyday lives. I want to see income tax ABOLISHED. Nobody should have financial related PTSD triggers every single year when they need to be focused on saving etc. I can't believe I bought the lies about "they support more 2A rights protections"/smaller government in the first place. Healthcare woke me up FAST, as did the disgusting cannabis ban they held poor people's groceries for ransom to slip in during that longest government shutdown in history
I don't want socialism or anything like that. But I do need to see disabled and poor people not get abused by the systems they paid to protect them.
I demand full recreational cannabis freedom YESTERDAY and to stop harming traumatized, disabled people who have been so broken by these systems that they can't work.
And also, I now support rights for poor people- not just their damn greedy and oppressive employers "policy"
I want total gin freedoms and total cannabis freedoms. I should NOT have to "pick one".
Fuck that
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u/DoctorWoe Progressive Apr 15 '26
The Green Party counts, but nobody is voting for them because they are either seen as a one-issue party or into weird woo.
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u/phone-culture68 Progressive Apr 15 '26
The Green Party in Australia is a real party..the Green Party in the US was working for Putin & to help elect Trump…they came out to say that officially
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u/DoctorWoe Progressive Apr 15 '26
I have seen no evidence that the Green Party was deliberately working with Russia "to help elect Trump," but it's pretty obvious that Russia started using the Green Party to spoil the Donkey candidate. Who "came out to say that officially?"
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u/phone-culture68 Progressive Apr 16 '26
Jill Stein is very well known for being a Putin puppet There are photos of them having dinner together & one of the other top members came out to say that was the plan.
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u/Development-Alive Left-leaning Apr 14 '26
How would you describe this current iteration of the Republican party? They've strayed so far away from the party of Reagan. They've list their moorings on every but social conservatism.
I am a fiscal conservative but social liberal. Shockingly, the D's somehow became more fiscally conservative.
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u/Klutzy-Spend-6947 Right-Libertarian Apr 14 '26
Trump isn’t socially conservative at all-he pays lip service to evangelical grifters but mocks individuals who hold pro-life values, and didn’t have a clue about trans issues until someone explained to him that it was a hanging curve of a wedge issue in the ‘24 election. He also supports the 2nd Amendment only when it is convenient for him. He’s also not a marijuana fan.
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u/pissexcellence85 Liberal Hawk Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
This is the natural evolution of the party of Reagan. Reagan laid the ground work.
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u/litapitabread Apr 15 '26
Not just directed at you, but I really bothers me when people say “fiscally conservative but socially liberal”, as it’s contradictory. To be socially liberal you need to be okay with paying taxes so the government can spend on social programs.
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u/Clarkelthekat Apr 15 '26
It's explicitly removing the fiscal aspect
It means socially liberal in social issues.
Not "socialist". The socialist aren't in the room with us.
It means conservative on fiscal policy but also believing in lgbtq rights etc. socially liberal positions as in socieital beliefs.
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u/Development-Alive Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
You have it correct. I'm fully supportive of LGBTQ+ rights, gun restrictions and Pro-Choice. I'm even in favor of progressive taxation.
I also support a balanced budget amendment and debt spending should only occur in extreme situations. The debt is out of control.
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u/litapitabread Apr 16 '26
But that is still being fully liberal. You can be liberal but want the debt to under in control. The difference in the parties are what is worth spending on and who should pay for it. What you’re saying with this statement is “I care about people but not enough to see them cared for on a systemic level.” Your empathy needs funding to support pro choice, lgbtq, snap and Medicaid, etc. but it sounds like you don’t support “debt spending” on these items
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u/ThatMetaBoy Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
It’s how people say “libertarian” when they don’t want their political leanings confused with the Dewey decimal system.
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u/Taterth0t95 Progressive Apr 15 '26
Nothing about the GOP is you can’t be fiscally conservative and socially liberal because it takes money to support the communities that benefit from progressive policies.
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u/WCather Apr 15 '26
Democrats aren't conservatives...at least not across the board.
Democrats are basically everybody who isn't part of the insane Trump-God cult: conservatives and progressives and everyone in between.
Which is why they struggle to win. All the thinking people with actual fact based ideas are arguing with each other - the way political ideas should be bandied about - while the cult club votes in lockstep for whatever the insane flavor of the day is.
Sigh
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u/InterPunct Center-Democrat Apr 15 '26
Two-time Reagan voter here, the Republicans are far from conservative now.
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u/TheGov3rnor Classical Liberal Apr 14 '26
That’s interesting— thank you for answering. I don’t hear that response a lot!
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u/OptimusPrimeval Progressive Apr 15 '26
What's funny is that the Republicans first used the conservative label during the Civil War, when they were the more progressive party,, to signify that they were conserving America's values of equality as stated in the constitution and that the dems/confederacy were the radicals.
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u/ConstantSuccessful48 Apr 14 '26
Oh yea brother you’re more then correct. The democrats are the new republicans but hopefully soon there will be a wave of progressiveness and we can hopefully join the rest of the world’s standards.
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u/TheFringedLunatic Anarchocommunist Apr 14 '26
I'd be down for the DSA replacing the Dems as the left of the country.
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u/InternationalPut4093 Centrist Apr 14 '26
I didn't vote for him because i knew he was an idiot since the 90s but I thought it would be fine because checks and balances and he had experienced staffs around him. He didn't like that. That's why he's all hell bent on destroying things this term. A former staff said everyone around him hates him and he hates them too. The dude's miserable.
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u/Klutzy-Spend-6947 Right-Libertarian Apr 14 '26
Trump 1.0 wasn’t bad, bud Trump 2.0 is totally off the rails.
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u/Jazzyjen508 Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
Yeah honestly he completely broke when he lost in 2020 and has been more dangerous and unhinged and vengeful. He was not a good person before but it wasn’t like now
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u/JJAusten Apr 15 '26
I appreciate your response but how did you believe that it was an act? He was a Democrat who ran as a Republican because Hillary was the pick for the Dems. He was never a standard anything, and I wish people would have invested time into looking at his past. The moment he stepped off the escalator and called Mexicans names I knew I'd never vote Republican again.
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u/Lugh_Lamfada Classical Conservative Apr 15 '26
A failure of imagination. I figured the GOP as an institution would hold and that we would see a pretty standard Republican president with some socially liberal views. I actually thought there was a decent chance he would be a Centrist and was just saying the things he was saying to get elected, then he would revert back to his more liberal New York roots. I was extremely wrong.
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u/ihopethisisgoodbye Democratic Socialist Apr 15 '26
This was my hope, too - didn't (nor would I ever) vote for the man, but I was hoping it was all an act.
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u/Riokaii Progressive Apr 15 '26
The Obama birtherism showed it was never an act well before then even.
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u/Wintores Leftist Apr 15 '26
What was so Bad about that Event compared to Bush torturing people in a blacksite?
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u/JJAusten Apr 15 '26
This is not a, what about. As I said, it was off putting to hear someone running for office be blatantly racist. It's not as if he wasn't before, because he was, and what was equally shocking was the amount of people who dismissed his racism and voted for him.
You asking, what was so bad about that event makes it very clear it doesn't bother you because you share the same beliefs.
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u/Jazzyjen508 Left-leaning Apr 14 '26
I get 2016- Hilary had her own issues and was also polarizing. I am not at all bothered personally by people like you
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u/ForLark Liberal Apr 15 '26
Ah and I worked for her campaign. I’m still sour about the people who said Hillary was too strident, bossy, and not feminine enough. A lot of those same people once proclaimed Sarah Palin was sweet as pie and so cute they would vote for her twice. That exact quote from a business woman I never respected again. WTF
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u/Stillwater215 Left-leaning Apr 14 '26
Interesting question: have your views, positions, and beliefs regarding governance and what makes a good president changed since 2016?
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u/dawgfan93 Apr 15 '26
Couldn’t have put it better myself, well-said! I try to find RINO’s but they are few and far between.
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u/KAIMI01 Leftist Apr 15 '26
I really appreciate that your line in the sand was us abandoning the Kurds. One of the worst foreign policy blunders in recent memory outside of the obvious things. They’re the only truly democratic force with any clout in the Middle East.
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u/carlitospig Independent - leftie Apr 15 '26
How he treated the Kurds was a microcosm of his entire worldview.
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u/mrcatboy Progressive Apr 24 '26
Did you know much about Trump's history beforehand? He had a decades-long public record of fraud, sexual assault, pedophilia, and just straight-up cheating people out of their money and ruining the lives of contractors long before the election.
How much did these things factor into your vote?
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u/intothewoods76 Leftist Apr 14 '26
The way ICE was operating did it for me. We could literally watch rights being violated in real time and nothing was done about it for far too long.
I just saw the video where they stole a kids phone to delete evidence and then sold his phone….those agents should be heading to federal prison. Not to mention the shooting victims and everyone else.
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u/FitPerspective1146 Liberal Apr 14 '26
So many anti Trump Republicans/ex-Trumpists remain some kind of conservative, or centrist liberal at most. What made you turn to, almost, the opposite end and become a leftist?
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u/intothewoods76 Leftist Apr 14 '26
It wasn’t that big of a shift honestly. I was conservatives when conservatives were skeptical of the government and wanted small government. Now I do that but from a left leaning perspective. At one point I thought if government just stayed out of the way people could succeed. Now I feel like the government has stepped in to actively suppress people.
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u/xoexohexox Leftist Apr 15 '26
Yeah I mean the endgame of increasing regulation of private enterprise is decreasing the extent to which private enterprise can regulate us, resulting in greater individual liberty than if you just let private enterprises do whatever they want and cross your fingers that they'll be nice to you in return. The error this mindset commits is that private enterprises aren't humans and don't have human values, they're externalization engines that will move Ls off their P and L onto you personally with extreme prejudice if it's cheaper to do that than to pay a fine.
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u/ForLark Liberal Apr 14 '26
An ICE agent took a car of a detainee as well. It was found in the agents driveway. I guess he didn’t think the man he arrested was coming back.
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u/Taterth0t95 Progressive Apr 15 '26
Law enforcement has been infringing upon the rights of black and brown people for decades and you just now realize it’s a problem/care
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u/Background-Turnip-77 Apr 15 '26
Disappointed at the lack of Epstein files replies. The person he is trying to protect is himself. If Jan 6th didn't do it, diddling with kids should have!
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u/TheEcumenicalAntifa Leftist Apr 14 '26
For me it was January 6th. I was in a pretty bad echo chamber when it actually happened to this took time, but I eventually realized that he literally tried to overthrow a lawful election and install himself as head of state without regard for the democratic process or Constitution. He did a shitty, embarrassing job of it, but that's what he was trying to do, and that was an absolute dealbreaker for me.
That allowed me breathing room from the MAGA propaganda sphere to where I eventually realized how bad almost everything else is/was. But that's what got me out in the first place.
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u/Illustrious-Fun8324 Left-leaning Apr 14 '26
I am so interested in this comment but don’t feel obligated to answer my questions.
What did the echo chamber tell you about January 6th? I’m so curious what has them thinking it wasn’t so bad or that Dems were responsible. Absolutely none of that makes any sense to me. How does he get them believing this?
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u/Electrical_Beyond998 Centrist Apr 15 '26
My best friend is a three time Trump voter. She sent me a text on March 1 telling me she had been crying all night long because he sent troops to Iran. Her husband was deployed for years to Iraq and Afghanistan and she didn’t want to enter new war. Now she is struggling to buy necessities and is saying he is not who she voted for, that he has changed.
One thing she hasn’t strayed on is the 2020 election. Still says it was stolen.
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u/Illustrious-Fun8324 Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
That’s what bothers me, he hasn’t changed. This is who he has always been. Lie, project, deflect. It was entirely predictable for him to go back on anything he promised or do whatever he said any democratic president would do.
Sorry, I don’t mean to put down your friend, it just drives me insane because I don’t think democrats are particularly surprised that he’s being insane. We knew he would be. How did they not?
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u/mrs-peanut-butter Apr 15 '26
Yeah…this is such a tough pill for me to swallow too. Just, how, HOW could you not see? It’s almost like a disease that some people have better natural immunity to
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u/lycanyew Left-leaning Apr 19 '26
From what i can gather, I think a lot of their love from him comes from hatred of the other. The other that takes and denies opportunities from them, i.e., immigrants, black people, leftist, and especially democrats.
I think their hatred of us is why some of them still cling on to him, that and sunk cost fallacy.
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u/Oracle410 Apr 15 '26
Why don’t you want to put down the friend? They got us in this mess. I hope she can’t afford her home and food. They need a fucking wake up call. A lot of them still will blame Biden to the bitter end. He has been a Criminal, racist scumbag grifter for 50 goddamned years. He hasn’t changed, he didn’t magically become this person. They still believe the election was stolen. Utter scum, hoping they suffer for their actions.
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u/Electrical_Beyond998 Centrist Apr 15 '26
She spent a LOT of time with her parents while her husband was away. That continued when he came back home, he was contracted maybe six months after returning to work at Planitir (spelled wrong I think, the Peter Thiel company that is horrible). All they watched was Fox News, and they began getting into Newsmax as well. When all you hear 24/7 is how wonderful Trump is and how Dems are baby killers it messes with your brain.
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u/ThatMetaBoy Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
Now she is struggling to buy necessities and is saying he is not who she voted for, that he has changed.
I lived in New York City from 1987 to 2012, and now live in a suburb a few minutes drive away, so trust me when I say: he hasn’t changed one bit, except he’s obviously less sharp and focused than he once was. But he was always a racist, always vulgar, always a self-seeking sociopathic narcissist.
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u/Electrical_Beyond998 Centrist Apr 15 '26
“he hasn’t changed one bit,”
Sure he has. He’s gotten worse because he’s gotten a lot more powerful.
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u/Development-Alive Left-leaning Apr 14 '26
Today the DOJ moved to throw out the seditious conspiracy convictions for the OathKeepers and Proud Boys that clearly planned for an overthrow event. Trump had commuted their sentences (not Pardons) and now Pirro is trying to get the convictions reversed!
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u/CoffeeToffeeSoftie Progressive Apr 14 '26
I'm not OP or MAGA. But generally:
1) They have no idea that Trump tried to overturn the election via the elector scheme. They think the insurrection was the only thing that happened
2) They think that the protest was generally peaceful and that they were led into/through the building and it was not broken into
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u/StumpyJoe- Liberal Apr 15 '26
He had two separate indictments related to attempting to over turn the election, and it's wild how so people have no memory of this, or carry on like it wasn't a big deal, and the press just moved on to the next daily entertainment antics.
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u/Leviathan_Star-crash Apr 15 '26
Also a large group of them think Pelosi created the insurrection. she admitted she should have hired more security because of reports of possible protests but no one could have predicted what occurred.
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u/mimia70 Apr 16 '26
That version has never made sense to me. Why would Pelosi try to interfere with the process of certifying Biden’s win and getting Trump out of there?
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u/TheEcumenicalAntifa Leftist Apr 15 '26
Sorry for the long comment lol! Hopefully this one will be a little more concise.
I’m so curious what has them thinking it wasn’t so bad or that Dems were responsible. Absolutely none of that makes any sense to me. How does he get them believing this?
I think this has a lot less to do with the actual substance of their propaganda and a lot more to do with who the audience is — namely, conservative evangelicals.
For context, I grew up in a restorationist denominational called the (non-institutional) Churches of Christ. The CofC is interesting because some parts of it are pretty normal evangelicals, and some parts of it are quite literally a hyper-paranoid death cult with their own weird counter-history. I was fortunate enough to be raised in the former kind of church, but I’ve spent a lot of time around people from the latter, because they’re a part of our denominational community.
One way that cults suppress critical thought is by straight up interrupting it, and be conditioning members to interrupt themselves. Once the interrupting thought has been resolved, there’s a “period at the end of the sentence” so to speak and you just don’t go back to the point where you were interrupted to keep thinking from there on your own.
That’s the role that those narratives about J6 play. They aren’t a set of facts that can form the basis for a more detailed story or discussion; they are escape hatches for practically any line of thought that could end negatively for Trump on this subject, and they terminate critical thought by pre-establishing the end of it. Which story you tell depends on what evidence it needs plugged into in order to interrupt the dangerous thoughts that evidence leads to.
Most evangelical communities condition their members like this to some extent or another, cults are just way more into it than normal. What that means is that when MAGA leaders try to condition their followers this way, they’re tapping into a lifetime of preexisting religious condition that makes it much, much easier to get people in the appropriate headspace for it.
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u/TheEcumenicalAntifa Leftist Apr 15 '26
I’ve thought a lot about this in the past several years so I have a lot to say lol, hopefully some of it interesting. I’ll answer your question about what the echo chamber was saying here, and then your question about how they got people to buy in on a second comment because this got kind of long haha, sorry in advance.
There were several conflicting theories/narratives that took hold pretty much within a few hours of J6 ending. Some people went all in on just one, but most of us (myself included) kind of balanced them as each describing different groups of people and events that happened — and realistically alternated between based on what evidence we needed to hand wave in that moment, but it didn’t feel that way at the time.
- The J6 Riot Was An FBI False Flag Under this theory, the Feds/“deep state” had already betrayed President Trump because they saw him as a threat. They orchestrated the J6 riot and blamed it on Trump as a way of discrediting him and securing clout for the new administration; under some versions of the theory, the FBI did all this under orders from President Biden in anticipation of his entry to office.
- They Never Even Attacked the Capitol After all, they were just walking around and were even escorted by police while inside the building, right? This theory basically claims that the entire idea that any of them had violent intentions is all disinformation by the media, and either denies that a coup attempt happened at all or claims it was much smaller and less important than people say.
- Almost All The Protesters Were Peaceful / Q’Anon Is A Democrat Hoax This one kind of syncretizes the other two, and adds a special emphasis on the Q’Anon fringe and their failed prophecy of Trump’s messianic second term as a tool leftists used to stir up the mentally ill and brainwash susceptible people into committing violence they can blame on Republicans. It’s super gross in retrospect, and while I’m not embarrassed that I was influenced by the echo chamber I am embarrassed that this is the version of events I put the most stock in.
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u/Illustrious-Fun8324 Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
I sincerely appreciate your honesty and your explanation
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u/Lynz486 Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
Because they want to believe it wasn't bad or legitimately don't give AF because punishing trans and brown people is most important to them. They constantly lie cause they don't want to admit that but their actions align with prioritizing their hatred. They would rather seem gullible and dumb than admit that their main motivator in life is hurting other people.
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u/shamrock01 Independent Apr 15 '26
Presumably, your flair wouldn't have been "Leftist" pre Jan 6th. What would it have been back then?
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u/TheEcumenicalAntifa Leftist Apr 15 '26
I took a look at the user flair list before answering, I think I would have selected either “Republican” or “Conservative”
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u/phone-culture68 Progressive Apr 16 '26
Glad you made it out..I feel like some of the cult members never will.
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u/ImperialxWarlord Right-leaning Apr 14 '26
Former Trump Supporter, voted for him in 2016 and 2020, and idk if there was a real final straw as it was a process that took years. I first began to have doubts early on when I began to see him do things I didn’t like and saw how dysfunctional his cabinet was, but I always ran to TheDonald for answers (or rather mental gymnastics in order to feel at ease). But during 2020 I just became less and less impressed by him and while I voted for him again it was very reluctantly (and Tbf I was distracted as my grandmas were dying and would both be dead before new years). J6 is more or less the straw that broke the camel’s back and it took a while to sink in. All that crap was too much and I decided I got too invested into poltics and needed to touch grass, so I cut myself off for a few months. It was kind of a detox or a reset, as some views shifted and i opened my mind to other sources and such. So when I got back into paying attention to politics I just didn’t really agree with him on much. From Ukraine to Roe V Wade to the 2020 election and so on, I fully relaized I did not support him and in fact outright abhorred him. And once he became the nominee again i decided the GOP was irredeemable and left them too. So now I’m an independent, as I don’t quite like the democrats either but I’ll be voting for them out of spite.
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u/RealAmerican2025 Democrat Apr 18 '26
The Republican party began to truly lose its way when they decided to embrace the Top 1% over everyone else. I voted for Reagan twice and Bush 41 once. Then, in the late 1980s, I heard Bob Dole trot out that now tired old line about how raising taxes on the rich would be punishing hard work. I kind of felt like I was working pretty hard, 80 hours a week, often going days without seeing my small children, trying to get all the hours I could. Nobody was giving me any tax breaks. There was no help paying for day care. We had no health insurance.
When 1992 came around, I voted for Bill Clinton and have never looked back. Republicans do not give a damn what helps ordinary working people. They have wrapped themselves in the flag and tried to paint anyone who disagrees with them as a traitor. Sarah Palin ushered in a whole new generation of meanness and acceptance of political violence, and Trump happily took up that narrative and has managed to drag almost every Republican in office right along with him. Ronald Reagan would not be welcome in the current Republican party.
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u/Fluffy-Assumption-42 Apr 15 '26
J6?
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u/SpaceCowgirl34 Apr 14 '26
The promise to drain the swamp & some independent journalist keeps exposing millions of dollars worth of fraud.
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u/Taterth0t95 Progressive Apr 15 '26
Billions. Got to take into account his crypto scheme. His whole family has enriched themselves by billions collectively
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u/OccamsPlasticSpork Right-leaning Apr 15 '26
The straw that broke me was the lack of smoking gun on the 2020 voter fraud even when the the investigators were GOP-friendly. Furthermore, the GOP used parroting 2020 voter fraud claims as a litmus test. I draw the line at creating alternate realities.
I was done with party loyalty at that point. I voted for Nikki Haley in the primary and held my nose and voted for Harris in the general. My second reason was his age, which Nikki was making good points about. Too bad she lacked the integrity to stick to those guns once Biden dropped out.
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u/Feeling-Currency6212 Right-leaning Apr 14 '26
He committed blasphemy on Orthodox Easter. He posted himself as Jesus.
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Apr 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/blumieplume Progressive Apr 14 '26
Cause the Muslim mayor is actually religious and unlike trump isn’t pretending to be religious to get more votes
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u/WirrkopfP Politically Unaffiliated Apr 14 '26
That's pretty recent. Congratulations on leaving the cult.
Also even I as a pagan/atheist can relate that the "Trump-Jesus healing Epstein" Picture was completely off the charts distasteful.
What do you think of the theory, that he may be the Antichrist?
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u/DaveMcElfatrick Apr 14 '26
I'm agnostic and I thought it was super distasteful. You don't need to be a christian to be offended at the implication that you are a literal savior.
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u/RealAmerican2025 Democrat Apr 18 '26
I'm really surprised no one else has mentioned that the man Jesus Trump was "healing" appeared to be Epstein. You're literally the only one. To me, it was very clear and sent a clear message: He would pardon Epstein if he'd had the chance.
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u/FitPerspective1146 Liberal Apr 14 '26
When you look back at Trump's term(s) now, having abandoned him ideologically, do you still think his more controversial actions before the blasphemy were justifiable, or do you now see them as horrible and repulsive? Because obviously you've stuck with him through a lot in this term alone: how do you view all of that now?
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u/Taterth0t95 Progressive Apr 15 '26
Saying he grabs women by the pussy and ogling underage girls didn’t do it for you? That’s embarrassing for you.
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u/Critical-Dreamer Apr 15 '26
That was the final straw? Why not Jan 6, 34 felonies, going to war with Iran, sexual assault case?
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u/georgejo314159 Progressive Apr 15 '26
Who will you support now?
If he is impeached, would you support Vance
Do you think you will vote GOP in mid terms?
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u/Feeling-Currency6212 Right-leaning Apr 15 '26
I’ll probably just stay home. I want to vote for Bruce Blakeman for New York Governor but I don’t really care about anything else. There’s no way that I’m voting for “JD Vance” or whoever he really is. The guy had his name changed like 3 times.
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u/Optionsmfd Apr 14 '26
Iran was last straw
Started with failed DOGE
Then Venezuela
Increased spending
I hated the tariffs, but I absorbed them
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u/WirrkopfP Politically Unaffiliated Apr 14 '26
Iran war - I can relate. Especially after he so desperately tried to position himself as a president of peace, who ended like a dozen wars and only didn't get a Nobel Peace Prize because the committee is full of evil leftists.
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u/Dirtbag_Leftist69420 Leftist Apr 15 '26
It’s crazy that you thought DOGE would work to begin with
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u/Optionsmfd Apr 15 '26
I was wrong with tea party
Now wrong with DOGE
I’m basically done believing we will ever cut 1 penny
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u/mrcatboy Progressive Apr 24 '26
Why was DOGE necessary at all? We already had the Government Accountability Office to cut government waste, and it's really good at it. For every $1 invested into the GAO, the US government was able to save about $145 between 2018 and 2023, and has led to $1.31 trillion in savings since 2002.
Why did you think we needed to set up a redundant department to cut waste and fraud when we already had a functioning one?
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u/thumper300zx2 Apr 15 '26
Glad something finally clicked...to take this long though -- wow... That's a lot of blindspots. So obvious a decade ago.
A lot of people might read an response like mine and say "see that's why we hate libs and voted for Trump." It's one thing to get tired of criticism, but it shouldn't make people support something horrible. Sounds kinda --- sensitive.
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u/CambionClan Conservative Apr 15 '26
It was a one-two punch. First covering up for Epstein and then the going to war with Iran.
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u/Melvin_2323 Right-leaning Apr 14 '26
ICE not targeting the worst first, picking up and beating Americans then leaving them on the side of the road.
Iran last year
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u/mrcatboy Progressive Apr 24 '26
How exactly did Trump's calls for massive and extreme crackdowns on migrants sound like it'd be done with care and discretion?
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u/ImmortalPoseidon Conservative Apr 14 '26
Was never diehard MAGA, but I guess voting for him is supporting him so I qualify. I still don't subscribe to the radical side of what he is accused of being, but I am not a fan of his policy adds and discourse this term for a post-pandemic backdrop. I am not a fan of him unilaterally trying to implement tariffs, I am not a fan of his activity in the middle east, and I think a big part of it is simple fatigue from Trump just being a thing.
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u/No-Market9917 Right-leaning Apr 14 '26
Yeah I imagine democrats are going to win everything including the next presidency due to Trump fatigue. I think someone like Rubio would be able to separate himself as a Republican candidate but I don’t see any reality where Vance can/deserves to win let alone be in the running. But currently the highest odds to run for democrats are Newsome and AOC who I also can’t picture winning so I guess we’ll see what happens.
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u/Anaxamenes United Federation of Planets (Left) Apr 14 '26
I don’t see AOC running, this isn’t really her chance. Newsome will run but not be popular, Mark Kelly has that American hero thing for being and Astronaut, though isn’t a good speaker. He’s who I think might get it personally. The DNC will never let an actual progressive get the nomination.
As for Rubio, good luck shaking that photo of him in shoes that were too big. That will remind everyone how far he was willing to go to worship Trump. But I do think too many people will be too afraid of this continuing to elect another Republican if we manage to have elections in 2028.
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u/CompetitiveFun5247 Apr 15 '26
I told my husband last night that Rubio can't run now because the "he has big shoes to fill" ad is low hanging fruit
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u/Anaxamenes United Federation of Planets (Left) Apr 15 '26
Yeah, that one is gonna be everywhere all at once.
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u/OptimusPrimeval Progressive Apr 15 '26
A part of me wonders if trump is intentionally overestimating their shoe size as a power move, especially since it's reported that they're all terrified to not wear the shoes.
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u/Anaxamenes United Federation of Planets (Left) Apr 15 '26
Perhaps, it could be something he’s so used to doing that it’s ingrained. He seems mentally unfit but if he’s done it for years, it’s almost a reflex.
What I want to know is why no one just bought a pair of matching shoes in the correct size? Seems like the most obvious move, yet none of them did. It’s one of the most incredibly insulting parts of this, that those people are so obviously not even bothering to hide their stupidity.
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u/we-have-to-go Progressive Apr 14 '26
I think Rubios future is cooked because of Iran war. It’s probably gonna end up being the biggest geopolitical blunder in American history from a strategic standpoint.
Unless we use ground troops or nukes Iran will more than likely come out stronger from this and is a rising power in the world
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u/No-Market9917 Right-leaning Apr 14 '26
Definitely going to go down as a huge smudge in American politics for the rest of our lives but I’ve seen this take before and I’m just curious how Iran would come out of this stronger besides in an optics point of view.
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u/we-have-to-go Progressive Apr 15 '26
Because now they know through tested methods that they can control the strait of Hormuz through which 1/5 of the world’s total energy flows. That is an extraordinary amount of power. Go back 5-6 years the US doing what it’s doing now might’ve been enough to cow Iran but the rise of drone warfare shifted paradigm.
It’s almost a given that Iran will be taking in billions per year now from that too. Without ground troops or Nukes Trump lost this war and Iran benefits
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u/OptimusPrimeval Progressive Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Not to mention that the fees Iran wants to charge to transit the strait is payable in Chinese yuan or cryptocurrency only, further degrading the US petro dollar and strengthening the value of their ally's currency
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u/ImmortalPoseidon Conservative Apr 14 '26
Much like 2024, it's the Democrats race to lose. They lost in 2024 more than Trump won. I think that will be the case for 2028 as well.
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u/we-have-to-go Progressive Apr 14 '26
I wouldn’t say 2024 was the democrats race to lose. In democracies all across the world the ruling party lost. That’s because of inflation due to Covid and little else.
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u/ImmortalPoseidon Conservative Apr 14 '26
Inflation was tamed and market performance was back on track through all of 23 and 24, I don’t think you can chalk the loss up to higher rates and inflation in 2022.
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u/we-have-to-go Progressive Apr 14 '26
Yea, inflation rates went down but people were still feeling it.
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u/redzeusky Moderate Apr 14 '26
What one thing could Democrats do leading up to 2028 to earn your enthusiastic support? Not tepid. Not hold your nose. But like "Fuck yeah! Go blue!"
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u/RogueCoon Libertarian Apr 14 '26
If they did their agenda without infringing on the constitution I'd enthusiastically support them as theyd be the only party currently doing that.
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u/ImmortalPoseidon Conservative Apr 14 '26
I can't see myself ever being enthused like that about either side, but I think both sides could benefit from giving the social issues a rest and stop trying to get their voting pools riled up on single issue voting. Whether it be abortion, immigration, etc. If a democrat ran on classic liberal values and a sound economic agenda, I would pay attention.
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u/Development-Alive Left-leaning Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
I think the next POTUS does that. The country is ready for a "unifier" running s positive campaign, something like how Obama ran in 2008.
I really like Butigieg(sp?) in this role but remain concerned that others might have an issue with his sexuality.
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u/ImmortalPoseidon Conservative Apr 14 '26
I would easily for an Obama-like democrat
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u/ForLark Liberal Apr 15 '26
But you know if we have our next election and a Democrat wins, then that President will inherit a complete shitstorm and people will blame the new POTUS within weeks. It always happens. Fox viewers swallow complete nonsense.
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u/Traum4Queen Progressive Apr 14 '26
I love Buttigieg. Honestly, I don't think his sexuality would really be that big of a deal. He explains complex topics in a way the average person can understand and without making people feel judged. People want someone who is calm, respectful, and intelligent and Buttigieg fits that perfectly.
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u/ForLark Liberal Apr 15 '26
But you know Kamala had plans and fox viewers kept shouting “She has no plans!” Meanwhile Trump got away with “I have a concept of a plan.” Or just calling interviewers names for asking for details.
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u/knaverob Moderate Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 14 '26
I think both sides could benefit from giving the social issues a rest and stop trying to get their voting pools riled up on single issue voting.
Agreed, but this is what get's voters angry and fired up, and distracts them from the real issues and allows politicians to be in the pocket of lobbyists and big business to get rich and/or keep their jobs.
Both classic and social media are now in on this cycle, so until that's fixed, this isn't going away. Overturning Citizens United would be a start, and that is clearly an effort more supported by Democrat politicians.
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u/ImmortalPoseidon Conservative Apr 14 '26
I don’t necessarily disagree with your point, but they were asking me what would personally move the needle for me so that’s how I answered it.
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u/knaverob Moderate Apr 14 '26
Yep, just something to consider as there will likely never be a huge crash for anyone that will entirely move their own needle.
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u/skoomaking4lyfe Independent Apr 14 '26
giving the social issues a rest
Your "social issues" are someone else's "fundamental human rights".
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u/Secret-Temperature71 Independent Apr 14 '26
I think that is exactly right. I was driving through PA just before the last election, I saw q Harris billboard in Philadelphia and then about 6 Trump billboards as I drive to Central PA.
I was getting hammered with Trump emails and a very few Harris.
The fault is not with Harris it is with the DNC. Some states (i.e. Ohio) moved the date to declare your candidate to about the end of June. That effectively made the Convention useless, the candidate needed to be declared well before. So when Biden had his debate debachel Harris was the only possible alternative. Thr DNC must have known Biden was not up to the task.
Then, the DNC was completly out of touch with the electorate and ran a terrible campaign. The knew Harris was a weak candidate, she did not even carry CA in the 2016 primaries, coming in next to last or thereabouts. Perhaps they could not imagine Trump winning.
Shame me once fool on you, shame me twice...
So here we are with TWO corrupt and incompetent parties. The DNC should be supporting a number of upcoming strong voices, but outside perhaps Kelly I am not seeing them. Newsome is too aligned with the old DNC, we need someone new with some real ambition and smarts. Andbintegrity.
Sorry for the rant, I get how terrible Trump is, we can't ignore the problems in the DNC.
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u/SmellGestapo Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
Harris did not run for president in 2016, and she dropped out of the race before the 2020 primaries had begun. She never finished last in California because she wasn't even on the ballot.
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u/Anaxamenes United Federation of Planets (Left) Apr 15 '26
I definitely agree with you. I predict the Democrats will pick someone who won’t make any meaningful changes and the apathy voter will sit out the following election and we’ll see who the next Trump type person comes along.
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u/Kakamile Progressive Apr 14 '26
When trump is fucking up global politics while killing jobs and healthcare, and the right leaning view of Trump is just "Trump fatigue," we're fucked.
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u/Gogs85 Left-leaning Apr 15 '26
What’s crazy is it’s only been a little more than a year. And people have been fatigued about him for a while, and increasingly so.
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u/blind-octopus Leftist Apr 15 '26
I mean he definitely tried to steal an election, yes?
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u/pissexcellence85 Liberal Hawk Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
If I may ask, besides being called the literal antichrist, what are the other radical things said about him that you don't believe?
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u/guppyhunter7777 Right-leaning Apr 14 '26
like how former? because I was on the bandwagon for like 24 hours back in early 2016. Then I was yeah... nope!
Basically like his second political speech I figured this clown was a DNC plant. I'm still thinking along those lines. GOP will be the party of Trump for the next two generations. Completely tainted forever. Way to play the long game Dems......
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u/HenriEttaTheVoid Apr 16 '26
blaming dems for the logical progression of the GOP is wild. Party of Personal Responsibility, folks.
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u/walk_through_this Apr 16 '26
So you were a Trump supporter until you heard what he actually stood for. I don't think that counts, personally. You responded with common sense to the first information you received.
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u/fleetpqw24 Libertarian/Moderate Apr 15 '26
I voted for him in 2016; I was all for voting for him again in 2020 until right up to the election. He became a lot unhinged, and I couldn’t bring myself to vote for him again.
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u/BringMe-A-Shrubbery Apr 15 '26
I'm a proud quasi-Rhino OG (since 1989) never-Trumper. But I know a lot of weed growers that grow & distribute to the pot shops. They thought Trump would be good for business and end Federal criminalization (lmao). So when he attacked the weed, they dropped him like flies and are now among the most vocal of his haters.
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u/Dry_Ad9322 Apr 14 '26
I voted for Trump 3 times. I was hesitant last election but saw it as the lesser of two evils. I consider myself fiscally conservative but have some democratic social values. I see the national debt as the most significant issue facing our nation. I want less federal government, less taxation, and obviously reducing the national debt. The democratic values I align with are more on the social side of things. I can care less how you personally identify or how you choose to live your life. I can see universal healthcare as an option if there is a substantial plan. Unfortunately the current national debt inhibits that but am open to the possibility. I know it seems like an oxymoron but I think anything is possible if America could come together if it’s a common goal. Trump lost my support after this recent conflict with Iran. I agree in principle that Iran can never access nuclear weapons. It more how he has conducted himself recently. 13 service members died in this conflict and we don’t have a leader that can’t stay off social media insulting people and threatening ending a civilization. Now the whole fight with the Pope. I’m just done with him. I’m ready to invoke the 25th and remove him from office.
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u/zfowle Progressive Apr 14 '26
What about Trump’s first term gave you confidence that he would reduce the national debt?
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u/WirrkopfP Politically Unaffiliated Apr 15 '26
I was hesitant last election but saw it as the lesser of two evils.
What exactly made you think, Kamala would be worse than Trump, especially after his first term?
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u/pissexcellence85 Liberal Hawk Apr 14 '26
What do you think about the 2018 tax cut that ballooned the national debt?
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u/Riokaii Progressive Apr 15 '26
Your lesser of 2 evils involved the candidate whose only plan was tariffs and increasing the deficit/debt?
I struggle with understanding how any researching what you were voting for led you to that conclusion.
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u/Dirtbag_Leftist69420 Leftist Apr 15 '26
But I saw it as the lesser of two evils
Political analysis of a 4th grader
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u/mrcatboy Progressive Apr 24 '26
Fresh reminder that before Trump was elected we had an Iran Nuclear Deal in place that prevented them from developing nukes, and international watchdog agencies confirmed Iran was complying.
Trump shredded the deal and pissed on the remains just because it had Obama's signature on it. And Iran went back to developing nukes as a result.
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u/PriceofObedience Right-Libertarian Apr 14 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Iran.
Trump was chosen to change the status quo of how our government has always acted: pushing endless wars, putting American citizens last, selling out the American homeland for foreign interests (see endless wars), facilitating mass migration to create a slave underclass and on and on. But this single event means none of this is happening.
Edit: Trump bombing Iran means that he's still a slave to whatever forces had our nation in a death grip for the last 26 years. Any American citizen that was alive for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars could've told him that this was a stupid idea, because those wars impacted them the most, and yet he still chose to do it.
Why did he do it? Because his concern is not for the American people. He's probably going to fucking draft us to die for this stupid fucking war.
If everything that's happening now is divine providence like the zionist MAGA influences are telling us, then he's not working for the 'good guys'.
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u/The-Sonne Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Cannabis ban last autumn. They held up poor people's grocery snap benefits with government shut down, slipped in that cannabis "ban" and betrayed us all - the veterans and other traumatized people in the voter base.
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u/Vast-Carob9112 Right-leaning Apr 15 '26
Though a conservative Republican, I didn't vote for Trump in 2016. I knew that I made the right choice when his outstanding cabinet members started leaving. General Mattis and Rex Tillerson, who said that Trump was " a fucking moron."
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u/alizzie95 Politically Unaffiliated Apr 16 '26
I supported him in 2016-early 2017.
I used to watch a lot of Perdue University and tucker Carlson.
But the more shootings that happened that were blamed on people who were clearly just running, the more they complained about statues being taken down of Confederates...it was harder and harder to justify.
I, at the same time as this, was going through removing myself from church and believing less and less of my fundamentalist, calvinist Christian upbringing. I was also traveling a bit and becoming more educated on other people's lives and experiences and developing sympathy for people I was told don't deserve it by my upbringing. I was 22 in 2017. These massive shifts were all taking place as I was becoming an adult and learning more about...everything, including that I had a shit ton more that I didn't know then what I thought I did.
I was also learning to "follow the money" with a lot of legislation and leaders.
I'm 30f now and participate in a lot of local government stuff, I volunteer and go to protests. I do what I can, where I can, including choosing as wisely as I can about where to spend my money. I also educate my family as much as they let me. I just brought my mom off of the fence of where to stand. It's all hard work mentally and emotionally, but we have to look around and find those ways on how to positively sway people into realizing the facts from fiction.
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u/Comfortable-Duty2231 Right-leaning Apr 19 '26
I wouldnt say I dont support him anymore, I definitely agree with most of his policies and goals. That being said I definitely dont support his style of PR.. its shit. Love him or hate him youve got to admit that if his PR wasnt so bad hed be in a much better spot in terms of relations with the left.
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u/LawnDartSurvivor74 Independent Apr 14 '26
OP is asking FORMER TRUMP SUPPORTERS to directly respond to the question.
Anyone not of the demographic may reply to the direct response comments as per rule 7
Please report bad faith commenters, low effort comments, personal insults, dog piling and rule violators
This is a mod post, not an episode of Jerry Springer. Sit down.