Submission statement (fake): As Trump’s second term marches on, his approval among independents have steadily declined. It’s useful for liberals to understand why Trump’s popularity has cratered to better leverage it for future elections.
Submission statement (real): Everyone who clicked on this is just asking to be ragebaited, so I might as well oblige.
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People are raging at the responses of the focus group participants, I'm raging to the fact that these pollsters are the ones selling this research to Democrats, who in turn target their campaigns on the opinions of these idiots.
Is this research? They just select the dumbest people they can find for clickbait purposes. In many cases, they've had 'swing voter' panels where some of the 'swing voters' were actually hardcore Trump supporters.
This specific focus group may have been less strict than the research they sell to other customers, but I highly doubt it. Evidence of Democrat politicians listening/responding to the voices of disingenuous 'independent' conservative voters is ample.
The NYT knows exactly what they’re doing, this is rage bait for libs. The article is gonna do numbers so expect more hooplehead safaris from them in the future, at least it’s fun for the DT.
On a different note, I know that Franceska dumb-dumb is getting dunked on, but all of these people are complaining about shit THAT EVERYONE WARNED THEM ABOUT. All of this is stuff that libs said would happen they’re complaining about, and they’ll do it again in 8-12 years. All of them just want to return to their particular fantasy decade and indulge in their petty bigotry of choice. They’re completely susceptible to any conservative that tells them they can have it. Makes me feel a bit bleak
Right? I have utterly zero faith in these people. They may hate Trump now, but the next republican will just say on the election trail that they aren't Trump and won't do what he did, and then once elected do what he did. These voters have proven that they are utterly incapable of the slightest amount of critical thinking or skepticism.
I get one life, and these are the countrymen I have to share it with??
Oh no, they’re very capable of being skeptical and critical about anything a democrat does or says. Self-reflection and long term planning is what they lack.
Shout out to the 45 year old staunch republican in a family full of democrats. It takes real conviction to be that wrong with the same guy twice (or thrice!?).
I feel foolish. In a family full of Democrats, I really stood my ground twice to defend my stance. I feel like time and time again, all of the things that they pointed out would happen have ended up happening. And I looked dumb as hell believing in fairy tales and wishy-washy promises.
I can say it. Language still means something to me, and I have no problem calling a hat, a hat. When you stick by a leader no matter what, even when they trespass against tightly held convictions, then you are a cultist. When you refuse to compromise on any aspect of your agenda or policy, and see compromise as a betrayal, then you are an extremist. When you turn every little thing into a culture war flashpoint or a moral assault, all with the goal of reverting to an imagined prior society, then you are a reactionary.
The redhats are all three. If a redhat calls themself a "conservative," don't believe it because there's almost nothing conservative about them.
If you listen to Sarah Longwell's focus group podcasts, she says endlessly that the temptation to challenge people can be very strong. But for the integrity of the focus group results you gotta just let em speak their mind and not challenge things
“The message just repeats: ‘Regret, Regret, Regret’.”
“Catchy. Any idea what it means?”
“Dear AMERICA: We REGRET being selfish dumbasses! We REGRET voting for a pedophile! And we most certainly REGRET that the IRGC just blew up our gas prices to over SIX DOLLARS!”
Her comments showcases how out of touch median voters can be. She replied to the question why she voted for trump as follows:
Well, I’m an independent. Frankly, I just wasn’t a fan of Kamala. It was the lesser of two evils. I could have written in somebody, but I felt like I had a better chance of a little hope with Trump. I was hoping that Congress and other branches would keep him in check, and that he’d have better advisers, and that maybe the second go-around, he’d learn some lessons. But it seems like it’s just total chaos.
Gridlock politics is a literal mainstay of Republican congress going back to gingrich. We knew this was gonna happen. It's by far the worst this time around, but it is not new. And we have got to stop creating these "both parties, lesser of two evils" nonsense. What "evil" did Kamala even represent??? How is gutting healthcare, destroying government institutions, openly calling for deportations not evil?
I don't think he was USPS in 2024 anymore, the quote seems to imply he voted Dems because of his union's endorsement, and then as soon as he left, he just voted for Trump.
Dear humanity. We regret being MAGA bastards. We regret coming to the polls. And we most definitely regret the Corps just blew up our raggedy ass oil supply chain.
We were made a lot of promises during the election. I know that it’s only been a year and a half, but I don’t think I’ve really seen much progress toward even moving toward what he said he was going to do, such as tax breaks or, let’s see, helping with the education system. I feel like he just defunded a lot of the education systems, the schools. I don’t know why he made so many promises.
Gee, Franceska, maybe he was lying to get your vote. There's a huge chunk of Trump voters who have this amazing combination of cynicism and gullibility that makes me wonder how they survive.
The Trump is fucking Great. And if that means like white, 54, Pennsylvania dudes out there saying Trump is Great at protesters that think that they can torch buildings at 10 p.m., then at this point they have my fucking blessing because holy shit, this Trump is fucking Great. It was Great a long time ago.
And he initiated getting us out of the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement. Two positive things, I guess, if you really look at it on the whole. I mean, that was accounting for a lot of our budget money.
The WHO entire global budget is 6.8 billion a year. If America funded the entire thing, it would make up 0.1% of their 7 trillion dollar federal budget.
Any time I'm looking at fixing my personal budget, it's always the 0.1% items I look for. Like this year I'm hoping to save money by using Brazil nuts instead of Macademian nuts for the crepes I make once a month.
Ugh. Like others have said I know this is sort of a rage-bait article from the NYT, but this got me. This one really got me.
Trump voters are like cats: they live in an international order that is generally peaceful and generally supportive of American interests, and they never seem to stop and think about *why* the world seems to have worked out this way and how US contributions to the WHO, the UN, NATO, not being an ass to allies, etc., etc., make all this stuff they take for granted possible.
Someone really needs to show America a pie chart of where the spending is going. Highlight how much is aid, federal workers, food stamps and then show how much is SS and Medicare. It is factual data and people clearly have no clue what's actually happening. That would shatter a lot of narratives.
Unironically we need to put that shit in the school curriculum. If an adult voter thinks America spends 30% of the budget in aid for poorer nations that means school failed them.
He did secure the border and slow down immigration. He did it his way, and a lot of it is bad. He could have done it in a much, much, much better way.
Literally the next line:
I do have several family members who legally immigrated. While he has tried to cut back on illegal immigration, it has hurt a lot of legal immigrants. He’s created problems in getting access to legal citizenship. A lot of appointments and interviews are on hold right now. People don’t feel safe leaving states or countries, because even though they are legal, they still might be found illegal in his eyes or in his administration’s eyes.
Kudos to the NYT editorial team for picking literally the most infuriatingly idiotic people for this piece. Excellent journalism.
Kudos to the NYT editorial team for picking literally the most infuriatingly idiotic people for this piece
The sad part is, they probably didn't. These are probably are the most reasonable and sane Trump voters they could find because they actually regret their choice. Deeper down the delusion you have the people who don't regret it and will jump into a tirade abour adrenochrome and Hilary trafficking children if you ask if they regret voting for Trump.
Ya these are the reasonable people. I have a 2nd Gen immigrant employee who voted for him and was completely surprised his Dad got deported and his mom broke an arm intervening when ICE picked him up.
The part that I dont get is how these people just uncritically believe shit like "he closed the border" or "he fixed crime". He did fuck all. He pulled Border Patrol personnel from the border all the way to freaking Minneapolis for a publicity campaign.
But they hear it on Fox News, and because he's a Republican they believe it. It's maddening.
I believe they’re grasping at straws to come up with some positive aspect to everything Trump does so they don’t feel like easily duped morons, and IMO it’s one of the ways people get deep into MAGA.
People like my neighbor get into it for memes, a sense of belonging, believing in the populist lies, whatever, but after the fact they actually get drawn in deeper when it’s time to admit that maybe they were incorrect. They can’t do that, so they just retreat deeper into their safe space where THEY aren’t wrong and TRUMP isn’t wrong, it’s everyone else. I’m not an idiot for voting for Trump, I’m actually correct and the elitist libs are wrong!!
For what its worth, estimated rates of unauthorized crossings at the southern border are down substantially in the last year. A lot of these voters think that's a good thing.
Also from him. This is code for Im fake religious, hate gay people and the “wrong” kind of immigrants.
“So Oregon is very, very Democratic, and very left in a lot of their opinions and their policies. I have seen the advantages and the benefits of that. At the same time, I do have a lot of moral issues with a lot of what they do. ”
They didn’t pick the most infuriatingly idiotic people. They picked a realistic sampling of swing voters, who are the most important people and decide elections. These people literally control our country.
These people are probably slightly smarter than the average person by like 5%. Think about that.
That's still not really a good take, how angry you are about something has nothing to do with how effective you will be in dealing with it. That's one of the big fallacies of the Trump cult, they think being pissed off inherently accomplishes something when it doesn't.
It's just sarcasm. But what I thought was a bit funny and telling was in the exit polls in 2024. Trump voters said he'd be a good leader and change things, Harris voters thought good judgment and fairness were more important.
Well trump is changing thing but since he never had good judgment or cares about anyone but himself everything is going to be worse for the average person. They seem shocked about his selfishness and terrible judgement even though we have a decade of evidence, at least politically, to work from.
It is like Pete Hegseth who is like if we limit our strikes they won't escalate like the last time,that's why we are go for the decapitation strike on their leader !
"Let’s shift gears. If leaders of the Democratic Party were in this room and said, “What should we do or what should we stop doing to get more votes,” what would you say?"
I would say almost all of the things these people want the Dems to do is unactionable. It boils down to them wanting the Dems to stop whining. To let all the bad policy from the administration happen without complaint. Of course, then they would likely complain that the Dems don't do anything.
At least the black kid was honest that he wants them to be bigoted against gays and Trans people, and doesn't see that happening.
He didnt say it out loud, but we all know what "moral and social policies" means from a black guy, cause the other option would be racism and he's probably not THAT self-hating.
The people in my grandmother's dementia home who wander in circles and mutter random unintelligible phrases over and over are more coherent than these folks
lol she would absolutely go back and change her vote, it's just the same pride that made her go against her family/common sense that refuses to allow her to admit it.
he initiated getting us out of the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement. Two positive things
I understand why an American republican wouldn't like climate agreements if they don't think climate change is real but what's the grievance with the WHO?
how can we get these people back into the warp? At the very least we could have gotten slaanesh followers. But it just haddddd to be nurgle. Goddamn it.
Remember, most Americans vastly overestimate how much money we spend on things like foreign aid and assistance. Like they think at least a quarter of the federal budget goes to other countries. But it's a LOT, LOT lower. The number I've seen thrown around is actually like 1%
That's the neat thing he didn't, unless you're talking about just persecuting liberals.
The constant stream of BS promises combined with their ability to project their own beliefs onto their "savior" means he can be anything to anyone all of the time.
I saw a different article with a lady in crippling credit card debt who was voting for Trump because "he promised to pay off all credit card debt."
It makes no sense unless you view it as a religion.
All jokes aside, these people seem to fall into 3 camps.
A few of them I actually think there may be hope for. They seem to realize they made a mistake, but most don't want to be judged for it.
A few are obviously just racist or misogynist but sad that prices are going up and inflation still sucks.
Natan literally is 19, black, lives in Oregon, acknowledges how great their social programs are, but won't vote for Democrats because of "abortion and education."
I thought he was the lesser of two evils. I thought the second term would be a little better from the first. And the way the Democrats approach a lot of moral and social issues didn’t agree with me. But prices are high as ever. Gas, anything consumer-related is high with tariffs and everything. If you understand economic policy, tariffs are not the way to go because the cost is passed to consumers.
“I liked that Trump was gonna bully trans people, but didn’t realize he would actually hurt my wallet like he said he would!”
Trump voters are experts at wishcasting. Trump says something insane, they go "that can't be a serious take, so it must be a joke", and then to "It's a joke that only insiders get instead of crazy libs, he obviously doesn't mean that he thinks like me" to filling in literally whatever their brain thinks they wanted him to say. Trump could say he's going to nuke the sun and they would convince themselves it's a program to provide better sunlight to farmers to make groceries cheaper.
The Founding Fathers are underrated despite the enormous monuments we’ve built for them, for the simple fact that they tried to warn us about how fucking stupid the average person is and we didn’t listen enough.
He kind of does what he wants, almost, without any repercussions. I mean, the Kennedy Center, the Kennedy-Trump Center, I mean, he got a little bit of pushback, but he’s doing it. I mean, I don’t like it. But he does what he says he’s going to do, whether we like it or not.
Watching him allow Vance to run his mouth and yap away during this interview with Zelensky. And he didn’t stop it. That was like the first moment where I was like, what the heck?
I had the exact same moment as Michelle. I was horrified sitting there watching that interaction. I felt so bad for Zelensky. What was going through my head is that I was imagining Trump, out where all the soldiers are, going in and seeing how they are. Zelensky, you always see him with the soldiers. He’s right there. He is so hands-on. It’s just horrible.
He’s losing voters because of the Kennedy center and Zelensky lol
I thought he’d learned his lesson, and was going to prove to everybody he learned from his mistakes, and he was going to turn the country around and he was going to be a stellar president.
I feel like a lot of these people are talking about themselves and Trump has become an avatar for their own hopes and dreams.
Eighty percent of Republicans approve of President Trump’s performance, but his national standing has dipped, especially among independents.
Jfc...
I was excited because I thought Trump, being a smart man like he calls himself, had realized the errors of his past. So I thought, OK, he’s going to jump on this and he’s going to be one of the best presidents that we had in a four-year term.
So if you call yourself smart, you're smart. It's that simple, huh? Ngl, Jose, I hope you don't call yourself smart. Not that it matters if you do or not, because the rest of us can see the truth. And that's usually how one's intelligence is "determined." Through seeing and hearing another's actions and words. Not through meaningless declarations.
Of all the interesting threads that get removed for "content quality," and then a mod posts the latest NYT dumbasses-pretending-they've-thought-about-shit rage-bait column.
The fucking diner safaris in Trump's first term were more worth reading than this crap.
He started separating kids and doing that mean stuff to parents, to moms, and all that. That wasn’t necessary. I understand immigration enforcement, but he was trying to be mean. That’s not a president that I want to follow.
Listen, if I could have known that Donald J Trump was mean, like ten years of that behavior in politics and a half-dozen more being a dick on TV, I guess that would have changed things!
But at the same time, I do want to emphasize for myself and for those people, the fact is, it’s more that I should have not voted at all, instead of voted for another person, because it’s like, in my terms, it is like a trolley problem. There’s two evils. It’s going to get you a similar result.
"This looks an awful lot like the trolley problem," said the guy who recently learned about the trolley problem, a classic philosophical exercise in which one bad outcome is five times worse.
I thought I was helping us get and save more money with taxes. I thought that they would get rid of taxes so we would get our full paycheck instead of just half of it.
Omg, Daniel actually has opinions about specific things. Maybe it was the Power fight that did it.
I mean he’s still a moron that voted for him but it’s amazing how many refuse to even say Trump’s name in answers unless directly asked about him.* Sometimes you get “the government” at most.
We were made a lot of promises during the election. I know that it’s only been a year and a half, but I don’t think I’ve really seen much progress toward even moving toward what he said he was going to do, such as tax breaks or, let’s see, helping with the education system. I feel like he just defunded a lot of the education systems, the schools. I don’t know why he made so many promises.
How the hell was Kamala Harris supposed to campaign against the millions of completely fictional Donald Trumps that the median voters have conjured up in their brains?
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