To think Trump couldn’t be the better option.

[Friedeggs9876]

Republicans - congratulations on your win today…To Trump supporters and non voters, please help me understand. I’m reaching out from a place of genuine respect and curiosity, and I hope my questions will be taken in this spirit. I’m really interested in hearing about your perspective and understanding the reasons behind your decision to vote for Donald Trump over Kamala Harris in this election. Or perhaps you decided to actively withhold your vote because you couldn’t vote red - in which case I’d be interested to hear your reasons for doing so.

Here are some points I’ve picked up on IG and in the news, and I’d love your insights on these:

1. U.S. Policy in Gaza

Lots of people seem concerned about the Biden-Harris administration’s approach to the conflict in Gaza, with some believing that Trump would take steps to end what many people view as the awful injustices happening there. I can see how this issue is deeply painful and personal for many people. However, I wonder if the U.S. position might be more influenced by larger financial and diplomatic interests that would remain steady regardless of which party holds power.

1. Quality of Life Under Different Administrations

• I’ve also heard that life seemed better for many Americans during Trump’s first term, whereas the Biden-Harris administration has been associated with more economic hardships. To this, I’d suggest that some of the difficulties we’ve faced recently - such as inflation, rising interest rates, and oil prices - might have been influenced by global factors beyond any one administration’s control, such as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

1. Character and legal issues -

I’m curious about voters’ perspectives on Trump’s recent convictions and legal issues, including charges of fraud and sexual assault. How do these issues impact - if at all - your view of him as a candidate? I’m genuinely interested in understanding how his supporters weigh these factors and whether they feel these issues affect his ability to lead.

1. The environment and project 2025 -

I’d love to hear thoughts from voters on Trump’s environmental policies and, in particular, on the objectives of Project 2025. As I understand it, the project seeks to roll back regulations on climate policies, aiming for increased energy independence and industrial growth. For those who supported Trump, how do you weigh these environmental decisions and the potential impacts on climate change against economic or other policy benefits? This project is also set to have a massively detrimental impact on women’s rights and that of the LGBQT+ community, restricting women’s rights to reproductive health, workplace protections and equality to name a few. As a Trump supporter how do you feel about how these policies might affect your family and loved ones? I’d love to understand how these issues are prioritised among his supporters.

If you’re comfortable sharing, I’d be grateful to hear your thoughts on these or any other reasons that helped guide your decision. My intention here is to listen and learn, not to argue, and I hope this post will open an honest and respectful conversation. Thanks in advance to anyone who chooses to respond!

There are plenty of people on the right who believe exactly what you do when it comes to global warming.

He hasn't been found guilty of rape.

Op go on sky news.

Someone who studies all this said at the end of the day they simply trusted trump more with eccomics and that's that.
It literally "trumped" everything else.

It was sexual abuse with the added bonus that his defamation claim against her for saying he raped her was thrown out, thus meaning that she was right. Whilst I concede the point, it is still like saying that he did it within the bounds of the US legal system.

It's a right wing tendency to dismiss global warming and not want to implement changes to rectify it as it costs money and means regulation.

No they just live in the real world and don't think it's worth wrecking our economy when we are a tiny percentage of the world's carbon and China etc are carrying on regardless and laughing at us whole we export all our manufacturing to them and create more global warming shipping goods we could have made ourselves .

It's a left wing tendency to think that paying extra money to the Government will stop climate change.

The essence here is whether you believe that the climate change we are experiencing currently is a natural event (the climate has changed numerous times before mammals existed, let alone humans and changed as little as 5000 years ago) or it's a man-made climate change.

The problem as been all the scare-mongering, I'm 53 and the arctic ice should be long gone, same for the polar bears, see levels haven't risen (They are building new airports in the Maldives) and the hole in the ozone layer isn't a thing anymore.

Are we being scammed?

Well, now President Trump is back in , they clearly won't be worrying about climate change.
It'll be ' drill , baby , drill ' from now on.

We did away with CFCs 30+ years ago, which helped the Ozone layer.

There’s a really interesting approach to personal responsibility- on the one hand, small state, let people look after themselves. On the other, climate issues can’t be resolved at a personal level so let the companies and Governments sort it.

A yogurt company saved 145 tons of plastic a year by getting rid of plastic lids. Nothing I do comes remotely close to that. What’s the point in using a bamboo toothbrush?

It depends on whether or not you believe the science.

I don't think people on the left think that handing money to the government will stop climate change. I believe they want the government to introduce changes, using that money, to help prevent global warming.

That means increased regulation which the right don't like because it decreases profit and profit is king. Profit is more important than clean waterways and clean air.

Yes, a child rapist felon who has been bankrupt more than once is exactly what the country needs.

Given the fact that our Governments continually lie to us and only approved agencies are employed to give us "the science"

I'm not sure I believe it entirely and in all honesty, I'm more likely to believe we're being scammed.

I think Americans are much more open about their pursuit of wealth than we are. Money talk was always treated as vaguely distasteful in Britain. The Americans I know are completely unabashed about money being their priority. This makes sense because life is very harsh there for the poor and sick. There is very little safety net BECAUSE they don't want to pay taxes. It's dog eat dog with a few local churches providing aid. I was stunned at how keen American friends are on Trump. They treat him like the Messiah.

That's also the best description I've seen of JD Vance. He benifited from a lot of socialist policies in childhood/early adulthood including college after being in the army and being accepted to law school but he is all for pulling the ladder up behind him as far as I can see. And quite why someone that's written a book detailing the childhood he experienced - although there are questions about the validity of it too-seems to have such a poor view of women and that everyone should have children I don't understand.

He hasn't been convicted of rape, let alone what you've written.

This from Twitter gives some good reasons
https://twitter.com/babybeginner/status/1854179213399502850?s=19

If you're not on Twitter:

*I know a lot of people who voted for Trump. Let me tell you their reasons.

They wanted a return to normalcy. Gender ideology is just too out there. They want to protect women and children.

The economy has been disastrous for them. They didn’t have a cushion to absorb the inflation. They are cutting out everything in their lives just to afford food. And some are cutting that out. Their lives have gotten very small. When they tried to tell you, they were told they shouldn’t splurge on things like a frozen pizza.

They see people coming illegally into this country and being handed stuff. Their stuff. Their money is being handed over. They have nothing. They watch as others are just handed more than they have.

They can’t afford rent and don’t know what to do. More people fighting for the same housing units makes prices rise.

They see a frightening turn towards censorship. They value the first amendment. Remember, it’s very important.

They are so tired of being lied to and called terrible names. Every time the mainstream media made up a story to make people hysterical they rolled their eyes. This pushed more and more people away. They stopped having any faith in the media. A firing squad? Really? 🙄

They feel the hysteria is toxic and frightening. Again they want this all to calm down.

They watch as political protests are punished for only one side.

They see crime running rampant.

They see the people who try to protect us from crime being punished. The criminals go free to re-offend.

Essentially, they want their children to be healthy, they want their family to be fed, they don’t want endless war, they want things to be fair, they want the bad guys punished and the good guys appreciated, they want to protect women and children.

I hope if you are frightened today you will hear me. I hope I can help you see that things are not dire. I hope I can help you see that these were regular everyday folks who want regular everyday things. Food, clothing, shelter, privacy, respect for boundaries.

That’s it. Just those things.

Peace.*

Kamala was the establishment, the incumbent government. A perception that under trump people did well, the economy was doing well, and people had a reason to be proud of the future.
The democrats perception of assuming of course women will vote for women, the blacks will vote for a democrat, the Latinos will match to our tune because they jolly well should know what's good for them.
Gaza - for some a big issue for the average person - not worth our money spending on people who hate us just because.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/07/donald-trump-rape-language-e-jean-carroll

He is a rapist.

Thank you for this. I obviously don’t know how true it is that Trump is the saviour in all of this but they read like compelling reasons.

I know fuck all about US politics so I really appreciate the OPs post. I too was hoping for some understandable reasons why Trump has been voted in. Someone said upthread that there is ‘no point in trying to understand’ Trump voters. That makes me pretty sad to be honest. Why wouldn’t you want to at least try to understand the view points of a cohort of people who have just done something that you might find abhorrent?
I, for one, certainly want to understand it!

The only reason I could come up with before reading this thread was that the left have gone so far at this point with being so illiberal in their attempt at liberalism that the general public can no longer stomach it. It’s a counter culture - people running to the right to try and balance out just how far left the left have gone.

I would have considered myself left wing a few years ago. I’ve gone right of centre now, if anything, because the far left scares me!

Wordle spoiler:

The way the letters fell today made my last two words TRUMP, TRULY. I mentally added ??!!

Then on The Chase there was a question for which he was the answer... it was something like 'Whose first wife claimed he slept with a copy of Hitler's speeches under his pillow?'

Thanks for that. I'm trying to understand it too, and I thought that post seemed a very simple, even heartfelt explanation for it. I hope it was made in good faith, but sometimes the truth is much more simple than we think...

Even it Trump isn’t the answer for them (and I have honestly no idea if either of them are!) it seems fear is driving people to try and effect drastic change. I wonder if there is some truth to the adage that in prosperous times, people can afford to lean to the left but in harsher times, people go right. Look at the circumstances leading up to the Nazi party being elected!
Not that I am saying the two situations are the same. I don’t know enough about Trump to be able to confidentially compare him to Hitler of course. Just comparing desperate times!

Yeah. That was me. I DON'T see any point "trying to understand" voters whose hatred for immigrants and whose racism and desire to control women's bodies lead them to vote for a convicted criminal who "grabs them by the p*ssy."

There are a lot of shitty people in the world who support shitty people is all I need to understand.

But that isn’t their motivation.

They are voting for something else we don’t understand but it’s so important that the things you mentioned are incidental.

Now I’m not in US, but I’d have had a quandary. Democrats are pushing trans ideology good and hard, and the transing of children and women’s rights are really important to me.
Trump is obviously hideous for women’s rights but he’s against trans ideology.

However for me the dilemma was resolved by considering democracy. Trump is not democratic. I thought holding my nose and voting democrat would preserve democracy for future arguing about trans ideology. Looks like other people have come to a different conclusion.