Why America voted for Trump, a simple, sane summary

[Bippy2024]

This is why Trump won so resoundingly - this is why 72 million Americans voted for him - in one of his voter's own words.

If you choose to monster and slur 72 million people, that's saying a lot about you. Every accusation is a confession.

"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."

https://x.com/babybeginner/status/1854179213399502850

Neither. I believe what the polls tell us. Most people oppose those policies and voted against Harris accordingly.

Trump said that she'd wanted to 'ban private health insurance'

I can't find anything more about that than this statement, where she was talking about transitioning to a socialised healthcare similar. This doesn't suggest she was advocating a ban on private health insurance, but happy to be corrected if you can link to a reliable source.

"At a January 2019 CNN town hall, Harris appeared to fully embrace the system, telling a questioner from the audience she would be willing to cut out private insurers as part of the transition. She argued that insurers are motivated by profit, dump paperwork on patients and delay care, saying, “Let’s eliminate all of that. Let’s move on.”

73% of agricultural workers are immigrants. Half of this number is undocumented.

You want 30% of all agricultural workers to be sacked?

And replaced by whom?

https://reason.com/2024/10/05/flip-flopping-toward-freedom/

Harris' positions on some matters, especially health care policy, moved around a lot. Asked on the Democrats' presidential debate stage in June 2019 who would eliminate private insurance, Harris raised her hand. On MSNBC's Morning Joe the next day, she said she would not do that. The plan she eventually introduced was something of an everything-to-everyone scheme, allowing private insurance to coexist alongside a Medicare-for-anyone-who-wants-it option of questionable feasibility.

So during the debate, she said she'd ban private health insurance. Then, less than 24 hours later, she waffled. Then she eventually allowed it. All no doubt driven by the polls, not any real conviction on the issue.

One thing is certain. The USA never sees anyone who is remotely “far left”. They just don’t. They see the odd left of centre politician.

Actually, we see them quite clearly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Socialists_of_America

The DSA is a federated organization with local chapters and dues-paying memberships. The DSA's stated goal is to participate in "fights for reforms today that will weaken the power of corporations and increase the power of working people", with a long-term aim of social ownership of production as state-owned enterprises, worker cooperatives, or a planned economy.[15][21][22] To this end, it has endorsed candidates for political office and led various organizing campaigns for labor organizing,[23][24][4] public electricity,[25][4] public housing,[26] tenants unions,[27][28] abortion rights,[29][30][31] and support for anti-Zionism and Palestinian statehood,[32][33] among others.[15][34]

Nah! That’s not mainstream politics. No Corbyn for you! Or a Michael Foot. A tiny bit socialist maybe but not in a mainstream way. What candidate for President would get anywhere with socialist policies? No chance.

It is simple Biden did the democrats no favours. Id be more worried about what Trump has in store because I think what he did to the supreme court will soon be replicated across America. God help anyone that stood up to Trump because he's raging and there will be no hiding.

There's going to be a witch hunt for anything that he doesn't like...he's going to ban abortion across all states, universities are going to be hit for promoting anything left of Trump....I'm afraid this is facism on the rise and he's got five years and in those five years he will make it impossible to elect anyone other than a republican hardliner.

If you have a government job be prepared to lose your job, if you work for a news outlet that has criticised trump be prepared to be shut down....and backing him up is the richest man in the world in charge of the US biggest media outlet.... I think America has just voted to end the right to choose.

And the war criminals in Israel are going to get American backing to attack Iran. Biden is a bloody idiot because he couldn't see that Israel plan all along was to destabilise that region and sabotage Bidens election chances.

I'm sorry the democrats deserved to lose because they failed to tackle the issues of the day.

Bernie did pretty well in 2016. So well that Hillary had to deploy some tricks to rig the primary against him.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders_2016_presidential_campaign

You are living in a dream world if you think America would elect anything close to socialism....not a chance...they are rabidly right wing and it's about to shift to far right and facism

@dubsie I think that’s possible but the Democrats need policies to win over many of their own supporters! No Democrat will be elected who is a socialist.

The last time I looked the Presidency was 4 years. However Republicans have total control of both houses and the White House and inevitably the Supreme Court. We might think we prefer an elected second house in the UK but actually we are better served by the Lords and certainly by an independent judiciary. We need more people to see the dangers the US system can bring.

@MissConductUS

You link to Reason.com, described as "an American libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation, with the tagline "Free Minds and Free Markets"

That's like me linking you to an article in Socialist Worker in support of a criticism I was making of Donald Trump.

Can you not find a better, more reliable source?

@MissConductUS

Anyway, two more questions for you - one I've already asked another poster who hasn't answered - Trump's plan to remove undocumented workers would result in the agricultural sector losing approximately 30% of its workforce. I asked who would replace these workers. Any thoughts? Previously Trump talked about undocumented workers taking 'black jobs'. Is that the idea - that these low paid agricultural jobs could be filled by black Americans?

The second question was about the reasons you believe motivated people to vote for Trump - inflation, the border, crime etc. For 8 out of 10 black people in the USA, and for 9 out of 10 black women, this wasn't enough motivation to vote for Trump. For the majority of white voters it was.

Why do you think this is the case?

@MissConductUS

Actually one last question - Project 2025. Have you read it? Your thoughts?

That moment in the debate was widely reported. Do you think the first link I posted just imagined the whole thing?

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/kamala-harris-walks-back-her-hand-moment-health-insurance-democratic-n1024756

I haven't read it. It's the product of a far right think tank and covered a rather bewildering range of issues. As far as I know, it was never endorsed or adopted by anyone in the Trump campaign, and Trump himself has disavowed it on at least two occasions.

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/22/g-s1-19202/trump-project-2025-border-immigration

My goodness, so many questions! 😁

Trump can't and won't deport all undocumented workers. There are simply too many of them, and the business that rely on them will push back hard in Congress. He'll deport those with a history of criminal arrests or convictions, which is a much lower number, and declare victory, in typical Trumpian fashion, then move onto something else.

Trump got a bigger share of the black vote than he did the last time. As to why they were less motivated to vote for him than white people as a group, I'd say it was down to the fact that African Americans historically vote overwhelmingly for democrats, and those loyalties do not shift easily or quickly.

@MissConductUS
"I haven't read it. It's the product of a far right think tank and covered a rather bewildering range of issues. As far as I know, it was never endorsed or adopted by anyone in the Trump campaign, and Trump himself has disavowed it on at least two occasions."

'We have nothing to do with Project 2025'

This is from Forbes (so not a left wing source):

"Key Facts:

Project 2025 is a multi-pronged effort spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, with help from other conservative organizations, aimed at preparing for the next conservative administration—namely a second Trump administration—which has primarily garnered criticism for its 900-page policy blueprint proposing a total overhaul of the executive branch, which was first released last year.
"Trump publicly cheered the Heritage Foundation’s policy work in the past, saying in 2022—before Project 2025’s agenda was released—that the organization was “going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do … when the American people give us a colossal mandate.”

"Project 2025 Briefing: Roberts told the Post in April he had briefed Trump on Project 2025, saying he “personally [has] talked to President Trump about Project 2025 … because my role in the project has been to make sure that all of the candidates who have responded to our offer for a briefing on Project 2025 get one from me.”

JD Vance: Roberts has even closer ties to Vance, with the Heritage leader telling Politico in March the senator was “absolutely going to be one of the leaders—if not the leader—of our movement” and saying after Vance was named as Trump’s running mate that the Heritage Foundation had been privately “really rooting” for him to be the pick.

Kevin Roberts’ Book: Vance also wrote the foreword to Roberts’ forthcoming book outlining “a peaceful ‘Second American Revolution’” for conservative voters, in which Vance reportedly quotes Roberts as saying, “It’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets” and praises the Heritage Foundation as “the most influential engine of ideas for Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump.”

Project 2025 Authors: More than 140 former members of the Trump administration are involved with Project 2025, according to CNN, including six of his former Cabinet secretaries—and several people authored chapters whom the Post reports Trump has suggested could be in his second administration, including former advisor Peter Navarro, former Housing Secretary Ben Carson and former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller."

Maybe you should read it.

You are not listening, Trump is now in charge and in complete control of both houses and the supreme court. Ill be amazed if America preserves it's democracy after this....so this idea that the democrats will get another chance is rather speculative

Trump had control of Congress in his first term, appointed three Supreme Court justices, and somehow the country survived. We've even had elections.

Any court controlled by politicians is problematic. Keep the uk away from such madness! Be aware we have people here who think the courts should have politically appointed judges.

Goodness, that's crazy.
An economy that depends on such a huge number of people who have no voting rights (i.e. undocumented immigrants). And I understand the number is growing?
That's the first time I've seen anything that could explain why voters said they thought Democrats were a threat to democracy.

Yes, basic supply and demand means that immigration suppresses wages. That's not in dispute.

The rhetoric went beyond that though. Any evidence that immigrants were responsible for the suppression of cats and dogs?

Trump has appointed Tom Homan to be in charge of the US' borders and the deportation of illegal immigrants. News reports in the US are saying that children born in the US to any illegal immigrants will also be deported regardless of the children’s rights under the Constitution.

@DdraigGoch I find Donald Trump revolting and also really weird. So I'm not trying to defend his rants about illegal immigrants.
Voters with incomes less than $50,000 voted overwhelmingly for Trump (and those with incomes over $50,000 for Harris). Do you think that's because they struggle to pay the bills and so want changes that might lead to wage increase, or because they're worried about immigrants eating cats and dogs?
I'm dubious about the narrative that it's definitely because they're bigoted and stupid and don't want Rover to be eaten.