Anonymous #1 9w

Hell no. I never belonged to the MAGA cult, and I viewed him as a barely tolerable evil, who would be paralyzed by congress of blue. That didn’t happen. Right now, about half of the cult has broken off from their false messiah and would sooner die than see him keep his foothold on politics.

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Anonymous OP 9w

I feel you. I was pretty right-leaning myself at one point but never supported Trump

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Anonymous #1 9w

Even those who voted for him, often just did so because the opposing candidate had views that were, frankly, unconscionable to them, or out of a severe moral outrage, at the media, at the prominence of the “alt left” in higher offices, etc., not because they wanted to. I fell into that category. And I have not forgiven myself for it. I will, maybe; some day. When my loved ones aren’t suffering because of my vote.

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Anonymous #2 9w

The idea of Trump as the American Messiah is disturbing, and always has been to me, as a religious person. I voted for him, but that never meant supporting him. It meant that I believed that he was as not capable of doing the damage he could do as I was hopeful the moderates of the party, mostly in the federal government, would keep him on a leash. Especially after Dobbs. Trump was not a messiah, but he was insanely persuasive as long as you were listening to him. Like a hypnotist.

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Anonymous OP 9w

Further, a lot of his voters were more scared of the alternative than supporting him. They weren’t part of the cult that had been growing. They never were and didn’t want to be. January 6th awoke many members of the cult as well. This created the second wave of “reluctant voters” that stayed out of fear of that happening this January 6th, and out of fear of the opposition. Finally, many voted because the Democratic party swung hard left over the last 4 years.

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Anonymous OP 9w

That swing left many moderates behind. That swing was also by and large in the higher levels of the party, facilitated by the media and fearmongering of the right after J6. This made people defect to the right. The Trump cult of true loyalists was never as large as it seemed. Many of us pretended out of fear. Many of us voted reluctantly. And many of us just never pretended in the first place.

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Anonymous OP 9w

All that said, it isn’t like I never felt the pull. Trump is a very skilled speaker, blending the fanaticism of populists and authoritarians of the 20th century, with psychology and appealing to the very finance oriented and individualist masses, with very controlled head movements, gestures, and even tone and voice volume. He is a hypnotist, and it makes him VERY persuasive to anyone listening to him, passed only by his politeness to someone’s face.

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Anonymous #3 8w

Some people might call it a wasted vote, but I was really happy to hear my friend who’s recently become a very active Christian say that he didn’t vote Trump and instead voted for a third party candidate he believed would be the best fit for President. He used to be VERY deep into the right pipeline and always did his research, so once he got out of that pipeline he’s been doing really well. He was never stupid or anything like the insults people often like to throw, it was just very easy for a-

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Anonymous #3 8w

-any young person to fall into either side’s pipeline if you were around middle-high school age during the 2016 election and the following years

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Anonymous #3 8w

For clarification, when I think of “conservative” or “liberal”, I think of how it applies to the constitution instead of party affiliation. Conservatives believe it doesn’t need as much amending to remain functional (thus the “conservative” view of the constitution), and liberals think that as time progresses, some things need to be amended since their original interpretation could be different now and in the future (thus a “liberal” progressive view of the constitution)

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Anonymous #3 8w

And I think viewing it that way makes it much easier to have conversations about its interpretation and potential amendments to be made for the benefit of everyone. Like former presidential candidates said, we don’t disagree on the goals of the country, we just all have differing ideas of how to make it happen

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Anonymous OP 8w

Huh, makes sense. Thanks for explaining.

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Anonymous #2 8w

Of course. This also explains to an extent why Trump is so persuasive when you see him speaking. Sound bites of him, not so much, nor short clips. It’s everything about how he conducts himself. He has a natural charisma that most politicians simply lack. Biden, Hillary, and Kamala simply don’t have it. That is why Trump persuades people easier than they do.

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Anonymous #3 8w

I think the issue with that framework is that it talks PAST the current common usage.

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Anonymous #4 8w

I left the Democratic Party because I feel so frustrated. I feel like the Dems aren’t doing enough about the total shitshow in the White House and aren’t unifying. They’re very disjointed. I am sick of choosing between the lesser of two evils and any political party thinking they’re guaranteed my vote. They’re not. The whole point of a democracy is that they need a good enough candidate that they can EARN it.

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Anonymous OP 8w

“Moral outrage” and then voting for that guy lmao. Your morals are fucked

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Anonymous #7 8w

Maybe not, but people also show a sort of palpable hatred to all conservatives in recent years, even those who either supported Trump at one time, or who never did. I understand that they are angry though

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Anonymous #4 8w

They could have. And consciously chose not to, but to enable and facilitate, to push his agenda even if they opposed it or spoke against it

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