For what it’s worth, I dont look at it that way. I have a good friend who is a Trump fan and diehard Republican. We have a beer together, occasionally. Our discussions are like this, but not heated in any way. We playfully rib each other, but it’s un a somewhat respectful way. I’d help my friend if he ever needed anything at all.
Now, I don’t know if this particular QT3 discussion is like that, but I just try to imagine it is. That at the end of the day, no matter the divide in mindset, people discussing things like this still sit together and have a beer and say, “man, how about those Bears tonight?!?”
The question is whether there is some political threshold beyond which that collegiality no longer obtains. (Not gonna Godwin… not gonna Godwin… not gonna Godwin… Oh shit I Godwinned)
My brother voted for Trump. It bothered (bothers) me a lot. We had a phone conversation the other day, first time in some months. It was pretty good although I kept trying to steer it off politics. (He’s not a MAGA type… more of an extreme iconoclast who always likes to be in on something the mass of people don’t know or understand.) The emotion I feel most of all is probably puzzlement. I simply cannot understand how any educated person could cast a vote for that person as leader of the so-called free world. But what do I know?
But still supporting trump after all the evil he has done and tried to do, doesn’t that kind of speak to a general lack of morality? I mean, someone could say, “hey I’m a good person and donate time and money to charity, but I still support Hitler.” When someone supports evil, they become an arm of that very evil.
And when someone is a pathological liar, kidnapper, rapist, briber, traiter, misogynist, racist, thief, white nationalist supporter, sexual harasser, and is once again going to attempt to kill people through a slow agonizing death via secession of healthcare - I think we can at this point say trump IS an embodiment of evil.
We have friends who are Republicans, they always try to talk up what great people they are, and then I think about the fact they support an agenda that would take the health insurance from me and every since Cystic Fibrosis sufferer and everyone with pre-existing conditions which would either bankrupt us, or drive us to an early death. Nice people. They call themselves pro-life, but when it comes to those of us with sentience, they suddenly shrug their shoulders as if we are disposable.
We have friends from when I was a kid who are Republicans. I try to set a good example for them in the hopes they will change their minds, but when I look at them, I see the “I got mine” attitude. The, “well if it costs a few thousand people their lives, that’s the price we, I mean you, have to pay”.
This is what it comes down to. My dad caught a thief in action trying to steal his truck. I am glad he is okay because he confronted the guy and the would be thief tried to run him over. He got a picture of the “getaway” vehicle which is also stolen as it is a truck with a Honda Civic plate. The cops showed up within a minute of the fleeing, and would not try and find the thief, had to be pushed into trying to take fingerprints… and he described their attitude as it’s a waste of time so why bother even trying to catch this guy.
My dad is no longer a police is always right, can do no wrong, and why do they keep attacking them fan. And all it took was one instance of him going through something he didn’t like. Everything else he sees, everyone else that had issues… none of that matters at all. He had one bad, not at all at risk of him being shot experience, and now the police are not doing their job, not serving the public, and aren’t trying to catch the bad guys.
True but in my dad’s mind, he’s now the same because the police told them he wasn’t CSI and then didn’t jump in their cars to go get this guy.
The same as the guys who get tased, shot, hand-cuffed, physically beaten or murdered. His experience would be closer to what the actual issue is. Like if the cops showed up, pulled a gun on him, ordered him on the ground and then he got to spend the next 20 minutes explaining he owns the truck and is not the thief, that would be closer and horrific but hey, now my dad knows “exactly” what others are going through.
Yeah see Trump supporters and Republicans are not rare unicorns here. I engage and run into them, all the time. And so far this statement:
This is a common attitude for the haves. And for the have nots it’s closer to I got cheated out of what I am owed, and it’s someone else’s fault, pick any minority group that can usually be slotted into the end of that statement. In the middleish is is a group that isn’t doing great but not doing too poorly and they’re scared of losing what they do have due to, and insert minority group here.
And more often than not, they’re not upfront about it, but if you stick around in the conversation long enough you start hearing things like… those people shouldn’t be able to paint xyz on the side of their truck because of some reason that has to do with a culture they don’t have… and you realize no matter how you ice that cake, underneath of it is, insert minority group here.
And that’s not to say the Democrats don’t have issues too. I am appalled with what comes out of some of their mouths too. But it’s not too sides of the same coin, it’s quite different.
In my head, I completely agree with you. And I hold back during conversations with my coworkers and friend who voted for Trump. I am around others who do not hold back. I’m honestly not sure WHY I hold back, but a huge part of me tries to actively avoid confrontation to the point that even other people having a confrontation bug the crap out of me. I don’t see the point of it. Their opinion will only be swayed when their entire mindset is affected. Something akin to @Nesrie’s father.
This will sound like I’m sympathetic to them, I am not. But I don’t throw them that far under the bus. I don’t actively throw my Trump voting extended family members under the bus either. Each side votes with their heart, and as that saying goes, some times your heart is in the wrong place.
If this nation does a 180 within the next decade, I certainly don’t want to round up the people that voted for Trump and accuse them of a crime. They aren’t supporting Hitler. They probably don’t support half the crap Trump does. But they were fooled into thinking a grade A idiot would be the best choice for our country going forward. They were wrong, but hey, it is their voting right to choose, idiot or not.
But they were fooled because they wanted to be fooled. This is why I am not as forgiving. They wanted an easy way out and the took the first one someone promised would give them that. And they shut their brains off, and they created a list of excuses for why they could do that and still be a “good” person. And more importantly than all of that, they did this because they knew if they were wrong, it would largely cost them nothing. The consequences of these policies, the brunt of that being wrong, was going to be burden and a hardship for other people… and they did not care.
If we do come out of this and can somehow stitch together a nation and somehow strengthen our government held together by used chewing gum and an honor system that is being run by people without honor, they should be thrown under the bus, but being thrown under the bus does not mean lining them again a wall, or throwing them in the street to watch them suffer… no, no that’s what they’re doing. It means shame. It means a lesson learned and a lesson taught, and it means not giving them the benefit of the doubt in the future.
