I was attending a veteran’s event last week and ran into some vets who I spoke with before, they decided to sit down by me and start up a conversation, a political one, of course. All three had been ardent Trump supporters but are now off the Trump train. Generally, I don’t waste my time on Trumpers as you can’t reason with them with facts or stats, so I usually just don’t engage. I do like to ask ex-Trumpers, what was the red line for you? They all had their reasons.
One of them, their grandson lost his SNAP benefits, the other, his daughter was let go by the VA. The last one, his health insurance is going up by 500%. I listened to all their stories, and I guess they thought I was going to be sympathetic to their causes. Unfortunately, this story doesn’t have a happy ending.
I reminded them, calling veterans losers & suckers, grabbing women by the p___y, countless sexual assault accusations, trying to overthrow an election and inciting a riot, attacking the press, storing classified records in a restroom, giving the top 1% another tax cut, tariffs destroying the economy, none of that bothered you. Now, things are hitting close to home and now you’re off the wagon. I responded with the empathy I thought this information deserved, which was none. “He told you he was going to do all this, but you believed the lying, racist, bigot, moronic businessman and his tall tales and voted for him anyway, you got what you voted for! Thanks for your attention on this matter and have a nice day, as I walked off into the afternoon! That one made me chuckle!
I never try to change people’s political views. Bill Maher said on his show last week, “when you try to change people’s political views, you don’t, you just change their view of you”, I agree with that sentiment, but I always like to remind Trumpers, you don’t get to separate the message from the messenger. All the racism, bigotry, all the name calling, the constant lying, you’re on board with it. You can hide behind your so-called religious beliefs and crucifixes but in the end, you support the guy who supports Vladimir Putin, who called the King of Saudi Arabia a “great guy” even though he ordered the murder of a journalist, who wants his own rule of law, not the US Constitution, and ran around with Jeffery Epstein, a known child trafficker and wrapped his arm around him like he was his best friend, that’s who you support.