A lot of educated people helped put Trump in office back in 2016. Many of us quickly realized the gravity of our mistake, but here's the thought process and influences that went into that initial decision process.
I'm Japanese and I became a naturalized citizen around Trump's presidency. I remember people in Japan thought his election was a joke. I never voted for Trump and never would because he is a national security risk, can easily be manipulated, bad foreign policy, etc. I definitely understand his appeal in 2016. People wanted nothing to do with your typical politician and Hilary Clinton was such a terrible choice for the DNC to put forward. Like many people now, I scratch my head how people are voting for him after the insurrection, convictions, and becoming a talking piece for conspiracy in America. Personally, I prefer a politician that has actually been doing politics for decades. Someone who has gotten formal education and worked their way up in the positions. I feel you get true experience to lead a country that way. The problem is a lot of people don't understand how the government works and why you'd want someone who is trained.
Which is wild that people don't see it as necessary to have experience for the role of president when an employer at a damn retail store often wants some kind of experience.
People just didn't realize electing a known con-man, someone who was a terrible businessman man all his life. Shouldn't be giving the responsibility to be POTUS. we got lucky people realized and voted him out. Yet like a nightmare, you can't escape he came back and he's selling and promising nothing but hate division. I only hope this time we can hold him accountable.
People just didn't realize electing a known con-man, someone who was a terrible businessman man all his life. Shouldn't be giving the responsibility to be POTUS. we got lucky people realized and voted him out. Yet like a nightmare, you can't escape he came back and he's selling and promising nothing but hate division. I only hope this time we can hold him accountable.
Sec. Clinton was perhaps the most experienced candidate of my 65 years, but such an entitled, unlikable person! If she and the DNC had been inclusive of the progressive Bernie supporters instead of treating like idiot children, she may well have won the election.
Great video! For the life of me, I don't understand why people keep saying, "we just didn't know how bad he would be...." I wasn't really that involved in politics until 2016. When he was elected, I knew Pandora's box had been opened. The dread I felt in my soul was frightening! Maybe me, being a black woman who is sensitive to certain behaviors, made it clear as day what was to come if he ever got in office. It just surprises me that so many people who voted for him are sooooooo surprised by what he did to our beloved country!!!
Thanks, and sorry 😞. It is impossible for Democrats to fathom the disdain that Republicans held for Hillary Clinton. And in our normal system of government, Trump should never have been able to do what he did. If he even tried, Congress should have thrown him out. But the GOP refused to do so, and that is just something that many of us never contemplated.
@tomworthjr Thank you for that insightful response to my comment. I definitely agree Hillary wasn't a particularly likable character, but I was totally unaware of the amount of disdain people held for her until I delved deeper into politics. I'm just so glad that people are starting to see him for who he really is! I just pray it's enough to keep him out of office! This has gone way beyond party loyalty. I'm in NC, and I'm doing everything in my power, donating, door knocking, signing up to work at the polls for every shift I could spare from work to make it happen for Kamala. It's gonna be a crazy few weeks, but at least in the end, I can say I did everything I could to save our country!
So right you are. I'm not black but I was horrified by Trump with his Nazi-like rallies and "Lock him up" cries and that so many pple wanted him to be president. I could not believe it. I saw this coming, however, and got out decades ago.
I've never understood that either. Trump, and the person he is, has been known for decades. Nothing about his behavior or the chaos and regression he brought should be any surprise to anyone.
@@graciefreebush394 The electoral college assures equal representation of all 50 states, and prevents 5 cities from dictating to all Americans. We are a Constitutional Republic, not a Democracy. The President is not chosen by popular vote as is the way many Communist nations operate.
A family history of very wealthy Dallas, Texas relatives who would never consider voting for a Democrat even though they came from poor families historically. They toughed it out to become wealthy but now their intent is to be exclusive as if in a private excellent Republican club: you always hear them claim “not our people”. To me this is both wry and sad.
I know folks like this too (who happen to be politically Conservative). Worked their way up via their own hard work (but also with the help of others and government/societal support systems -- which they conveniently ignore, saying they "pulled themselves up from nothing by their own bootstraps") and, now that they've got theirs, they don't support maintaining the same assistances so that other people can benefit from them the same way they did. I agree with you; it's very sad.
Demagogues are easy to spot and usually dangerous, but for some of those those demagogues appeals to something deep within them that they previously did not want to admit about themself hence they find some means to excuse and justify their support of that obviously dangerous person. I pointed this out to a very close friend and she found every excuse and justification under the sun to deny who and what he was and is.
Thank you again! Great, thoughtful, insightful content! My husband, an educated computer network engineer, voted for Trump in 2016. He saw the error in his reasoning, which was almost identical to yours, and righted course! Thankfully! So many neoconservatives have. 200+ conservatives, 700 national conservative security analysts, George Will AND Bill Kristol! Along with 40 former cabinet members for Trump. The tide is changing but my Fox Propaganda watching friends, still don’t see it nor believe it. I feel there’s a change and I’m pessimistically hopeful. Also, appreciate your honesty of how you changed your opinion!
If a person...an " educated person".....votes for trump---any PROOF of education should be questioned. " I'm educated" flies right out the window. Vote HARRIS or it's over.
If a person...an " educated person".....votes for harris---any PROOF of education should be questioned. " I'm educated" flies right out the window. Vote STEIN or it's over.
Totally wrong. In my family we have top class lawyers, a MENSA member, doctors and teachers and nurses who all support Trump. They just don't give a shit about America or Americans. It's that simple.
For my brother, a lawyer, he said he only listened to what he wanted to hear, ignored/denied what he wanted, and voted based on his feelings. Seems like an odd approach for a lawyer, however, that's how he reads/follows the Bible, so it's not all that surprising.
I don’t think anyone expected him to be a turn coat that would lead a people to a jan 6 insurrection, heartless racist man. After everything he has put this country through never admitted he did anything wrong which is the definition of narcissist 😦
I did. After he was elected and before he even took office, I told everyone he wouldn't just leave office. That he is incapable of accepting being voted out. I am a former Republican. My Democrat friends were the calm ones, reinforcing the balance of power. I kept telling them that means nothing to this man. Sadly, we all know I was on the money.
I really appreciate this post. I have friends today who are still on board. Highly educated friends who should know better but still believe the election was stolen. One is a CPA, which makes me laugh. We are in the same field, and both of us are subject to audit at any time. She absolutely should know better. I don't understand it. I remember the war on Christmas garbage. When I graduated from college 35 years ago, I worked at a software company and was the one to order Christmas cards. I opted to get generic holiday cards, because, in high tech, we had a lot of people who didn't celebrate. It just seemed polite. I was never being political. I don't know when politeness became political heresy.
Wow - even some accountants are falling for him still, after all these years? I wish someone could just pull the plug on some of those propaganda channels, but we are stuck with them.
@@tomworthjr sadly yes. Among my most trumpy friends are a stockbroker with a degree in political science and a financial analyst from a large tech firm in NC. I don't understand it. 😕
Hillary lied about being shot at in Bosnia. I was in Bosnia. She voted for the war in Iraq too. As an Iraq veteran who saw soldiers die over there that mattered to me. Further trump was the only person who called GW Bush out saying "bush did not keep the country safe for 8 years as 9/11 happened on his watch." That was huge to me, as I had been saying this very line to anybody who would listen. Yet it always seem to fall on deaf ears. So anyway I am ashamed to admit I voted for trump. First time in my life I have voted Republican. I did not look into his past and thought he would not be that bad. I was wrong, and kick myself everyday for that vote. If I could change that vote and vote for Hillary I would.
NO EXCUSE. People WITH education SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER. “GUARD AGAINST THE IMPOSTURE OF PRETENDED PATRIOTISM.” GEORGE WASHINGTON “As mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protection of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality." George Washington “Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.” George Washington - letter to Edward Newenham, October 20, 1792 “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.” Justice Robert H. Jackson, 1940 Supreme Court Justice and Chief US Prosecutor at Nuremberg Minersville School District v. Gobitis SOCIAL SAFETY NET: Jefferson's expanded view on poverty: “I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind. The descent of property of every kind therefore to all the children, or to all the brothers and sisters, or other relations in equal degree is a politic measure, and a practicable one. Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour and live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation. If we do not the fundamental right to labour the earth returns to the unemployed.” Thomas Jefferson “Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone, and so let your hand give in proportion to your purse.” -George Washington “To provide employment for the poor, and support for the indigent, is among the primary, and, at the same time, not least difficult cares of the public authority.” James Madison, in James Madison (1867). “1816-1828”, p.162 “He who never was hungered may argue finely on the subjection of his appetite, and he who was never distressed may harangue as beautifully on the power of principle. But poverty, like grief, has an incurable deafness which never hears. The oration loses all its edge, and ‘To be or not to be’ becomes the only question.” - Thomas Paine “I consider our relations with others as constituting the boundaries of morality... Nature [has] implanted in our breasts a love of others, a sense of duty to them, a moral instinct, in short, which prompts us irresistibly to feel and to succor their distresses... The Creator would indeed have been a bungling artist had he intended man for a social animal without planting in him social dispositions. It is true they are not planted in every man, because there is no rule without exceptions; but it is false reasoning which converts exceptions into the general rule." --Thomas Jefferson to T. Law, 1814. * It is a duty certainly to give our sparings to those who want; but to see also that they are faithfully distributed and duly apportioned to the respective wants of those receivers." --Thomas Jefferson to Megear, 1823. * "The only orthodox object of the institution of government is to secure the greatest degree of happiness possible to the general mass of those associated under it." --Thomas Jefferson to M. van der Kemp, 1812. IMMIGRATION: "I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong." -George Washington “The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges." -George Washington Neither the general government of the union, nor those of the individual states, are ignorant or unobservant of the additional strength and wealth, which accrues to the nation, by the accession of a mass of healthy, industrious, and frugal laborers, nor are they in any manner insensible to the great benefits which this country has derived, and continues to derive, from the influx of such adoptive children from Germany. John Adams to James Monroe, 1819 “America was indebted to immigration for her settlement and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture and the arts.” - James Madison "America is now, I think, the only country of tranquility and should be the asylum of all those who wish to avoid the scenes which have crushed our friends in [other lands]." --Thomas Jefferson to Mrs. Church, 1793. FE 6:289 "It [has] been the wise policy of these states to extend the protection of their laws to all those who should settle among them of whatever nation or religion they might be and to admit them to a participation of the benefits of civil and religious freedom, and... the benevolence of this practice as well as its salutary effects [has] rendered it worthy of being continued in future times." --Thomas Jefferson: Proclamation, 1781. Papers 4:505 The Obligation to Provide Asylum: "Shall we refuse the unhappy fugitives from distress that hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers arriving in this land? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on this globe? The Constitution, indeed, has wisely provided that for admission to certain offices of important trust a residence shall be required sufficient to develop character and design. But might not the general character and capabilities of a citizen be safely communicated to every one manifesting a bona fide purpose of embarking his life and fortunes permanently with us?" --Thomas Jefferson: 1st Annual Message, 1801. ME 3:338
I have yet to hear one person articulate with any degree of coherence how Trump is actually a “master negotiator.” The best excuse for Trump I’ve heard is “I like tax cuts and conservative Supreme Court justices.” Literally that’s it.
Well, clearly he is NOT a master negotiator. But a lot of people fell for that particular lie. The thing that I don’t get is how so many people still do, even eight years later?
We've proved that Americans will tolerate what they claim to detest. We've proved that Americans will vote for a party that is opposed to their fundamental interests - and that's both parties in many cases. In the South, small govt R policies have screwed the working class and helped Big Bidness. But still people vote them in repeatedly, on social issues and the belief in trickle down. And both parties have screwed us at the federal level. I don't know what to do to persuade people to stand up.
Thank you for this take. I had a good friend --an educator with a PhD, with whom I don't speak any more because I could not handle that she voted for Trump. She thought he was a great "businessman." I let it go in 2016, but I occasionally drove her teenager home from school, and the kid kept saying, "Momma says Trumps' gonna make America great again!." Oh, great. I wonder if she's changed her mind by now.
I’ve also talked with people who say Trump is a “great businessman”. I tell them to really look into his history as a businessman. His supposed business acumen is a reality TV myth. Sad that people fell for it, especially when the truth is so readily accessible.
I have a maga sibling. It’s had a terrible impact on our relationship. We barely speak. It’s awful. There’s no getting through to them. None It sickens me.
You certainly did. And you may have also had a very good idea that the entire GOP Congress would completely turn on the Constitution, but I definitely did not see that coming.
You need to watch my taxes video for thoughts on that. I actually love paying my fair share and wish everyone else would. We have far too many tax breaks.
Thanks for explaining your past reasoning for voting for that man. I could never get past the hate & bigotry myself but I'm Mexican American & he targeted my community right away. The Muslim ban hurt & terrified friends of mine. I saw him for who he is when he threw his hat in the ring. I'm just glad that more & more reasonable people are seeing it too.
My brother-in-law is a good businessman and made a lot of money in property and he had my sister now move in the circles of the rich (seven and eight figure incomes) and when I’m visiting with them they usually hold a social gathering of their friends and it’s fascinating to listen to what they say. They are all, 1. very rich and 2) very religious and most voted for Trump in 2016 essentially because of greed and delusions of being self-made. They want an America run on the ‘Golden Rule’ which is that ‘he who has the gold makes the rules’ and it’s close corollary ‘he who has the gold is immune from any rules’. That means they do not believe in the concept of a liberal-social- democracy based on the principle of societal fairness which requires checks and balances to prevent exploitation of the ‘have nots’ by the ‘haves’ and also protects individual freedoms to control ones own body and think and believe what you want. I have learned that the well off want for them (and their businesses) the deconstruction of the regulatory state and the ending of taxes and even some of them the ending of public education. They really think they are rich solely due to their own effort and not the fact that they were aided by living in a society of laws and nurturing. Then on the other hand they are hardline Christians who want a quasi theocracy whereby the only acceptable belief system is what fundamentalist Christians say. All of this is laid out in Project 2025.
When he first started running I was hopeful that he would break the whole rotten gov't and we could start again. It lasted about a week and then I learned he was a trickle down politician that knew everybody that had ever seen the swamp.
I think that so many people looked at Trump and understood that there were parts of him that they didn't like at all, but they thought those were the least important parts of him. For whatever reason - probably my mental health background - I have always understood that these were actually the most fundamental parts of his personality and perspective. Many people understand this better now, but I'm continually shocked by how many people think there's no difference between Trump and Biden. Thank goodness some of them are happier with Harris.
I never understood the attraction of the "reality" shows, which is how he came to fame. It always seemed to highlight the worst in people. And the "greed is good". I was repulsed by him and his type, but I understand the power of propaganda. I am still amazed when I hear someone say "everyone was watching Fox" or "everyone thought there were WMDs in Iraq".
This is a Eurocentric, Christian culture. There was never any reason for it to change. Minorities who adopted our ways tended to do quite well. Trump is not about preserving white supremacy...he is about preserving SANITY. And ironically enough, white folks are the primary loons...Get rid of white liberals, and we'd be in rock solid shape here. Give them any more power, and the nation officially becomes a ghetto(excuse me, guess I should have said 'barrio')...
No, I don’t actually personally know any white supremacists. Or if they are, they would hide it from me because they know I would never associate with them. I was always the “big Obama guy“ even though I did not actually vote for him in either of his elections, I just thought it was a good thing for us to have a Black President when he won. Back then, and really for my whole voting life until 2018 midterms, I was pretty much a single issue, pro life voter. And that was never going to be a Democrat.
What he IS? At first, frankly, he was anybody but Hillary...that's all that mattered...then, 4 years later, he was a president with a great record running against Biden, a long-time acknowledged fool...again, what else do you NEED to know? Now, he's a mythic figure...a veritable folk hero to the real Americans...running against this ridiculous ditz...The people know all they need to know...
"Educated" people; quote-unquote. Even listening to his rallies back in 2016, some contradicted itself such as his ideas on reducing NATO expenditure (basically it would 100% hurt the US troops dollar-for-dollar).
OK, so that is ANOTHER thing that many of us who voted for him in 2016 did not anticipate: that such a high percentage of Americans were, ARE, actually quite racist / white supremacist. I had no idea what the percentage would be, but never would have guessed that it was something close to 40% or whatever. That realization over these past eight years is a particularly tough pill to swallow.
The better question is, why WOULDN'T they? Putting on airs is hardly the same thing as actually being intelligent. Trump understands the real world...life comes down to two things....strength, and luck. Since we have no control over the second, it makes sense to do everything possible to maximize the first. Many modern Americans have no concept of this....but I can assure you, our enemies understand perfectly...
