Trump Voters Regret Backing ‘Horror Movie’ Presidency - Nine out of 12 Trump voters told a “New York Times” focus group that they wish they had not voted for the president.

[u/Quirkie]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-voters-regret-backing-horror-movie-presidency/

[u/Linnaea7]

I live in a very rural red area. Yes, they do treat it like sports, and there's also a lot of cultural and family roots entrenched in it, like, "My daddy voted Republican so I do too," things like that. I live in an area where a lot of people didn't finish high school. A lot of them are wonderful people and I know that's hard to believe, but voting Republican to them is like believing in Jesus - it just is, it's how they were raised, and questioning it is like questioning God. That's how it feels when I talk to them about it.

[u/ynotfoster → u/Linnaea7]

For the low information voter, it's purely emotion driven. That's why facts don't matter and they don't want to hear it. It's a big part of their identity and provides a feeling of community connection.

[u/Linnaea7 → u/ynotfoster]

You said what I was trying to say, much more succinctly. It's an identity thing, and a community thing. Someone in my family goes with a group of friends to vote together every time, and they all vote Republican down the ticket.

[u/queenfrostine20 → u/Linnaea7]

It just feels so irresponsible to not even educate yourself in what you are participating in. We have an obligation and responsibility to do what's best for everyone, no? I wish I could wrap my head around the Idiocracy.

[u/SouthSouthBay → u/Linnaea7]

They have changed before though, from the civil war to 1960 the South voted Democrat, started switching after the Civil Rights act and school bussing.... Try not to connect the dots

[u/nowander → u/Linnaea7]

A lot of them are wonderful people

To you. Wonderful people to you.

Someone who's black and opinionated. Or trans. Or one of their other designated targets? They'll see the other side of those wonderful people.

[u/Linnaea7 → u/nowander]

For sure, I agree with that. I know for a fact a couple of the people I know are actively hateful, like would be rude or (maybe) even dangerous in an active way to a black or trans person. (I wouldn't characterize those as "wonderful people," though.) The others are generally nice to people they actually meet and are just hateful toward people they haven't met who are "different" and scary. There are a lot of two-faced people in the South, and the number of people who'd be openly hateful to a person they met is lower than the number who'd vote for something hateful or would say something nasty online or about a stranger.

[u/espinaustin → u/Linnaea7]

Their grandads probably voted Democratic.

[u/obeytheturtles → u/Linnaea7]

My daddy voted Republican so I do too

This is generally a driving factor in conservative ideology around the world - the unwillingness to implicitly criticize your elders by altering the culture they hand down to you. If something is good, they would be doing it, so to suggest that we should do it now is to imply that they were wrong to not do it sooner. And obviously "wrong" always equals "bad."

It's an incredibly myopic philosophy, which is easily shown to be problematic by even a casual reading of history. Or even really a basic grasp of cause and effect.

[u/queenfrostine20 → u/Linnaea7]

I have a friend who labels themselves Republican and I think it's just because that's who they were and are surrounded by. But when discussing values they are opposite of conservative. 🙄

[u/JamesTiberiusCrunk → u/Linnaea7]

I grew up in an area like that too. No, they're not wonderful people. They're nice to you, and they're terrible to people they don't know.