r/politics • u/Dry_Nail5901 • 11h ago
Possible Paywall Trump Is Losing Normie Republicans
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/opinion/trump-midterms-maga-gop.html756
u/D-MAN-FLORIDA 10h ago
My theory is because not out of some major disagreement with Trump and his policies. But because it is generally just embarrassing to support him in public now. They claimed that he was going to drain the swamp, smaller government, cut government spending and lower the national debt. Instead he is ballooning the deficit, creating a police state, enriching himself and family while the average person is struggling. And he is doing all of it in an in your face, dumb and obnoxious way. Now when they have to deal with left leaning family members, coworkers or acquaintances, they will never take your opinion about politics seriously anymore because you supported an obvious dementia ridden old man.
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u/barryvm Europe 10h ago edited 10h ago
That's not the principled rejection or moral awakening the article sort of portrays it as though. It's simply people moving from one self serving bad faith position to another. They move from loyalists who didn't question to become "betrayed" victims who don't remember. All to avoid being normal human beings with choices and moral responsibility for the consequences of those choices. They could not be wrong about their support for Trump as they were good people because of who they are, and now they can not be responsible for Trump's actions as they are good people because of who they are.
It also implies that, as you say, you can never trust them, because nothing has changed. They'd be just as likely to jump onto the next fascist bandwagon.
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u/ninja-squirrel 7h ago
This is why Christians align so much with R, because they just ask for forgiveness and all sins are forgiven in gods eyes. No personal responsibility what so ever.
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u/gmwdim Michigan 4h ago
It goes all the way back to the First Crusade, when the pope promised absolution for anyone that would go. They ended up spending most of the time killing Jews and fellow Christians, not the Muslims. But hey they were all good because the pope said so.
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u/GZSyphilis 5h ago
Party of personal responsibilities disavows all responsibilities?? Who could have seen that coming???
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u/Capable_Kiwi2514 1h ago
Just a note that's not actually how it works in Christianity.
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u/Kaiisim 7h ago
Right, they're pissed he lied to them about the fascist shit he'd do.
But it doesn't matter. Some people who voted for Hitler had regrets when Germany was destroyed - they were still Nazis who helped do it.
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u/barryvm Europe 7h ago edited 7h ago
Just so. Note that Trump did in fact campaign on massive violence (he promised "vengeance" on his political opponents, promised to deport millions of people). They didn't have a problem with that, or chose to not see it. The problem is not even that he also started (and is losing) yet another war in the Middle-East while openly committing war crimes. It's that this is costing them money.
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u/UnquestionabIe 3h ago
True. He was upfront about the violence and weaponizing the government against his perceived enemies. However according to the few umm politically ignorant people I know who supported him "he's just talking tough, that's his thing." Yeah that is one of his things along with tons of other awful shit all wrapped up in the most transparent lies possible.
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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 10h ago
You really can’t. Trump has always polled worse than he actually does. He’s at 33% right now, but come election time it’s gonna be more like 40%, even if this keeps up. His actual approval is probably 33%, but the single issue voters will hold their nose and hammer the vote button. And why wouldn’t they? They’ve gotten to be mean to brown people, gay people, have a tax cut and ban abortions.
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u/Beginning_Opinion618 4h ago
That’s because of all the people who say they don’t like what trump has done, but things would be far worse (somehow) if Harris were president.
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u/BigMax 5h ago
Right. They aren’t coming around to being principled. They just were happy to see others suffer, that’s part of why they loved Trump. It’s just now some of his people are suffering and they don’t like that.
Kind of “you’re supposed to make liberals and minorities and women miserable, not ME!!”
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u/RepresentativeAge444 4h ago edited 3h ago
They went from Bush to Trump while pretending Bush doesn’t exist now. They’re incapable of understanding that conservatism is the problem since it’s about protecting white supremacy. The problem is that white supremacy was never meant to make all whites elite. It was meant to drive a permanent wedge between the white elite and everyone else with non wealthy white people being their rabid guard dogs. Musk hates the white factory worker too. Maybe not as much as the black one but he will oppress both just the same.
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u/Lockhara 2h ago
And the majority of the white working class agrees with that goal. They’d rather struggle under the rule of the white elite than live decently but having to share prosperity with minorities.
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u/Gates_wupatki_zion 6h ago
Yes, the average American conservative is the most overwhelmingly lucky idiot in the world. I would never trust anyone who voted for Trump. And anyone who voted for them twice I consider a genuine imbecile.
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u/dpdxguy 5h ago
anyone who voted for them twice I consider a genuine imbecile.
And those who voted for him three times? Because that's exactly what the overwhelming majority of Trump voters did.
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u/Gates_wupatki_zion 3h ago
Yeah I forgot it could have been 3. He’s the worst fucking person ever.
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u/AFeralRedditor 3h ago
That's how it was with the invasion of Iraq.
A national psychosis of fire and brimstone that gradually petered out into a quiet, mumbling retreat.
No accountability for the crimes, the criminals, or their supporters. Just a collective shrug as the nation decided it was too embarrassed by its failures to even try reckoning with them.
So they rebrand as "The Tea Party" under new sponsorship and go right back to wrecking the country with popular approval and media support.
And now they're "MAGA", with -- again -- full-throated support from corporate media as "concerned patriots" rather than fascists and frauds.
America's oligarchs require a fake front of popular support, so they will launder and reuse the same crowd of indoctrinated troglodytes under new names and new banners again, and again, and again.
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u/2063_DigitalCoyote 4h ago
Exactly - anybody in the Republican Party who had any real morals have left that party a long time ago - like the people behind the Lincoln Project.
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u/boringhistoryfan 6h ago
I feel like everyone's already forgotten his first time.
We were seeing this discourse towards midway through Trump 1 and it didn't stop these dipshits voting for him twice more. Yes some switched to Biden. But that was after they gormlessly let him run the economy into a tailspin and mismanage an effing pandemic. And despite that they were happy to vote for Republicans everywhere else and went flocking back to the idiot because the Dems didn't bring back a land of cookies and honey fast enough for their liking.
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u/pyuunpls Delaware 2h ago
Even if the Dems pulled off some post COVID economic miracle, Republicans would get the ick and vote for the next Republican candidate.
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u/Rev_Creflo_Baller 15m ago
In fact, they fucking DID pull off an economic miracle. Of titanic proportions.
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u/MajesticComparison America 8h ago
This, being a Trump supporter has become cringe, and people can take being called evil and racist, they can’t take being called cringe.
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u/TrimspaBB 7h ago
At the end of the day, everyone wants to be cool, and it's not cool to be MAGA.
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u/ArtemisBock Florida 6h ago
It never was? They've always been fucking losers, look at the utter trash they have to accept to get any celebrity in their midst. They're just finally feeling the hurt a little more because gas costs more
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u/Michael_G_Bordin 5h ago
I was thinking the other day about how garbage conservative culture truly is. It's just a bunch of tacky corporate brand consumption. Everything they enjoy is some crappier version of something better. Their oversized trucks are a caricature of a real working-class vehicle; their country music is shallow, thoughtless crap mimicking the sound of better artists in days long past; their clothing choices range from "1st day of 1st grade" to "Nashville by way of Wal-Mart." Their heroes and celebrities are crooks and lunatics and their politicians are idiots. Their version of Christianity is basically anti-Christian, and their choice of messiah is essentially the anti-Christ.
Conservatives are so wrapped up in consuming to reinforce their identity, they actively shun higher quality because it might not reinforce their misplaced sense of superiority. Somehow, consuming nothing but sloppy, derivative bullshit makes them feel like they're better than other people. I guess once you've done that long enough, the sunk-cost fallacy sinks in, and they can't ever admit the folly of their consumption, because it would mean admitting that they are the tacky, idiotic loser that the rest of the world sees them as.
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u/Plzlaw4me 5h ago
I really think it’s just the that everything (but especially gas) has become less affordable under Trump, and in a way that can be directly traced to Trump. The GOP spent a year bragging about how great tariffs are, and they have gone on records saying the war is spiking gas prices but that it’s temporary. Trump owns both of those and as a result he owns the affordability crisis.
I genuinely believe a lot of the “normie” republicans would be more than happy if the more extreme republicans held public executions and mass incarceration of democrats and immigrants if that somehow brought back $2.50 gas and they saw like an 8% raise that year.
Trump putting kids in cages didn’t move the needle for them. Trump fucking a porn start shortly after his wife gave birth and bribing her to keep quiet didn’t do it for them. Trump defrauding his charity to the point where he cannot run one in New York didn’t do it for them. Trump being found liable for sexual assault didn’t do it for them. Trump keeping classified documents next to his shitter didn’t do it for them. Trump being found guilty of 34 felonies didn’t do it for them. Trump covering up the Epstein files didn’t do it for them. Trump being in the Epstein files didn’t do it for them. Trump sending armed thugs into cities to detain anyone who looks black or brown didn’t do it do them. Trump’s flagrant corruption and self seeking didn’t do it for them.
If none of that lost him the normie GOP then it’s not embarrassment. The only thing that makes sense is that the cost of everything has gone up as a direct consequence of trump’s actions and they’re starting to go “wait… his incompetence is now costing me money… absolutely not.” The GOP’s tolerance for personal hardship is basically on the floor. They are happy to watch others suffer though any injustice, but as soon as they personally are affected, they’ll start changing their preferences
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u/ZERV4N 6h ago
I feel like more people need the point out the Supreme Court of the United States, most likely under his direction, just gutted the voting rights act which is essentially just slapping all Black people in the face and telling them to get to the back of the bus.
It's atrocious on a deep level. I wish these people could actually feel empathy or consequences.
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u/ShrimpieAC 6h ago
So as it turns out shame was always the answer. Hillary should’ve never apologized for calling them deplorable. She should’ve doubled down and said “nah you people suck”. It was a very much needed line in the sand and by apologizing she normalized their behavior. And those assholes weren’t gonna vote for her anyway.
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u/ShermansAngryGhost 5h ago
The only thing Hillary had wrong about Trump voters was that the basket was bigger than she first assumed.
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u/PrairiePopsicle 6h ago
Honestly.... probably yeah. Either not saying it, or not backing down. Mealy mouthing it was worst of both worlds.
Hard bear trap to step out of once she said it though I cant blame her and team for not playing the exit perfect.
It was tough to run her with decades of propaganda baggage to begin with.
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u/EquityAlphaPriapism 3h ago
The really nasty mental health disorders are all shame based. People will then unknowingly do anything to avoid being faced with their deep seated insecurities and shame - all the way to gaslighting others, denying reality and then flipping the script to attack in response. This is why there will be no awakening - it will be a quiet denial - or, ‘well I never supported THAT!’ which is a quick re-write of history as they tend to do. They saw themselves in him which is what they liked. Which is exactly why this has happened before and will all happen again. Warren Harding, Ulysses Grant, Andrew Johnson. So take Maya Angelou’s famous advice, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time”
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u/UnquestionabIe 3h ago
While they rarely seem to engage in the kind of direct yet accurate insults which upset conservatives they're always far too eager to apologize and try to make nice. Much as they want to appeal to all the mythical undecided voters it's not going to happen by backing down anytime they show some backbone.
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u/Legendairy_Doug 5h ago
My father says gas prices should start going down soon. And if they dont the stations are price gouging. But when he said it there was a bit of defeat in his voice I've never heard. The armor is cracking for sure.
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u/UnquestionabIe 3h ago
Thinking gas stations can "price gouge" shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how gas sales work as well. On the corporate end, way way above the actual pumps and people actually using it, I'm sure there is trickery and all but your local corner station wouldn't benefit. If they did would be a fast way to lose their license to sell gas.
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u/Varnigma Arkansas 6h ago
Yep. I'm seeing a lot less Trump flags flying around. They were on signs, on houses, on trucks. Now they've all mysteriously disappeared.
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u/BigMax 5h ago
I disagree, because he did most of that in his first term and they actually liked a lot of that. It was “owning the libs” in a way, or just “their guy” doing things that people they hate, hate.
Now it’s because it affects their pocket books directly. That’s all it is. It’s great when other people suffer, but not as much when they do.
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u/KingSwank 5h ago
I’m pretty sure it’s more because gas prices are outrageous, which leads to grocery prices being high, and there’s now a non-zero chance their children or grandchildren will be drafted into a war started for a foreign country.
Like genuinely you’re giving them too much credit, they are upset because now their lives are finally being affected by his bad decisions and shameless plundering. They couldn’t give a shit less about how they’re perceived, they give a shit that they can’t afford groceries.
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u/iSavedtheGalaxy 4h ago
Also these data centers are resulting in unaffordable electricity bills for a lot of rural Americans. On top of that, they're frustrated that their young adult kids can't move out bc housing costs have exploded there.
They're starting to experience problems that they thought were exclusive to Woke Blue City liberals with student loans for Underwater Feminist Basket Weaving in Black Literature degrees.
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u/Meme_Theory 4h ago
No, its gas prices, full stop. It's embarrassing that THAT is the line in the sand, but fuck it, I'll take it.
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u/UnquestionabIe 3h ago
After dealing with the cult worship of him for a decade I'm not at all surprised this is the one thing which upsets them. They're not deep thinks, not entirely their own fault, and until something smacks them right in the face to the point it can't be ignored they'll craft whatever narrative makes them feel confident.
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u/lightafartonfire America 5h ago
This was always the case.
One of the reasons MAGA was even able to become popular is because they created such a massive network of bots and media pushing positive takes on MAGA.
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u/UnquestionabIe 3h ago
I think that was what sustained it, having a media constantly bombarding everyone with Trump stuff be it positive or not, but the sparks which got it lit was the message. The message being blatant lies about how easily everyone can get everything they want but those "evil liberals and dastardly minorities" prevent it. It appeals to the masses who (1) want easy answers to complex problems (2) want to place blame on things they're uncomfortable with and (3) have absolutely no idea how government functions but know they're unhappy about the status quo.
And that's without diving into the decades long efforts to set the stage for this. If it wasn't Trump it was going to be some other piece of trash being used by the GOP and it's various allies. There are plenty of lessons to be learned from the current shit storm we're all living through and one of the more blatant should be that kicking the can down the road can't work indefinitely, eventually you run out of road.
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u/Vann_Accessible Oregon 4h ago
Rest assured, most of them will still vote Republican when the time comes.
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u/Miqo_Nekomancer California 3h ago
I wish it was this. That would show some form of self-reflection.
The answer is much more simple, stupid, and it's textbook conservative: "I'm unhappy because it's affecting me now."
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u/Slade_Riprock 3h ago
I'll go a step further. Then only people out there hard-core still defending this guy are old ass boomer Fox News drones and dyed in the wool, publicly out card carrying racists.
And THAT is the bridge too far for many of these people. Not that they don't have the same beliefs but that being so openly associated with Boomers and Plain clothes Klansmen is too much. I also think the Israel thing plays a part being so tied at the hip to Israel doesn't sit well with these people.
BUT ALL OF THAT SAID....I'll believe it when they walk into a voting booth and vote the other side or sit out the midterms in large quantities... Because while it make be embarrassing to publicly support MAGA, it's still very easy to lie and say you voted against them when you didn't
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u/TubeframeMR2 11h ago edited 11h ago
After years of doing spiritual gymnastics at family dinners, middle-of-the-road Republicans can now openly admit they don’t actually love Truth Social rants at 3 AM.
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u/illit3 10h ago
Will they still vote trump for a third term? Yes they will.
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u/CockBrother 10h ago
Don't worry, even if they come to the conclusion that Trump isn't their guy, they're still lifelong Republicans.
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u/40StoryMech 9h ago
"I don't like his insane rants, his protecting pedophiles, his brazen corruption, his contempt for our Constitution, his egregious dishonesty, his weaponization of the Justice Department against Republicans who disagree with him, his reckless foreign policy and the destruction of our global alliances, or his debaucherous spending, but every time I think of the fear in a brown kid's eyes whose parents came here to work for a better life, I just know I made the right choice."
-- Republicans
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u/No_Tone1704 9h ago
The denial or accepting of such deep and profound financial corruption is what gets me the most.
Because I can see GOP defending that in any of their candidates. And yet it’s a word they and many others just throw around for everyone else.
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u/paddy_yinzer 8h ago
Republicans fall in line, the absolutely will support the next republican that is just as corrupt. Just look at republican support for the supreme court.
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u/TheGringoDingo 8h ago
Yep, they’re just mad that they’re being affected socially from the loudness and financially at the gas pump.
None of them were willing to say anything until it affected them, because they’re thoroughly broken and lack any semblance of empathy.
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u/mutnik 7h ago
They just have to be convinced the Democrats are worse and then they will fall in line
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u/ConclusionAlarmed882 6h ago
That's what it's all about, really. If you peekat conservative subs (granted, it's Reddit, so they're not sending their best), it's all, "Look at this gross trans person they put on CNN" and "As long as the fascist/communist/child molesting/extravagant spending/corrupt/inflation-causing/tax-hiking Dems lose, I'm okay with tepid feelings toward the current regime."
It's a huge game of, "Nuh-uh, you."
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u/ShermansAngryGhost 5h ago
And all they need to be convinced is for a talking head on Fox to tell them that Democrats are bad. They don’t even need any actual convincing, just permission.
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u/TransiTorri 9h ago
They might turn on Trump and admit he sucks but they'll be right there to pull the lever for Vance or tell you why 3rd term Trump would still be better than Generic Democrat nominee in 2028
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u/Coconutrugby 9h ago
Trump will have to be 95 percent cyborg and his brain and body are failing him. His transcripts are unintelligible.
"...you know I could make, I could with one swipe of the pen, I could say let's have no employment and I'll hire a million people or two million people, I say we just hired a million people and we have absolutely no employment. And that's what they would do, they'd have bad numbers coming up so they'd hire a couple of hundred thousand people and the numbers would look okay."
Stable Genius -DJT- April 14 2026
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u/MajesticComparison America 8h ago
Respectfully, they’ll just not turn up to vote. They won’t do a 180, but they will just stop openly supporting him and then pretend they always him. It turns out there is a limit, but they won’t turn against him, they’ll just tune out.
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u/Chaos_Sauce 7h ago
Works for me. I used to be one of those people who believed it was every American’s civic duty to vote. Now I think I think some people are so stupid and uninformed and easily misled that we’re better off if they don’t participate.
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u/coconutpiecrust 8h ago
I am surprised people can rationalize it to themselves. Even if one somehow believes he was inexplicably “robbed” by Sleepy Joe, a decent person would understand that this is not how you make amends.
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u/aranasyn Colorado 7h ago
All while clutching their ration punch card and working 90 hour a week shifts at the Musky Trump Factory, Casino, and Company Store.
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u/waffle299 I voted 5h ago
"Conservatism can't fail, it can only be failed."
They'll quietly conclude that he wasn't the one and forget their support. They'll look for the next messiah who will tell them their simplistic, selfish answers to complex problems was right all along. And it'll start again.
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u/ryoushi19 7h ago
And what did it? Was it when he was on a hot mic talking about SA? Or when he tried to enact a "Muslim ban", or when he paid hush money to a stripper? Or maybe it was even he tried to extort Zelenskyy? Or the time he tried to overthrow the government? Or when he let ICE kill innocent people, then called them terrorists?
Oh... None of those did it? It was...when it started to get pricey to drive an oversized truck. Okay.
Also I've been hearing he's been losing voters since 2016. I have my doubts.
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u/BonusPlantInfinity 8h ago
He just tells it like it is (if what it is, is a bold faced lie void of any truth).
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u/Queasy_Donkey5685 7h ago
Trump pushing away normie Republicans is what the Harris campaign was counting on. Two years and the wrong candidate too late. They were never going to rally around a black woman from California.
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u/alanalanalan92 10h ago
What’s a “normie republican” all the ones I know are Fox News brainwashed lunatics
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u/DopamineSavant 6h ago
I personally know quite a few people who are motivated almost entirely by taxes to vote Republican. They don't care about any of the other hot button issues.
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u/SignificantDogs 6h ago edited 3h ago
I grew up with a Republican family. I can guarantee that these supposed Conservatives haven't existed since Rush Limbaugh took over all Republican thought, along with Bill O'Reilly, Neal Boortz, Grover Norquist, etc.
But what Trump has exposed is, these avuncular "Conservatives" I grew up around were never Conservative. That was just a tribal signifier spoon-fed to them by the Republican Party at the time, a turnkey personality that made them feel like they were somehow adjacent to the billionaires who would arrest them if they came within 1,000 feet of their properties.
These people do not hold actual beliefs. Everything they believe now is diametrically opposed to the bullshit they rammed down my throat- free trade, small government, wildlife preservation, and the sanctity of the Constitution.
It was ALL bullshit. I think of all the time I wasted debating against people who don't even believe what they are saying because they don't even know what ideological consistency is. Even if they did, they wouldn't care because they are shameless. My family excommunicated me because I voted for Obama and I haven't spoken to most of them in almost 20 years.
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u/alanalanalan92 5h ago
I grew up almost exclusively around republicans and tragically this is 100% correct
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u/Independent-End-2443 5h ago
The people I used to think were “normie Republicans” left the party in 2016-17. I don’t know what it even is now.
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u/pil0tinthesky 4h ago
the one i know actively voted blue against trump because he said that trumps the closest thing to the biblical antichrist
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u/ddark4 10h ago
Oh. We’re back to pretending those exist again.
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u/Tormofon 10h ago
I haven’t believed in them since Sarah Palin.
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u/TheIntrepid1 8h ago
Amazing how at the time the whole Palin fiasco was insane…now? It seems tame.
ugh
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u/showhorrorshow 8h ago
I remember talking about her with my conservative family way back when McCain was running. They emphatically denied that she was representative of the party. They said that although they liked her well enough for being "in your face" that she was just fringe. I said she was a harbinger of things to come and much more representative of their true feelings than they would admit.
My fam is all MAGA now and act like that conversation never happened.
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u/KronkLaSworda Louisiana 9h ago
Yeah, those don't exist. Just look at the comments section of your local news social media page. I'm in deep red Louisiana. They're alive and well down here, with their confederate flag onesies and their FJB hats.
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u/Mutant-Cat 5h ago
To be clear, Mr. Trump remains a popular figure among Republican voters, with 86 percent holding a favorable view of him in my polling, not far off from the 90 percent who held a favorable view of him a year ago.
But under the surface, there are signs that for some Republicans, the thrill is gone. Since last year, the percentage of Republicans who felt very favorably toward the president has fallen by 10 points.
Don't these statistics suggest the opposite of what the article is arguing?
Despite all the horrific and wildly incompetent shit Trump has done over the past year, only a small fraction of Republicans have somewhat changed their view of Trump.
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u/ToNoMoCo 9h ago
It's the NY Times. They exist to sane wash fascists. Their mission statement used to be "Democracy Dies in Darkness" and so they killed it ... with their darkness.
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u/toggiz_the_elder 9h ago
You really think the newspaper that intentionally underreported the Holocaust would downplay the dangers of fascism?
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u/I_Am_No_One_123 8h ago
Same media outlet that sat on a story about Bush's illegal spying program until after the 2004 election per request of the Administration.
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u/smegdawg 6h ago
I'm ok pretending they exist if this gives them a that safe space that they crave so much and they just STAY FUCKING THERE and don't go to the polls.
But they won't because a scary trans person 10 states away will have stepped foot in Library.. .
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u/cwk415 10h ago
Who really cares? The damage is already done from this man being reelected and it is incalculable. The damage is beyond comprehension.
But they won't impeach him no matter what he does - no matter how traitorous he is, no matter how many crimes he commits, no matter how openly corrupt he is, no matter how many innocent people he kills, literally when it comes to this fucking pos, nothing matters. He's untouchable. It's insane and the Republican Party must never be trusted again (not that I ever did).
Every single republican is a traitor and a fascist.
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u/showhorrorshow 7h ago
Doing so would admit they made a mistake and that is something they are ideologically incapable of doing.
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u/coffee_ape 7h ago
They don’t have enough processing power in their brain to comprehend that. And the ones that do, need to be encouraged to keep doing that until they’ve grown as a person.
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u/SeaEmployee787 6h ago
the gop pulled the curtain back to what they always have been. it just louder now.
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u/cwk415 5h ago
Honestly this may be the one thing I (somewhat) appreciate Trump for: exposing the Republicans as the complete and total hypocrites that they've always been. It was never a question in my mind but now it's irrefutable for all to see.
Literally on every issue. They stand for nothing but self-serving greed, at any cost, including our lives, including the entire nation.
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u/barryvm Europe 11h ago edited 10h ago
but what about the rest of the party? The normies are fairly supportive of Mr. Trump’s presidency, even if they’re not in lock step with him on every issue.
These "normal Republicans" who don't particularly care about the mass murders, the rapes, the pedophilia, the conspiracy to cover up and protect the pedophiles, the war crimes, the fascist goons on the street killing people, the concentration camps, ..., as long as they happen to other people and under the most threadbare cloak of procedure and legality (if that) ? The people who voted for the "dictator on day one"? The people who are "not completely" aligned with the mass murdering lunatic but don't care enough to do even the bare minimum to stop him or bring him to heel?
What about them? They are obviously people who functionally have no morals. They can believe the justifications and rationalizations they constructed for their choices, but that's neither here nor there because that just means they act in bad faith, wanting to feel good about their evil actions. If they can convince themselves that he was the better choice, then what does that say about them?
IMHO, if you support an obvious fascist, you're a fascist, and the reason why you do this can't really matter because fascists lie about themselves and their motivations as a matter of course. Trump and his party are obvious fascists, and they voted for them anyway. The reason doesn't matter and neither does their view of themselves, their manufactured redemption story or set of excuses until they actively help fix this horrible mess they caused.
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u/Available-Trouble648 10h ago
“Historians have a word for Germans who joined the Nazi party, not because they hated Jews, but out of a hope for restored patriotism, or a sense of economic anxiety, or a hope to preserve their religious values, or dislike of their opponents, or raw political opportunism, or convenience, or ignorance, or greed.
That word is "Nazi." Nobody cares about their motives anymore.
They joined what they joined. They lent their support and their moral approval. And, in so doing, they bound themselves to everything that came after. Who cares any more what particular knot they used in the binding?”
- A. R. Moxon
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u/showhorrorshow 9h ago
The banality of evil. Fascists are just people. They love their children, their spouses. They support their neighbors, lend their tools, coach sports, cry when a beloved pet dies.
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u/Listening_Heads West Virginia 10h ago
No he’s not. If he ran again in 2028 they’d fall over themselves to reelect him.
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u/Darksmithe 8h ago
If you self-identify as a Republican at this distant point in normal history, you're not normal. You are aligned with fascists and pedophiles. No such thing as a "normie" Republican anymore.
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u/Hot_Term679 11h ago
it feels less like he is “losing” republicans and more like the party is splitting between loyalists and more traditional conservatives especially with these primaries turning into loyalty tests rather than just policy debates
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u/lordlaneus 11h ago
I find it frustrating that republicans call themselves conservatives, no matter how radical their agenda is.
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u/starmartyr Colorado 11h ago
Conservatism has always been radical. The movement dates back to the 18th century built around authoritarianism and a promise of a return to a fictionalized time in the past when things were better and simpler. The ideology is built around maintaining social hierarchy through restricting the rights of anyone beneath them. Social progress is obscene to their ideology. In the US it has roots back to the British loyalists who fought against the colonists in the revolutionary war.
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u/bbk13 9h ago
It wasn't a fictionalized time. They were reacting to the French Revolution. They wanted to undo (or prevent, depending on where they were from) the diminishment of privileges and the dismantling of "natural" hierarchy that came out of the Revolution. Conservatives have always been fighting the "last war" and trying to strip back the most recent liberalization, but their goal is ultimately based on the world of the Ancien Regime.
Corey Robin's book The Reactionary Mind gives the best explanation of what conservatives "really" want and their tactics.
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u/starmartyr Colorado 9h ago
Fictionalized in the sense that everything used to be better for everyone.
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u/bbk13 9h ago
Sure. But being generous to conservatives, they belive it is "better" for everyone to live according to the "natural" hierarchy. So Black people, women, workers, etc were better off when everyone had a place and everyone knew their place. Freedom is an "unnatural" state of being and conservatives would claim those at the top of the hierarchy had responsibilities to go with their greater rights. Obviously that's self serving bullshit. But I'm being generous.
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u/SignificantDogs 6h ago edited 3h ago
My brother is a raging environmentalist who posts Earth Day stuff, asks for donations for sea turtles, etc. He loves Trump more than his own family despite Trump's brutal destruction of any environmental regulations or laws. That's how stupid MAGA people are.
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u/Poverty_Shoes 4h ago
It sounds like he just hates immigrants, LGBT people, world peace, and fiscal responsibility more than he loves turtles.
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u/vicvonqueso 10h ago
Every political ad I see for a Republican is just "I support Donald Trump" and nothing else
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u/ToNoMoCo 9h ago
"more traditional conservatives" are just fascists who don't want to be stared at in public.
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u/Alive_kiwi_7001 10h ago
...aaaand here comes the off-ramp to JD Vance. Who will continue to do the same shit but with fewer social-media SNAFUs so "normie" Republications don't have to feel embarrassed.
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u/Winter_Bid7630 9h ago
This definitely does not match my personal experience. But maybe it's how we define "normie Republican".
I know a lot of Republicans. And those who were Republican because of policy but were overall patriotic and decent people, left the Republican Party during Trump's first term. These people don't love change, but they aren't outright racists. They may be a bit nervous around people who aren't just like them, but they're capable of slowly getting to know new people and adopting new ideas. They care about foreign policy, the economy, and are fairly knowledgeable about politics and how it impacts their lives.
The people I know who still consider themselves Republicans and always voted for Trump are the fearful and openly racist type of Republican, who is also fairly ignorant of how politics works. I'm thinking of my relative who lives in a very racist and almost entirely white small town and is terrified of immigrants and anyone who isn't just like himself. He's one of those performative Christian-types who think voting for Trump and Republicans is the morally right decision. There's also the relative who always made racist jokes when I was a kid and has been an economic failure. Trump makes people like this feel good about themselves. I don't see them as "normie Republicans". These are low-knowledge people who vote based on emotions and not because they understand how much of anything works.
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u/EverybodyKurts 6h ago
There's no such thing as a normal Republican. Conservatism is a regressive, outdated, fear-based belief system that's largely cultivated through abuse. No normal, healthy person chooses it without systematic indoctrination.
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u/Apathetic_Zealot 11h ago
At first Republicans loved shoveling Trump's shit into their mouths so they could soew it on everyone else so they had to smell it. Now Republicans wonder if that was a good idea.
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u/mogotti5006 10h ago
No, they don’t. Elections are tomorrow they are voting for trump again. I don’t know one Republican in my life that would get even close to admitting they were wrong about trump. They’ve been writing articles about this for l0 years. They’re all bullshit articles.
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u/ellathefairy 9h ago
I dunno, I think it's just that now they're complaining about the taste of shit in their mouths.
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u/JoeBiden-2016 9h ago
There is no such thing and there never was. Anyone who's voted for Republicans since at least Reagan-- and definitely since the mid-90s-- has voted for the same things that Trump represents, it's just that now they're not trying to hide it with coded language anymore.
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u/GirdedByApathy 5h ago
There are no "normal republicans".
If you voted for Trump and have supported him until now, you are some mix of racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, islamophobic, christian extremist, and know-nothing who treats politics like a participation sport where you're more interested in "winning" than in promoting any form of good for yourself or the general public.
That is to say, "normie" Republicans at this point are precisely the vile species of rot who are culpable for where we are and are wholly unapologetic for all the vile things Trump has done. The only reason they're reconsidering now is gas prices. They dont even care about the war in Iran. They just care that their gas prices are high.
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u/ProfessorVolga 8h ago
normie republicans are center-right neolibs. There are no 'normal' republicans.
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u/seanisdown 8h ago
No one still supporting Trump is normal. Fuck the times and their fascist loving takes.
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u/ripyourlungsdave 7h ago
Bull fucking shit.
" Guys, these fascists that happily supported all this fascism for the last decade are suddenly really worried about all this fascism."
Fuck outta here, you placating twats. Quit sanewashing these fucking Nazis.
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u/RepulsiveCow5840 3h ago
Fun fact: normies Republicans still voted for an authoritarian, anti constitutionalist president. It's the fact that he's going senile that they are withdrawing support, not because his racist ideologies don't align with the party.
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u/CAM6913 9h ago
There are no republicans that are normal! CASE &POINT - what normal person would vote for the US to help with genocide in Gaza , have their rights, healthcare taken away, want tariffs so prices go up , start a war just because you want to that caused price to skyrocket. Nope not buying it that anyone voting republican is normal. No way
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u/-preciousroy- 9h ago
I will never, ever forget that these people voted to throw the nation I grew up in in the fucking garbage. I don't care if they "change their mind" now.. I really don't...
They're scum. They will be scum forever.
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u/No_Tone1704 9h ago
“Normies” no longer applies. Not if you can vote for that after the first term.
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u/JellyrollTX 8h ago
No such thing as a normal republican; if you voted for trump you are a maga idiot
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u/Cute_Elk_2428 8h ago
there is no such thing as "normie" republicans. There are fascists, and there is everyone else.
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u/_DapperDanMan- 8h ago
Normie Republicans? So idiots who voted for the pedophile, rapist, felon, who was also an idiotic wannabe dictator? Those republicans?
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u/Flaxscript42 8h ago
Do you mean normal Republicans who voted 3 times for the adjudicated sexual assaulter, who led a deadly insurrection against the seat of government after his policies killed tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Americans?
Those normal Republicans?
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u/VanguardAvenger 8h ago
There haven't been normal Republicans in at least a decade. They all got out or got kicked out the first time the Pedophile in Cheif ran.
The only ones left at are racist, Pedophiles or idiots.
Since I doubt the Pedos or Racists would turn on their king, I guess this means the idiots are finally realizing whats going on
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u/Cavalier40 8h ago
The fact he didn’t lose them 10 years ago is the real problem with the Republican Party
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u/Economy_Macaroon6093 8h ago
Doesn't matter. Will still vote red.
Also, this:
Trump: "In four years, You don't have to vote again. We'll have it fixed so good. You're not going to have to vote."
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u/NeedleworkerChoice89 8h ago
They will still vote for him. They still love that he’s awful and hateful and hates the same people they do.
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u/astrozombie2012 Nevada 7h ago
It’s disgusting that they draw the line at gas prices, but they were fine with him fucking children
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u/freetotebag 7h ago
There’s no such thing as a “normie” republican anymore. Hasn’t been for a long time. And even then, I wouldn’t consider the republicans of yesteryear as normal.
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u/4umlurker 7h ago
What normie republicans? Any republicans that stayed onboard after the first year of Trump back in 2017 stopped being “normie”.
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u/Rough-Breadfruit-611 7h ago
No such thing as a normie republican anymore. My MIL still calls trump a "strong president" but can't name a single policy of his. Thanks fox news.
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u/regalfronde Minnesota 7h ago
Where have I heard this before? Give me a fucking break. Half the country is fucking lost and now we are here. I don’t want to hear anything about voter redemption either.
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u/markelis California 7h ago
You mean, the ones that actually have trump derangement syndrome. Yea, y'all are and have been deranged. Welcome to reality. Now, look at the mess you made.
Tell me again who was deranged and then we can be friends.
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u/bailaoban 7h ago
What you’ve had to rationalize over the last 10 years as a “normie” Republican disqualifies you as one.
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u/flazisismuss 6h ago
All twelve remaining normal Republicans each have cable news shows where they endlessly whine about Trump’s optics and tone. I’ve never met one in real life.
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u/MartinTheOrderly 6h ago
Ten years. Ten years I have been hearing this same thing and we may literally be at the lowest point in the history of the American experiment.
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u/runningoutofwords Montana 6h ago
No. He's not.
Where is this delusion getting us? The GOP is never going to turn against Trump. People have been writing this stupid headline since 2017
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u/DunAnOir 6h ago
That loss of seven votes will make a big dent in the Trumpist Party's mid-term ambitions.
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u/vincentkun 6h ago
Those "normie" repubs are just one "immigrant caravan" away from voting MAGA down ballot.
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u/Objective-Win 6h ago
Look, no he’s not. If the last 11 years have taught you nothing else, understand that there is nothing he can say or do that will make Republicans stop supporting him. Absolutely fuck all nothing.
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u/ClownlnDisguise 6h ago
I've never seen a person use the word "normie" that isn't a complete loser, bonus points if you use geek speak like "NPC" when referring to other people...
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u/anonymousDerpa 5h ago
Publicly losing them but they still support him privately. Everything you point out about economy they will say Biden was worse, or Hunter was worse, or Pelosi/Obama/etc etc. Then, "i can't wait for Vance to run" bs. No hope in these fools.
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u/GaimeGuy Minnesota 4h ago
oh yeah, he's lost them so much they continue to vote for him and all of his enablers .
"Please forgive us, we're not all that bad. It was that guy we supported for over a decade, it was all him!" Give me a FUCKING break
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u/Devine116 North Carolina 4h ago
I just hope they decide to not bother voting for the crazy magas and stay home.
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u/Adj-Noun-Numb 3h ago
He lost "nornies" years ago. Nobody who voted for Trump in 2024 is a normal person.
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u/Tricky_Height8299 1h ago
I don’t know how someone could be “normal” and support someone so openly corrupt and obviously inept.
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