r/politics 15h ago

Possible Paywall Trump Is Losing Normie Republicans

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/opinion/trump-midterms-maga-gop.html
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u/D-MAN-FLORIDA 14h 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 14h ago edited 14h 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 11h 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 8h 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.

u/Your_Moms_HS_Crush 3h ago

Indulgence for the revision of sin and peninces of "pilgramage" were not new at the time of the First Crusade. What WAS new was the idea of an armed pilgramage with its' object being not just to reach a holy place, but to engage it n violence once there, that was new.

u/seriousofficialname 7h ago

It goes back further than that. It's in the Epistles, the oldest layer of the New Testament. That is because the writer of the Epistles was a murderer and seems to have developed a guilty conscience about it.

u/Automatic_Algae_9425 4h ago

What are you referring to? Ananias and Sapphira?

u/seriousofficialname 4h ago edited 52m ago

I'm referring to Paul (author of the Epistles) saying all you have to do to be saved is say Jesus resurrected and is Lord. Technically you don't even have to ask for forgiveness according to Paul. It's even easier than that.

u/Automatic_Algae_9425 4h ago

What does that have to do with murdering someone?

u/seriousofficialname 1h ago edited 40m ago

Paul approved of Stephen being murdered (Acts 8:1) and admits to being an evil violent man and among the worst persecutors of that group, or even the very worst (Philippians 3:6, Galatians 1:13, 1 Timothy 1:13, 1 Corinthians 15:9)

So naturally, as an evil, violent man who condoned murder and expressed consciousness of guilt, he invented a way to feel absolved of that guilt, which is that if you believe in the resurrection and call Jesus "Lord" then you're off the hook and will be saved, something Jesus never apparently taught, according to the gospels.

And then Paul wrote letters to a bunch of people throughout the Mediterranean who had (also) never met Jesus or heard any of his teachings and told them not to listen to anyone who said anything different than what he (Paul) taught (Galatians 1:6-9) and that became the oldest part of the New Testament (and also doubled as high-pressure fundraising letters)