Actual conversation at a Publix checkout in Georgia yesterday...
Me: How are you today?
Elderly Man Bagging Groceries: I'm good, but I'm tired of going in and out of the rain.
Me: I won't make you go outside! (with a smile)
Man: I feel bad for the people in Florida with the hurricane.
Me: I know. Did you hear a 100-year-old tree fell on the governor's mansion?
Cashier: Maybe he needed it!
I was actually too stunned to say anything. I had moved past the checkout at that point. Seriously, Trump supporters, this hatred you're projecting on DeSantis, Kemp, Pence, and others is one of the reasons people like me, who voted for Trump twice, don't want him back in the White House. Your irrational vitriol is all over the internet, and it's making me sick. Having a tree fall on your house isn't something I would wish on my worst enemy. Please check your soul and your supposed Christianity, and treat others the way you would want to be treated.
100% this. All of this. Yes. Those of you who love Trump and want him as the candidate, feel free to fight tooth and nail for him in the primary, but when America de-selects him for someone else, please lick your wounds and help us oust Biden and his ilk from Washington DC. Otherwise, you will get ALL the blame for the fall of America over the next four years.
I've been compiling a list of the reasons I won't vote for Trump a third time, because I know what the backlash will be from my friends and family on the right. I'm already hearing the arguments.
Even though I've been a political junkie since I cut my teeth during the Clinton administration, I was going through a busy period in my life in the first few years of the Trump administration, and I was largely checked out. I had voted for Ben Carson in the primary and Trump in the general. My world was going along swimmingly, the economy was good, we weren't starting new wars, the Supreme Court was getting stacked with good judges, and I was ignoring the mean tweets and pissy comments. Trump started to lose me during the 2020 campaign. Running against a corpse, the election was Trump's to lose, and he did a damn fine job losing it. His first debate with Biden was embarrassingly bad. Shutting down the country and then going after Kemp and DeSantis for reopening their states was shameful. Nevertheless, I voted for Trump again in 2020. Post November 2020, Trump has set out to destroy my state, Georgia, and the Republican party as a whole. He's the reason we lost the Senate and many gubernatorial races, barely squeaking by with the House. For me now, though, it's the lies, lies, lies. It's the excuses made by his supporters for his despicable, likely criminal (in the classified docs case), behavior. It's the comparisons between the prosecution of Trump and the persecution of Jesus Christ. It's the betrayal of so many loyal supporters. Most of all, it was Trump taking a dump on the Constitution on January 6. I don't blame him for the riots; I blame him, as the chief executive of our country, for ignoring the right of the states to certify their own elections and the right of our legislature to count the electoral votes. No president who tries to undermine another branch of government should hold office. On January 7, I called my elected representatives, asking them to impeach Trump, not for the incursion of the Capitol, but for his betrayal of his oath to support and defend the Constitution.
I'm with you on not voting for Trump and I'm open to any of the candidates on the GOP slate with the exceptions of Hutchinson, Christie, and now potentially Ramaswamy. I really, really liked what he had to say at The Gathering but now that I'm digging into his background I don't like his prior positions. Know them by their fruits and I do not like the taste of what I am finding.
I get where you're coming from on Ramaswamy. I watched a Ben Shapiro interview with him before he entered the race, and I honestly don't think Vivek was planning to run for office until just before he made that decision. If anything, he was quite disconnected from, or disillusioned by, the political process, rarely even voting. I'm willing to grant him some grace and some space in which to evolve his positions. I'm 44, and I've changed my mind pretty substantively over the years on some core issues. If someone were to go back and look at what I believed in my twenties (when I knew everything!), they may not recognize me today.
I'm genuinely curious, though, which prior positions of Vivek's you don't like.
Actual conversation at a Publix checkout in Georgia yesterday...
Me: How are you today?
Elderly Man Bagging Groceries: I'm good, but I'm tired of going in and out of the rain.
Me: I won't make you go outside! (with a smile)
Man: I feel bad for the people in Florida with the hurricane.
Me: I know. Did you hear a 100-year-old tree fell on the governor's mansion?
Cashier: Maybe he needed it!
I was actually too stunned to say anything. I had moved past the checkout at that point. Seriously, Trump supporters, this hatred you're projecting on DeSantis, Kemp, Pence, and others is one of the reasons people like me, who voted for Trump twice, don't want him back in the White House. Your irrational vitriol is all over the internet, and it's making me sick. Having a tree fall on your house isn't something I would wish on my worst enemy. Please check your soul and your supposed Christianity, and treat others the way you would want to be treated.
100% this. All of this. Yes. Those of you who love Trump and want him as the candidate, feel free to fight tooth and nail for him in the primary, but when America de-selects him for someone else, please lick your wounds and help us oust Biden and his ilk from Washington DC. Otherwise, you will get ALL the blame for the fall of America over the next four years.
I've been compiling a list of the reasons I won't vote for Trump a third time, because I know what the backlash will be from my friends and family on the right. I'm already hearing the arguments.
Even though I've been a political junkie since I cut my teeth during the Clinton administration, I was going through a busy period in my life in the first few years of the Trump administration, and I was largely checked out. I had voted for Ben Carson in the primary and Trump in the general. My world was going along swimmingly, the economy was good, we weren't starting new wars, the Supreme Court was getting stacked with good judges, and I was ignoring the mean tweets and pissy comments. Trump started to lose me during the 2020 campaign. Running against a corpse, the election was Trump's to lose, and he did a damn fine job losing it. His first debate with Biden was embarrassingly bad. Shutting down the country and then going after Kemp and DeSantis for reopening their states was shameful. Nevertheless, I voted for Trump again in 2020. Post November 2020, Trump has set out to destroy my state, Georgia, and the Republican party as a whole. He's the reason we lost the Senate and many gubernatorial races, barely squeaking by with the House. For me now, though, it's the lies, lies, lies. It's the excuses made by his supporters for his despicable, likely criminal (in the classified docs case), behavior. It's the comparisons between the prosecution of Trump and the persecution of Jesus Christ. It's the betrayal of so many loyal supporters. Most of all, it was Trump taking a dump on the Constitution on January 6. I don't blame him for the riots; I blame him, as the chief executive of our country, for ignoring the right of the states to certify their own elections and the right of our legislature to count the electoral votes. No president who tries to undermine another branch of government should hold office. On January 7, I called my elected representatives, asking them to impeach Trump, not for the incursion of the Capitol, but for his betrayal of his oath to support and defend the Constitution.
I'm with you on not voting for Trump and I'm open to any of the candidates on the GOP slate with the exceptions of Hutchinson, Christie, and now potentially Ramaswamy. I really, really liked what he had to say at The Gathering but now that I'm digging into his background I don't like his prior positions. Know them by their fruits and I do not like the taste of what I am finding.
I get where you're coming from on Ramaswamy. I watched a Ben Shapiro interview with him before he entered the race, and I honestly don't think Vivek was planning to run for office until just before he made that decision. If anything, he was quite disconnected from, or disillusioned by, the political process, rarely even voting. I'm willing to grant him some grace and some space in which to evolve his positions. I'm 44, and I've changed my mind pretty substantively over the years on some core issues. If someone were to go back and look at what I believed in my twenties (when I knew everything!), they may not recognize me today.
I'm genuinely curious, though, which prior positions of Vivek's you don't like.
Mmmm...I can see me wishing a tree to fall on the house of my worst enemy. Not HURTING them, but falling on their house?? Yeah, maybe ;)