Why do you still support Trump even after all these indictments and even after he claimed the big lie that he lost the election which caused people to attack the Capitol? If he is convicted in any of these indictments will you stop supporting him?
And why not support one of these other candidates who don’t have so many criminal charges ha…
Why do you still support Trump even after all these indictments and even after he claimed the big lie that he lost the election which caused people to attack the Capitol? If he is convicted in any of these indictments will you stop supporting him?
And why not support one of these other candidates who don’t have so many criminal charges having over their head? What’s wrong with Chris Christie? Isn’t he a smarter, more moral man than Trump who would be a much better president?
And honestly, I don’t see you as a “Trump supporter.” Trump supporters are out there loudly constantly promoting their man and casting out others who don’t agree with them. I fear you would have ended our friendship long ago if you were indeed a passionate, dyed in the wool trump supporter.
I believe the indictments are political theatre. Democrat politicians have been challenging and denying election results for years, and they have every right to do so. When supporters of Hillary Clinton rioted in DC on the day of Trump's inauguration, I didn't hold her responsible for that violence. Trump's closing words were to march peacefully and patriotically. And whatever abusive, dimwitted Trump supporters exist, they don't represent or are the majority of his support. Boorish, violent folks exist in all walks of political life. I agree, tribalism is the default position for humans.
But of the two political parties, republicans have tried, though imperfectly, to bust through tribal thinking, while the democrats retain tribal identity as their de facto position. For example, Joe Biden telling an interviewer in 2019 that if he wasn't a democrat he wasn't black, or telling a group of successful black businessmen in 2012 that if the republicans won they'd put blacks back in chains. A disgusting remark made by one of the most corrupt politicians of the last fifty years.
And challenging/denying election results is NOT AT ALL the same thing that Trump did. Please Fred, you are a smart decent man. Look at the facts in the indictments and actually read them for yourself. This isn’t at all Al Gore calling for recounts in Florida. This was a genuine criminal conspiracy theory to stop the lawful certifying or an election.
If the GOP had not gone totally tribalist (which populist nationalism is) instead of genuinely issue-based and principled (what Reagan/Buckley libertarian-conservatism was before Trump killed it) then I would still be in the party.
Perhaps you have to ask yourself, Fred: which really changed from 2015-2023 politically, me or the GOP? I still hold views very similar as I did in 2015, particularly on foreign policy, which has always been my primary focus. But I now no longer feel welcome in a GOP obsessed with very tribalist issues like fears of CRT and trans people. Those are culture war tribalist signaling concerns, not broader genuine issues like the threat of Islamist terror - my main reason for being a conservative Republican - was a decade ago.
Why do you still support Trump even after all these indictments and even after he claimed the big lie that he lost the election which caused people to attack the Capitol? If he is convicted in any of these indictments will you stop supporting him?
And why not support one of these other candidates who don’t have so many criminal charges having over their head? What’s wrong with Chris Christie? Isn’t he a smarter, more moral man than Trump who would be a much better president?
And honestly, I don’t see you as a “Trump supporter.” Trump supporters are out there loudly constantly promoting their man and casting out others who don’t agree with them. I fear you would have ended our friendship long ago if you were indeed a passionate, dyed in the wool trump supporter.
I believe the indictments are political theatre. Democrat politicians have been challenging and denying election results for years, and they have every right to do so. When supporters of Hillary Clinton rioted in DC on the day of Trump's inauguration, I didn't hold her responsible for that violence. Trump's closing words were to march peacefully and patriotically. And whatever abusive, dimwitted Trump supporters exist, they don't represent or are the majority of his support. Boorish, violent folks exist in all walks of political life. I agree, tribalism is the default position for humans.
But of the two political parties, republicans have tried, though imperfectly, to bust through tribal thinking, while the democrats retain tribal identity as their de facto position. For example, Joe Biden telling an interviewer in 2019 that if he wasn't a democrat he wasn't black, or telling a group of successful black businessmen in 2012 that if the republicans won they'd put blacks back in chains. A disgusting remark made by one of the most corrupt politicians of the last fifty years.
And challenging/denying election results is NOT AT ALL the same thing that Trump did. Please Fred, you are a smart decent man. Look at the facts in the indictments and actually read them for yourself. This isn’t at all Al Gore calling for recounts in Florida. This was a genuine criminal conspiracy theory to stop the lawful certifying or an election.
If the GOP had not gone totally tribalist (which populist nationalism is) instead of genuinely issue-based and principled (what Reagan/Buckley libertarian-conservatism was before Trump killed it) then I would still be in the party.
Perhaps you have to ask yourself, Fred: which really changed from 2015-2023 politically, me or the GOP? I still hold views very similar as I did in 2015, particularly on foreign policy, which has always been my primary focus. But I now no longer feel welcome in a GOP obsessed with very tribalist issues like fears of CRT and trans people. Those are culture war tribalist signaling concerns, not broader genuine issues like the threat of Islamist terror - my main reason for being a conservative Republican - was a decade ago.