Question for those who voted for Trump

[siamese3]

If you voted for Trump as a change agent or you voted for Trump as a protest against HRC, I want to understand your point of view. As I see it, some keys issues for those who voted that way were their frustration with Washington political insiders, transparency, trust, pay to play, personal gain over the good of the American public. I feel like Trump, although he is a business man and not a "politician" has much more in common with pay to play politicians and insiders that middle Americans. He has not been transparent at all with his finances. He doesn't seem to be concerned about facts and, in his business dealings, he seems to be the only winner. I think that the problem in Washington is that when politicians simply say "my way, or the high way" everyone loses. I think that politicians need to compromise, so that each side gets something they want. I never understand the need for all or nothing mentality. I simply can't see how he will help make government work.

 

[Calliecake]

I will be very interested to hear the responses from Republicans. I have had the exact same questions thru out this election. I just don't understand how people feel Trump has their best interests at heart. The one thing I have always believed about Trump is that the only person he will ever look out for is Trump. he seems incapable of working WITH people. I hope I am wrong.

 

[redwood66]

I did not vote for Trump because I had the luxury in my state not to. But if I had to I would have. He is something else and that is the reason. If you think Hillary Clinton is not all those things you just said then I feel you are naive. I have been thinking about this a lot the past few days and I feel, in hindsight of course, that the Donald is the only Republican that could have beat Clinton. All of the others are establishment and it would have been the same. The voters knew this. People are tired of DC elites telling them what is good for them. Even if Donald is more like them (the DC elites) he at least addressed those people tired of Washington and saw them. Maybe it was to get elected maybe not. I hope he will be great for everyone and do even just a smidge of what he says. To paraphrase something I heard John McCain say in 2008 - The voters don't know what is good for them - I know what is good for them. How utterly disgusting and elitist and the entire problem with Washington.

 

[siamese3]

I didn't say how I feel about HRC. Edited to say thank you for responding

 

[redwood66]

I didn't say how I feel about HRC. Edited to say thank you for responding

I should not have said "you" I meant people who voted for Hillary. She is every one of those things in your OP.

 

[Queenie60]

When I place my vote - I prioritize the most important issues for me. This allows me to make a decision. I am a conservative Republican; however, had the Democrats put up a good candidate, I would have considered voting for that person.

 

[katharath]

I see a very common theme that people think he's not an "insider". Well, now that it's too late, perhaps they should consider this (see snips below). My question to Trump supporters is, after the evidence before us, do they still actually believe that?

Link to the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/11/11/if-you-voted-for-trump-because-hes-anti-establishment-guess-what-you-got-conned/


The greatest trick Donald Trump pulled was convincing voters he’d be “anti-establishment.”
Well, maybe not the greatest trick. But in a campaign full of cons, it has to rank close to the top. This was near the heart of Trump’s appeal to the disaffected and disempowered: Send me to Washington, and that “establishment” you’ve been hearing so much about? We’ll blow it up, send it packing, punch it right in the face, and when it’s over the government will finally be working for you again. And the people who voted for Trump bought it. After all, he’s no politician, right? He’s an outsider, a glass-breaker, a guy who can cut out the bull and get things done. Right?
But the idea that he would do this was based on a profound misunderstanding of what the establishment actually is, and who Donald Trump is.

Here’s a report on Trump’s transition from Eric Lipton of the New York Times:

President-elect Donald J. Trump, who campaigned against the corrupt power of special interests, is filling his transition team with some of the very sort of people who he has complained have too much clout in Washington: corporate consultants and lobbyists…

Mr. Trump was swept to power in large part by white working-class voters who responded to his vow to restore the voices of forgotten people, ones drowned out by big business and Wall Street. But in his transition to power, some of the most prominent voices will be those of advisers who come from the same industries for which they are being asked to help set the regulatory groundwork.
An organizational chart of Trump’s transition team shows it to be crawling with corporate lobbyists, representing such clients as Altria, Visa, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Verizon, HSBC, Pfizer, Dow Chemical, and Duke Energy. And K Street is positively salivating over all the new opportunities they’ll have to deliver goodies to their clients in the Trump era. Who could possibly have predicted such a thing?
The answer is, anyone who was paying attention. Look at the people Trump is considering for his Cabinet, and you won’t find any outside-the-box thinkers burning to work for the little guy. It’s a collection of Republican politicians and corporate plutocrats — not much different from who you’d find in any Republican administration.


And then:

Next on the list is that eternal Republican priority, cutting taxes. If you’re waiting for your fat rebate from the government once the establishment has been sent packing, you’re in for a shock. It won’t actually be Trump’s plan precisely that will pass Congress and he’ll sign, it will be some combination of what he wanted and what congressional Republicans want. But the two share a driving principle in common, and you may want to sit down while I tell you that helping regular folks is most definitely not it.

No, their commitment is to be of service to that most oppressed and forgotten group of Americans, the wealthy. Trump’s tax plan would give 47 percent of its benefits to the richest one percent of taxpayers. Paul Ryan’s tax plan is even purer — it gives 76 percent of its cuts to the richest one percent in its first year, and by 2025 would feed 99.6 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent.
Once that’s accomplished, Trump and the Republicans plan to either gut or completely repeal the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, the greatest wish of Wall Street bankers. Can you feel the anti-establishment wind blowing?

So what’s going on here? Most plainly, the voters thinking that Trump would vanquish the establishment were just marks for a con, like those who lost their life savings at Trump University. But it was made possible by the vagueness of the idea of the “establishment” — and some related ideas — and the way people could pour all their dissatisfaction into it and elect they guy promising to destroy it when he had no intention of doing anything of the sort.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

I did not vote for Donald Trump, but I do see why half of America did. He had issues that resonated with them.

1. Immigration reform. 11 million illegal people in our country certainly says something about our security. As of this morning DT plans to build a wall and some fencing across the Mexican border.

2. Jobs-- this means treaty agreements to be renegotiated and companies to be taxed if they export jobs. Money from companies that avoid US taxes overseas will be repatriated to the US

3.INfrastrure repair- desperately needed and will bring jobs

4.REduce Regulation and corporate and individual taxes.

5. When you are referred to as uneducated white person, it begins to rankle and hurt. Trump listened to them and courted them.

No HRC did not have issues. Donald Trump is everything she said he was, but no issues. Bernie had issues. Hillary sort of copied him to get your vote. Its a shame and complicated.

Annette

 

[siamese3]

I can also see why some Americans voted for him. He made them feel good. People like that. I voted for HRC, although I think that she was not the right candidate for the time. She had way too much baggage and controversy surrounding her. I am not naïve, but am rather a realist and a pragmatist. I don't so much care about labels like republican, democrat, conservative or liberal even though as humans we love to label. My belief system is about safety, choice, freedom and valuing humanity. Given the choice between Trump and Clinton, I chose Clinton because she was the more qualified candidate. His rhetoric and inflammatory behavior I can't abide in a leader. I don't like that he couldn't see far enough ahead to see that his "win at any cost" riling up of a hopefully small faction of Americans was irresponsible and very dangerous. I thank anyone that has posted as I want to "hear" others. I am a woefully logical and yet still "emotionally tizzy" of a person and I am saddened beyond belief that this divisive election has caused so much distress and fear.

The system is broken and there are many real and dire problems that face Americans of all shapes and sizes. I don't have the easy answers because I don't believe there are any easy answers. We live in a world that is always changing and evolving and change can be hard. We will not go back to an industrial society and I don't belief we can wall ourselves off from the rest of the world.

I again, thank those who are posting.

 

[Karl_K]

not Hillary

There are a handful of politicians out west who are close to my beliefs but the vast majority I have no use for.
I am a constitutionalist states rights advocate. 90% of what the federal government does it should not be doing.
On many social issues I lean a bit liberal as long as they are done at the state level.

Did I really expect Trump not to kiss up to the corporations and the rest of the bought and payed for politicians?
Not really, but hopefully not to the extent Hillary would have.
Do I trust him? NO.
Do I trust any politician? Do I look that dumb?

 

[jordyonbass]

Not that it's my country, nor would I necessarily vote this way if it was - but my father raised his opinion with me that he thinks people voted for Trump because they are sick of what he calls 'career politicians'; people who have entered politics at a young age with the only prior career experience they have being that of working for unions. He believes that the same thing is happening here in Australia as well and that people will vote for anyone who doesn't look like a typical politician and is relatable as the masses feel someone like that is more likely to have the country's best interests in mind compared to being tainted by years of backhanded political deals.

I don't know if he would have voted for Trump if we lived in the US, but he's the director and co-owner of a multi-million dollar construction company so I am going to lean towards that he probably would have. But then again his comments about Clinton were not critical but supportive so I don't really know how he would have voted.

 

[distracts]

As I see it, some keys issues for those who voted that way were their frustration with Washington political insiders, transparency, trust, pay to play, personal gain over the good of the American public. I feel like Trump, although he is a business man and not a "politician" has much more in common with pay to play politicians and insiders that middle Americans. He has not been transparent at all with his finances. He doesn't seem to be concerned about facts and, in his business dealings, he seems to be the only winner. I think that the problem in Washington is that when politicians simply say "my way, or the high way" everyone loses. I think that politicians need to compromise, so that each side gets something they want. I never understand the need for all or nothing mentality. I simply can't see how he will help make government work.

Plus the suspicious timings of donations to the campaigns of people like Pam Bondi, who was considering a lawsuit against him but surprise surprise dropped it after a large donation. Or how his businesses often "lost" important papers when they were sued. Or how exactly zero of his appointments/rumored appointments thus far are anything but even more establishment than I would have expected. Or his refusal to put his businesses in a blind trust while he is president. Or or or.

Plus Trump has already turned down the private press pool that usually travels with the president-elect, which isn't a terribly good sign for transparency.

Yeah, I don't get it. I won't be surprised if we see one of the most corrupt administrations we've seen in a long time.

 

[Karl_K]

Plus Trump has already turned down the private press pool that usually travels with the president-elect.

To me that is a good sign.
He should take his case directly to the American people and cut the biased and corrupt
what passes for the press out of the picture.
Releases should be released online with a web portal for we the people to submit questions directly.
We no longer need the press to endlessly spin everything out of all context and act as a gateway.
Frankly the press is getting more and more irrelevant every year.
Maybe they will go back to real journalism instead of inventing stories and
blowing BS all out of proportion to feed their own egos and bias.
The non-news that passes for news these days is disgusting.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Yeah, I don't get it. I won't be surprised if we see one of the most corrupt administrations we've seen in a long time.

HC is the most corrupted politician is US history.

 

[Tekate]

Yeah, I don't get it. I won't be surprised if we see one of the most corrupt administrations we've seen in a long time.

HC is the most corrupted politician is US history.

Boss Tweed and Richard Nixon, and now probably Trump.. Clinton can't hold a candle to those scum.

 

[Tekate]

Plus Trump has already turned down the private press pool that usually travels with the president-elect.

To me that is a good sign.
He should take his case directly to the American people and cut the biased and corrupt
what passes for the press out of the picture.
Releases should be released online with a web portal for we the people to submit questions directly.
We no longer need the press to endlessly spin everything out of all context and act as a gateway.
Frankly the press is getting more and more irrelevant every year.
Maybe they will go back to real journalism instead of inventing stories and
blowing BS all out of proportion to feed their own egos and bias.
The non-news that passes for news these days is disgusting.

Can you expand on your 'go back to real journalism' ? I'd be interested to read your thoughts. TU

 

[AnnaH]

Si, taking you at your word that this is a sincere question, I thank you for asking me why I voted for Trump, rather than telling me why I voted for him.
Though ideologically conservative, I'm pragmatic in my expectations, not insisting that everyone must agree with me on all issues. Like most conservatives, I'm not monolithic. I'm consistently prolife, caring deeply about rights of the unborn and opposing the death penalty. I've never used drugs but don't want anyone to go to jail over marijuana. It's none of my business where people sleep, but don't tell me I can't say, "Merry Christmas." This isn't a comprehensive list of my views, of course, just making the point that we don't know one another here as well as some think.
Didn't vote for Trump in the primary but chose him over Clinton for many reasons, the main one being the Supreme Court. Trump has more in common with Clinton than not, but I do believe that he will appoint strict constructionist judges. I hope he will better protect our security, avoid war, reduce regulations, and lower taxes, which should improve our economy.
I appreciate the liberals here (you know who you are) who discuss rather than accuse (at least most of the time) and haven't lost their minds over this election because they know that our founders assured that, as long as we follow our constitution, we won't lose our democracy. To those who name call and would rather think that millions of their fellow Americans are immoral than to consider that they, themselves, may not be as smart or pure as they think, shame on you.

 

[siamese3]

Anna.. I am indeed sincere and I thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I can think I know what motivates other people but most often, in real life, even when you have the hubris to think you truly "know" another person, you don't know what they are thinking, what motivates them, and it can lead to a lot of unnecessary bad feelings on all sides. I think it's hard for people to listen and more often, to really hear another person. I know it's often hard for me but I try very hard to not interrupt, and to not spend all of my time "listening" formulating my response. I am often not successful, but more a work in progress.

 

[AnnaH]

Agree, Si, we all have much to learn.

 

[jaaron]

To me that is a good sign.
He should take his case directly to the American people and cut the biased and corrupt
what passes for the press out of the picture.
Releases should be released online with a web portal for we the people to submit questions directly.
We no longer need the press to endlessly spin everything out of all context and act as a gateway.
Frankly the press is getting more and more irrelevant every year.
Maybe they will go back to real journalism instead of inventing stories and
blowing BS all out of proportion to feed their own egos and bias.
The non-news that passes for news these days is disgusting.

I totally agree with this. Works perfectly in North Korea.