Serious answers only. For over a year I was told that trump “doesn’t have anything to do with that”.

I honestly need to know from an actual Republican who believed trumps words and is now witnessing p2025 almost hit 50% completion with the department of education getting dismantled.

And with that; how do these people feel that public schools, daycare centers and tech schools all going to cost 3-6x as much as it does now for tuition?

  • 10001110101@lemm.eeEnglish
    40·
    20 hours ago

    I know a couple life-long Republicans I sometimes briefly talk about politics with (one family, one acquaintance). Neither of them like Trump, but like the idea around Project 2025. One is an evangelical Christian, the other is a Catholic.

    The Catholic strongly believes government should be run like a business, and the president should be like a CEO, so he should be able to fire everyone and replace them, if needed, with workers that will execute his plans. He’s also an anti-abortion, and tough-on-crime/immigration type. However, he strongly disapproves of Trump seemingly being pro-Russian now, Trump and his cabinet’s personal lives (he’s always strangely fixated on people’s personal lives, in a moral sense, for some reason), the take-over of the FBI and CIA, and the tariffs hurting his stock portfolio.

    The evangelical Christian just doesn’t like Trump as a person, and doesn’t like Russia. He’s a just-world-hypothesis, small government, women are subservient, pro-business type; but also low/lower-middle-class, and has needed, and will need the social services he opposes. I guess his opinions are pretty similar to the Catholic’s, just a little more extreme on the social side, and supports policies that have always hurt him. I mean, Republican policies hurt the (fairly wealthy) Catholic too, but at least they get to say their taxes are lower and there’s less red-tape.

    • whereisk@lemmy.world
      11·
      16 hours ago

      “Government should be run like a business” sounds like a totalitarian religion.

      So basically the opposite of what the founding fathers wanted with separation of powers and checks and balances, right?

      I thought these people were cosplaying traditionalists.

      • 10001110101@lemm.eeEnglish
        7·
        16 hours ago

        Yeah, these people are ignorant of and don’t care about civics. The ignorance of the one guy surprised me, because they went to a decent college, but didn’t even know what gerrymandering was. They are un-american, IMO.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          10 hours ago

          And this boys, girls, and the Eldritch entity in my cupboard is why the humanities are so important, if you want other examples go watch the Behind the Bastards episodes on the Zizians.

    • eronth@lemmy.world
      5·
      16 hours ago

      He thinks the president should hire/fire anyone they want, but they dislike the people the president has been choosing.

  • yarr@feddit.nlEnglish
    33·
    22 hours ago

    Project 2025 is the most double talky I’ve ever seen Donald Trump. “Project 2025? Nope, never seen it, never heard of anything in it, but it’s got some great ideas. I’m not going to follow it and I don’t have anything to do with it but I hear it has some really good ideas, but I won’t be adhering to them.”

    Reminds me of the “Unite The Right” rally where he wouldn’t really condemn anyone: “Those folks are really nasty, but also there’s a lot of good folks.”

    I think this is part of his “charm”. He double talks, so if you are a fan you perk up on the positives and let your eyes glass over during the bad parts.

    • kava@lemmy.world
      7·
      14 hours ago

      this was actually a key part of Hitler’s strategy. early on in the Nazi meetings they would try to pin down and give an exact agenda and set of policies.

      he would yell at everyone that they’re missing the point. it’s more about the vibe than the logic. being vague and ambiguous keeps your options open.

      “It is not truth that matters, but victory.” Adolph

      By refusing precise definitions, you are able to retroactively decide what the ideology “always meant”. so when it’s convenient to hate against health insurance CEOs you are “against the swamp”. when it’s convenient to dismantle the government you are “against the swamp”

      it can mean whatever you want it to. similar with the “enemies of the state”

      nazis would use the word marxists or “degenerates” very loosely. makes it very easy to shift blame to a specific target or another when necessary

      berlin’s degeneracy is because of gays, somewhere else it may be gypsies, another it’s the jews, etc.

      today we see phrases like “radical leftists” “cultural marxists” “woke ideology” etc

      a federal judge blocked some of Trump’s orders (Trump ignored it of course) and what does he call him? a radical left judge. something that couldn’t be further from the truth- radical left would imply some type of communist or socialist. but it doesn’t really matter because the term is vague enough it can work

  • Lazer365@lemm.ee
    131·
    1 day ago

    I live surrounded by republicans and they are super happy with all the good things Trump is doing together with puppet master Musk. Everything that he said during his fake State of the Union was truth and proof of his many victories during the first 2 months of his presidency. I tried once to bring up how the tariffs are sales tax for Americans (making life even more unaffordable), because I thought that would be something nobody could disagree with, and weeks later I’m still getting shit about it. I am convinced that he could launch a nuke on a ‘lib city’ and most of the republicans would still applaud it. In a cult the leader is always right and is never to blame for the bad.

    • SaraTonin@lemm.eeEnglish
      45·
      1 day ago

      There’s a guy in the news at the moment who has started a GoFundMe for a legal defence for his wife who has been deported. Says he doesn’t regret his vote for Trump.

    • SolidShake@lemmy.worldOP
      51·
      1 day ago

      It’s crazy. How many Democrats do you know that had Joe Biden profile pictures? I know people can’t tell their in a cult usually. But man they make it obvious most of the time.

      • GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        20·
        22 hours ago

        I got into an argument with my dad a couple days ago about this exact thing.

        I was bitching that despite being given unlimited power, Biden just fucked off and let the carion eaters have their way with the corpse of America. His response? “It’s all Biden’s fault.” He’s being sarcastic and thinks he’s making fun of maga, but he’s right. This shit is Biden’s fault. And Garland’s, and all the other bitches in Blue. He actually thinks I’m defending fucking TRUMP when i point out Dems fuckups. He goes on and on about how politics isn’t a team sport, but then he engages in fucking tribalism, just like the magats.

        It’s infuriating.

    • nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      11·
      1 day ago

      yea it seems they are into this idea that manufacturing will come back in the united states. nevermind that the equity growth and low prices of goods these guys are enjoying are due to the united states not manufacturing things, getting things through trade while exporting intellectual property instead. nothing they are doing is going to bring down home prices. it’s objectively a misunderstanding of economics.

  • db2@lemmy.world
    239·
    1 day ago

    Most are fine with it. Remember the people that died of covid denying it existed the whole time? That’s the type. They’re dumb af.

  • sifr@retrolemmy.comEnglish
    63·
    1 day ago

    At this point, I don’t know why Republicans don’t outright just say they want people who they see as less than them suffering and/or dead. That’s their only consistent political view.

    • prole
      7·
      22 hours ago

      So many of them are in denial about it themselves. It’s very strange indeed.

  • Caffeinated_Sloth@lemmy.world
    125·
    1 day ago

    Just for some perspective: in 2009 I was a Christian nationalist and I thought Obama was going to use FEMA to imprison conservative dissenters and would turn the US into a communist dictatorship. I hoped and prayed for an explicitly Christian government and an end to most federal programs. If I had the same worldview now, I would be orgasmically happy with the way things are going.

      • AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee
        6·
        11 hours ago

        Not the person you replied to but I also used to be a hardcore Christian conservative.

        Honestly just talking to people with different viewpoints than me. Back when Reddit was decent I would troll with conservative BS to get a rise out of commenters, but occasionally people would reply with points I couldn’t refute. Making IRL friends helped a lot too. I realized people actually have nuance in their opinions and there’s a lot more gray area than I realized. Leaving religion was the last step for me. Once my identity was no longer my beliefs I was able to change them.

        Its part of what scares me about the internet now, we all get locked in little echo chambers. Nobody’s viewpoints get challanged and there’s no honest debate any more. Defederated social media will only make it worse as there will be 10,000 different Lemmys, each one for an exactly specific set of beliefs that will never be questioned.

    • Machinist@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      22 hours ago

      What denomination, primarily, were you? Did you manage to get anyone out with you? (I was unable.)

      • madsjchic@lemm.eeEnglish
        25·
        1 day ago

        Not even trying to be mean but probably themself or someone they know personally got hurt.

          • Machinist@lemmy.worldEnglish
            7·
            22 hours ago

            Oh, hey. That whole mind expanding thing really isn’t a joke. I look back, sometimes, on who I used to be.

          • Caffeinated_Sloth@lemmy.world
            12·
            21 hours ago

            You do see that quite a bit in “ex” subreddits. Personal experience can shake anyone’s views, not just “that crowd.” Spiritual abuse played a role in pushing me away from religious fundamentalism, but there were other factors that laid the groundwork. The process took years and key elements involved a mind-expanding book, two compassionate friends, a podcast, and a local news story that showed me God was quite a bit different than I thought he was. I’ll write the book about it under another comment.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
    29·
    1 day ago

    Edit: apparently the part in OP starting “From a Republican…” is not meant to imply that OP is a Republican. As it lacked a main verb, I assumed it was ultimately meant as a relative clause and misassigned it to “I”. Leaving this comment anyway but it doesn’t apply to OP.

    I appreciate you taking the time to write this post, and I appreciate you noticing this trend.

    But I’ve got to be honest: the writing was on the wall the whole time. Being in the Republican bubble doesn’t really change the fact that you only get here from a lack of critical thinking and a general susceptibility to propaganda. These are things that many people spend time and resources getting educated about. It’s hard to have sympathy when the whole country is now suffering because so many were so sure they knew better.

    If I sound angry, I am. I do hope you take it constructively, but you also need to understand: most of the damage has already been done. It doesn’t really matter how you feel from here on out, because the deed (from voters) is done.

  • ToadOfHypnosis@lemm.eeEnglish
    42·
    1 day ago

    The older ones are hearing stories of social security being canceled on people like them and they are getting nervous. My vehement Trump supporting co-workers are having trouble backing things he does. The cracks are small and slow but the confidence in their statements of support are getting weaker. I think some support is eroding, but it’s slow. It’s really going to have to affect them more directly for it to fully erode sadly. Though I think it will, the damage the right will inflict in the mean time will change this country for generations.

    • JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml
      11·
      21 hours ago

      Trump knows that his supporters are going to turn on him eventually, which is why he’s working so hard to set up an infrastructure that can crush opposition without due process. He’s also testing the waters about ignoring court orders.

      If the supreme court lets him use the AEA then that means the president can use war-time statutes without Congress needing to declare a war, which means that he’ll be able to use a different statute to deploy the military on US territory. At that point, US democracy is officially over.

    • Madison420@lemmy.world
      10·
      1 day ago

      You can tell it’s hitting, every repub that was loud af about trump this trump that good idea this good idea that. The only thing I’ve heard lately is the CRT stuff that they just don’t understand because they’re unable to see anything from anyone else’s perspective and one of their buddies kids asked their parents about the racist comments they were making and if they were racist.

    • prole
      1·
      22 hours ago

      Well historically, that doesn’t really matter all that much. They just stop talking about it openly and continue to quietly support it and vote for it.

    • folkrav@lemmy.ca
      6·
      1 day ago

      Wait till they officially start calling for a constitutional amendments and they suddenly start losing some of their own rights. But by then who knows what it’s gonna look like.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
    29·
    1 day ago

    I don’t know any republicans personally but I would not be surprised if, given a choice between admitting fault and feeling bad, or literally any other option including lying or violence, they won’t admit fault. If they weren’t emotionally stunted, they wouldn’t be conservatives.

    • TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.caEnglish
      24·
      1 day ago

      This is why blaming conservatives or getting them to admit fault doesn’t work. It only makes them become more defensive and entrenched.

      A better approach is to appeal to their victim complex. IE: Instead of “Trump is ruining this country and its your fault for voting for him!” try “Dude, Trump is screwing us! This isn’t the great America we were promised!” or some variation of that. Gotta use different tactics.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
        14·
        1 day ago

        Yeah, you have to make them see you as a member of a shared in-group. That’s the most important thing to them (and many people, honestly. we’re all susceptible to tribalism and such)

      • JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml
        2·
        22 hours ago

        I’m not sure it’s possible to blame Trump rather than his voters when he literally promised to make most of these changes. It might be more effective to say that Trump was misled by Musk.

    • prole
      3·
      22 hours ago

      I have literally stopped speaking to my parents over this and have put the ball in their court, telling them that all they need to do is re-evaluate their position about this one fucking guy and admit they were wrong.

      And I guess they’re fine with just not speaking to their son instead.

    • nimpnin@sopuli.xyz
      4·
      1 day ago

      Humans in general are very hesitant to admit that they were wrong. Cult members doubly so.

      • prole
        2·
        22 hours ago

        It’s so unfortunate too, because so many of our society’s current ills can literally be boiled down to “so and so refused to admit they were wrong”

        • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
          2·
          21 hours ago

          Yeah I realized admitting fault is kind of a power move. You can just be like “oh! I was wrong. Woops” and what might have been a like hour long argument about some unimportant minutia instead just wraps up. Nothing bad happens.

  • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    37·
    1 day ago

    Republicans lie. As any fascist party, they don’t have any consistent ideology beyond hurting people. They’ll invent whatever reasoning and justification they need to justify their bullying, and they’ll immediately abandon that reason for another convenient excuse when necessary.

    Republicans lie. They knew damn well what Project 2025 was, and they were in favor of all of it. When they said Trump had nothing to do with it, they were lying. Republicans ultimately don’t care what happens to society, or even themselves personally. They would gladly vote to lower the quality of their own lives, as long as the undesirables were hurt in equal measure.

  • Libra00@lemmy.worldEnglish
    38·
    1 day ago

    Oh no, the lying liar who is best known for lying about literally everything lied and gullible people believed it (or conveniently ignored it, or didn’t care or thought it was just peachy because they thought it wouldn’t apply to them and were perfectly fine with it applying to other people)? Who could possibly have predicted that? Oh wait, I think literally every left wing person in the US predicted that.

    • prole
      3·
      22 hours ago

      I’d prefer to never have to interact with someone that hateful and stupid.

  • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    You were lied to, unfortunately. Project 2025 was always their plan, and as you’re seeing now, they’re going full steam ahead with it. The best thing you can do now is learn from this mistake. Don’t trust what politicians tell you they want, or tell you they’re doing; see for yourself what they’re actually doing.

    By the way, you’re going to get responses from like 95% leftists since it’s lemmy. Doesn’t mean they’re wrong though.