2024 Presidential Election Thread

[Commando]

My FIL is a retired engineer. MIL is a retired teacher. GFIL is a retired Air Force software engineer who designed and oversaw some of the systems in Cheyenne Mountain. Fox News has successfully melted their brains. These are smart people who have Fox on all day. They are full-in for Trump. They can not really explain their support, only that they are convinced the Democrats are awful, possibly evil.

Dad came from humble circumstances (Grandpa worked for the local dairy most his life after WWII + family ended college aspirations, despite a scholarship). Dad's been a Republican all his life, but also a lawyer, so a more nuanced conservative. Step-mom is a retired orchestra teacher from Southern Utah. I'm pretty sure that's where their subscription to Epoch Times came from. They are not dumb people, but I suspect they are right-to-life single issue voters, leading to them willing to hold their nose to vote for whoever can get them there.

Brother has been conservative. Got advanced degrees in Economics. Then he moved to Texas. Now he's election-denying, Texas has the right view on everything full on crazy. He is not dumb, but I feel he is too intelligent to be acting this way.

I've been a conservative republican most of my life, even leaning libertarian. In college, I thought Austrian economics had a lot of good points, and read the Mises Institute and Lew Rockwell regularly. I went to law school, and was forced to really look at some of my views through the lens of what government power actually looks like, and what it should look like. I moderated my views somewhat. I am still a registered Republican, but I talk to other Republicans in person at local Republican events and I think THEY ARE INSANE.

Being intelligent is not mutually exclusive with being unreasonable in politics.

Well said. My mom's not an idiot, but she will smugly disagree with me about things I know for a fact I am literally an expert in and she knows ZERO. Fk Fox News.

[All-American]

So if everyone here is legitimately smart, and you constantly think that we are all wrong, maybe this is time for a little introspection. Or the fact is, you don't really believe people here are smart.

Sometimes it is almost helpful to be dumb. A lot of smart people have the brainpower to work through any objection and find their way to the pre-destined outcome they always desired in the first place. The rest of us just can't work out why a really bad or inconvenient fact doesn't mean what it appears to very clearly mean, and therefore have to accept it.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I don't think he constantly thinks people here are wrong about everything. I haven't seen that. You don't think he can disagree with people on a single point without having second thoughts about their overall intelligence? Is this what gaslighting is?

There is nobody here who lectures, scolds, or insults people more than fusnik. And its not even close. I don't think he is even capable of making a point without including an insult of some kind. So yeah, he doesn't really respect other posters or think we are smart. When he says, "otherwise smart people..." or "I can't understand how a group of smart people..." before delivering another condescending rant, it is no different than sarcastically starting off with "With all due respect...".

[Jeff Lebowski]

My FIL is a retired engineer. MIL is a retired teacher. GFIL is a retired Air Force software engineer who designed and oversaw some of the systems in Cheyenne Mountain. Fox News has successfully melted their brains. These are smart people who have Fox on all day. They are full-in for Trump. They can not really explain their support, only that they are convinced the Democrats are awful, possibly evil.

Dad came from humble circumstances (Grandpa worked for the local dairy most his life after WWII + family ended college aspirations, despite a scholarship). Dad's been a Republican all his life, but also a lawyer, so a more nuanced conservative. Step-mom is a retired orchestra teacher from Southern Utah. I'm pretty sure that's where their subscription to Epoch Times came from. They are not dumb people, but I suspect they are right-to-life single issue voters, leading to them willing to hold their nose to vote for whoever can get them there.

Brother has been conservative. Got advanced degrees in Economics. Then he moved to Texas. Now he's election-denying, Texas has the right view on everything full on crazy. He is not dumb, but I feel he is too intelligent to be acting this way.

I've been a conservative republican most of my life, even leaning libertarian. In college, I thought Austrian economics had a lot of good points, and read the Mises Institute and Lew Rockwell regularly. I went to law school, and was forced to really look at some of my views through the lens of what government power actually looks like, and what it should look like. I moderated my views somewhat. I am still a registered Republican, but I talk to other Republicans in person at local Republican events and I think THEY ARE INSANE.

Being intelligent is not mutually exclusive with being unreasonable in politics.

I doubt anyone has more trump-loving family members than me. I love and respect them all. And I often look at many of them and think perhaps if my life circumstances were more similar to theirs, I would be in the same boat. I try not to judge them or think less of them.

[BigPiney]

I doubt anyone has more trump-loving family members than me. I love and respect them all. And I often look at many of them and think perhaps if my life circumstances were more similar to theirs, I would be in the same boat. I try not to judge them or think less of them.

I am not successful at this at all.

[LVAllen]

I doubt anyone has more trump-loving family members than me. I love and respect them all. And I often look at many of them and think perhaps if my life circumstances were more similar to theirs, I would be in the same boat. I try not to judge them or think less of them.

I love my family. They may drive me crazy at times, and we disagree on things they think I should agree with them on, but I still love them. The only thing that makes me think less of my brother is when he insists his trash-ass Texas BBQ is better tasting than my Dude-inspired food.

[Northwestcoug]

I don't know why I thought about Stewart's reaction to the 2016 election today, but a lot of it still resonates:

At some point (if it hasn't already) the 'Trump problem' will become a 'GOP voter problem'. If they continue to vote for someone like him, then that's on them. But like Stewart alludes to, most of those voters are not as 'bad' as Trump. We are all tribal and can be easily swayed by rhetoric, even people as smart as Fusnik. Although I wish my Mom could see through the fog of indoctrination she gets from Fox News, she like everyone else are not immune to emotional arguments. I try to give grace, as much as I can.

Except for people like my Aunt, who disingenuously champions the American worker with memes about grocery and gas prices when she solidly resides in the top 1% of Americans. For her, my righteous anger burns bright and pure.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I love my family. They may drive me crazy at times, and we disagree on things they think I should agree with them on, but I still love them. The only thing that makes me think less of my brother is when he insists his trash-ass Texas BBQ is better tasting than my Dude-inspired food.

[USUC]

You guys talk about Fox News as if they, or OAN or Newsmax didn't exist everyone in this country would be enlightened liberals. False consciousness can't explain why some people disagree with you. It doesn't excuse support for Trump, but there are elements of justified concern underlying their disdain for progressives.

[Commando]

You guys talk about Fox News as if they, or OAN or Newsmax didn't exist everyone in this country would be enlightened liberals. False consciousness can't explain why some people disagree with you. It doesn't excuse support for Trump, but there are elements of justified concern underlying their disdain for progressives.

They wouldn't be brainwashed. Is that such a high bar to aspire to?

[Jeff Lebowski]

You guys talk about Fox News as if they, or OAN or Newsmax didn't exist everyone in this country would be enlightened liberals. False consciousness can't explain why some people disagree with you. It doesn't excuse support for Trump, but there are elements of justified concern underlying their disdain for progressives.

Oh boy. Brace yourself.

[Shaka]

For all the rhetoric and hyperbole about all the damage Trump will do there's already a four-year glimpse into how he actually runs a presidency. Could it be all of your smart relatives are relying more on his track record the last time he was president rather than all the hysterical crap passed around by some on here and much of the media? I'm sitting here watching the basketball game with one of the nation's top tax attorneys (BYU grad) and he's voting for Trump because he liked Trump's policies when he was president. This guy is the opposite of stupid.

[Commando]

For all the rhetoric and hyperbole about all the damage Trump will do there's already a four-year glimpse into how he actually runs a presidency. Could it be all of your smart relatives are relying more on his track record the last time he was president rather than all the hysterical crap passed around by some on here and much of the media? I'm sitting here watching the basketball game with one of the nation's top tax attorneys (BYU grad) and he's voting for Trump because he liked Trump's policies when he was president. This guy is the opposite of stupid.

Disagree.

[USUC]

They wouldn't be brainwashed. Is that such a high bar to aspire to?

If only the problem was simplistic enough that cable news disappearing would solve everything.

[Shaka]

Disagree.

Your response is reasonable. That sort of thing should happen more often.