Last October, Ron, a 55-year-old construction analyst for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), was furloughed for 43 days as the Trump administration took a sledgehammer to federal agencies’ budgets under the Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative led by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
“We voted for Trump, not realizing that he was going to slam as hard as he did, but it was on day one when he sat down, right after inauguration, and started signing those executive orders and just trashed us federal employees, it was a kick in the teeth,” Ron said.
“If people would just listen and research and do something other than just listen to Fox News, we may all be better off, but it's going to take an open mind and an ability to say, ‘I made a mistake,’ because once you say you made a mistake, you can turn the ship around,” said Chrissey Kelley, 50, a stay-at-home mom.
Speaking out against MAGA cost the Kelleys relationships with friends and family members who support Trump, but in sharing their story, they hope to inspire others having doubts about the GOP.
“It's okay to be wrong. You made a mistake, it was a bad choice, but it's not the end of the world. We can fix it. We just got to ride it out and hold strong and support each other through it,” Ron said.
. . . Chrissey said she became a Republican as soon as she started voting.
“You were just a conservative. There was no thought behind it. You listen to Fox News, and you listen to conservative outlets, and you're spoon-fed,” Chrissey said.
Ron, who served in the military for 25 years, said the 2008 housing market crash left him “really disillusioned with the Democratic Party.”
When he couldn’t find work in Detroit, he moved to Georgia. He supported Republicans because he associated them with bigger spending on defense.
Ron said he supported Trump with donations, bumper stickers and the “whole nine yards” of MAGA.
“I bought into the lie about the stolen election and all that, and I thought January 6 insurrectionists were actually patriots,” Ron said.
“I just remember being content with thinking that he was what we needed, and he was going to drain the swamp in Washington until he got into office this third term, and realizing that I was dumb as a rock, and I believed everything that I was spoon fed.”
. . . “Just watching the policies of what's happening in our world today unfold one by one by one, I just started drawing up very different conclusions and found out that I was clueless, and most people are today, but now I'm awake and looking at it for what it is, and I cannot believe that he had my support,” Chrissey said.
“It's lie after lie after lie.”
Ron said he now votes for Democrats, and Chrissey said she considers herself an Independent but has voted for Democrats three times now, something she “never thought in my entire life” would happen.
“The road we're headed down now, if we don't turn this truck around, we're so close to going off the edge of the cliff that we need to stick together,” Ron said.
“We need to put our country back together. It might take decades, but don't give up. We need to be vocal. Stay strong, and follow our laws and Constitution, and hold strong with our values, not the values that the MAGA claims that we have, but the values that we've had in the past 250 years from the founding of the country til Joe Biden's era.”
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I live in Germany genius. I get to see first hand how your all easily scared and vote against your best interest all because of those "mmigrants". The AFD continue to get more and more votes every year. Italy voted in a facist sympathizer and Spain has nostalgia for Franco. You're thinking is exactly why things are getting worse. You have this holier than thou arrogance that makes you think you can never slip back into facism. And I get to watch all the same talking points ppl said about trump never getting elected get repeated while the population votes more and more right wing nuts in.
Living in France, Germany, and Spain has taught me you Europeans are all just as stupid, naive, and arrogant as Americans. The funniest part is all my german friends say most of Europe is 5 years away from looking exactly like the US
Edit: also European arrogance is honestly worse. American arrogance is from more of a place of ignorance/propaganda and white supremacy. European arrogance is more smug/vain but also comes from white supremacy
Wait until actual diversity approaches.
Well you can take the American out of the US, but you can't... never mind.
I would ask in what way I claimed I was "holier than thou", but frankly I don't care. I would also ask what media you consume, because it's clearly not giving you a differentiated picture. But you and your friends sound like the whiny, defeatist lefties (probably pretty young too), that are exactly why things sound like they are getting worse, leading to cozy self-imposed surrender, so again I don't care. Luckily I am seeing a growing number of people and organizations that are analyzing mistakes and creating ideas for the future and acting on them, which is why I am positive that Europe will not look like that failed state across the Atlantic in 5 years at all... I never claimed that we can never slide back into facism and I don't claim it will be a linear path, but as long as there's enough people doing effective shit against facism, which includes getting people out of those bubbles and welcoming them when they made it out, maybe even analyze how they got dragged into the right-wing narrative in the first place and getting active against those root causes as well, I'm hopeful. The doom-scrolling whiners that run away as soon as things get a bit uncomfortable won't help, but I don't see those being the majority.
Edit: Yeah, yeah, everything is white supremacy in the end... leftist folks have been sounding like broken records for years, having nothing to offer except pearl-clutching and online-outrage. That won't improve things, hasn't worked so far, won't work going forward.
Im in my mid 30s and my friends range from their 60's to their 20's. Plus Im a black dude. If theres one thing i can easily recognize its white arrogance and you're embarrassing need to sweep it under the rug is reminiscent of America. Europe is LITERALLY the home of white supremacy and you went around the world ransacking thE globe yet somehow you think it just magically ended after WW2.
Youre probably one of those city folks who never venture out into the country side and see the ignorance and hatred of those in rural communities who feel left behind. You yourself exist in a thought bubble because you probably only surround yourself with those that agree with you. Germany thought the Social Democrats would never work with the AFD but look what happened.
You can fight all you want but the biggest issue in american politics isnt leftist giving up. Its centrist siding with facist and thats exactly what's happening across Europe. You can be as hopeful as you want but as long as right wing politicians stoke the fans of hatred vs immigrants and ppl keep falling for it you're screwed. Id honestly say you're dumber because you can see the playbook playing in real time in America but you all keep falling for it. Imagine supporting the National Front, UK conservatives, AFD, or FDI after you saw what Trump was doing. Yet here we are
Yes here we are... still whining and misdiagnosing the root causes, and playing the "people who lived on the same continent of where you are now ages ago did bad things so you inherited guilt and must always be wrong". Exactly the divisive playbook that will not get anyone anywhere good. This is getting dull, have a good one and greetings from the country side (admittedly not the very poor and left-behind kind).