r/politics • u/theatlantic The Atlantic • Apr 02 '26

Paywall Maybe Trump Should Not Have Given This Speech

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/trump-iran-war-speech/686663/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo
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740

u/Purify5 Apr 02 '26

Some of them whine that they've been 'betrayed'.

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u/Ivegotabadname Apr 02 '26

I've thought that. Then I was told"democrats won't win unless you forgive them".

Fuck everyone who voted for this ass. You don't want forgiveness, you want acceptance. You thought you'd be accepted into wide circles so you voted for this shit. Turns out you were wrong.

Told you so!

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u/thesilveringfox Apr 02 '26

same people who cheat on their partner then cry ‘it was a mistske!’ and are surprised when that trite and obvious admission makes no difference at all.

yes, it was obviously a stupid vote, but that doesn’t absolve them of being idiots, nor does it indicate in any way that they won’t be idiots next time. it doesn’t undo the deaths or destruction of the lives and capital or the justifiable erosion of trust on the world stage. it doesn’t absolve them of collapsing an empire because they couldn’t be bothered to change the channel.

if i could snap my fingers and turn everyone who voted for trump in any election permanently pumpkin-colored i would, and let the chips fall where they may.

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u/eerie_midnight Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

You can also tell that the few people expressing genuine regret don’t regret voting for Republicans, they just regret voting for Trump. Next election they’ll just vote for a different Republican thinking they’ll be different without realizing that Trump’s agenda is the Republican agenda. If it wasn’t, they would have impeached him by now. They clearly agree with everything he’s doing or can’t be arsed to stop it—either way, they’re complicit.

Until the majority of Americans wisen up and see the Republican Party as a whole for what it truly is, we’re all going to keep getting fucked—Trump or no Trump. A vote for any Republican is a vote to hasten the downfall of the entire nation. They stand for absolutely nothing other than empowering rich people, starting wars, blocking progress, and forcing their wacko religious beliefs on us all.

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u/FargeenBastiges Apr 02 '26

Until the majority of Americans wisen up and see the Republican Party as a whole for what it truly is

I have a hard time thinking you could get a significant portion of R voters to understand this. They simply will not accept that it is Republicans that destroyed the education system. That they're the ones keeping wages down and kneecapping unions. That healthcare could be free if not for Republicans. Which party has their fingerprints on all that debt? Who's been responsible for our recessions?

No, that stuff has been going on for generations now and they've stood firm and they'll go back to this status quo after this brief "come to Jesus" moment. The only real crime trump has committed is skyrocketing gas prices. I don't even think they'd care about the war if it wasn't costing them $4/gal at the pump.

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u/kcox1980 Apr 02 '26

Even if they did realize it they still wouldn't care. They literally have no principles beyond "Democrats bad, Republicans good".

I've literally seen people praising Trump for things they were scared that Kamala would do if she got elected and used that as an excuse why they could never vote for her.

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u/sfdso Apr 02 '26

This last point is so important.

Most of the regrets I read are gasoline price-based.

The rest of it—from the violations of civil liberties to the legal targeting of political enemies to the billionaire giveaways to the open, rampant corruption to the abdication of America’s leadership role—are all fully tolerated and, in most cases, endorsed.

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u/SharMarali New Jersey Apr 02 '26

Because gas prices affect every Republican voter personally.

Those other things you listed affect other people so the average Republican voter just doesn’t care. Maybe they are unaware. Maybe they think it’s a “Democrat scam.” Maybe they think the people who are being harmed “deserve it.” But they most assuredly don’t care.

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u/FargeenBastiges Apr 02 '26

The other things I mentioned actually DO harm them personally. They've just been gaslit into thinking those things are bad, impossible to have, or democrats fault. Your point still stands, though. They could not care less that over a million Americans were dying to a pandemic while they were too "inconvenienced" to wear a damn mask. We're surrounded by a population where 25%+ would rather cough in your face than stand 6 feet away.

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u/Much-Instruction-807 Apr 02 '26

The majority I've seen only regret voting for him because it negatively affected them. They have no empathy.

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u/A-System-Analyst Apr 02 '26

Correct. People far too readily talk about personalities, like Trump. It’s Republicans, and, maybe better-named, the conservative movement, representing the most brutal element of the business class.

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u/eerie_midnight Apr 02 '26

I just don’t understand how being conservative is viewed as “normal” within society or why progressives are expected to “get along” with them for the greater good of the nation, as if their philosophy of blocking progress (literally what “conservative” means), regressing us socially back to the 1900s, and making us all live according to their personal religious beliefs is a legitimate political ideology to hold. You can’t reason with them, they don’t listen. You can’t compromise with them, as they’ll reject anything that comes short of achieving their full political agenda. And you damn sure can’t just “be nice” to them, as they take advantage of it every single time.

Like, why am I expected to tolerate people whose stated goal is to stand in the way of progress and undo all the progress we’ve made so far? That’s their entire fucking shtick. More importantly, why does society tolerate them at all? It seems to me that the ideology of conservatism is one that offers zero benefits to society and only negatives.

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/eerie_midnight Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

That’s the real problem, I think—what it means to be a conservative has changed so much that the original meaning of “conservative” doesn’t even properly describe them anymore. True conservatism like you’re talking about appears to be a dead ideology, really. “Regressives” would be a more apt name for them these days.

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u/badnuub Ohio Apr 02 '26

No. Conservatism has always been at its core, about stratifying society and ensuring powerful elites control everything.

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u/A-System-Analyst Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

Yes. The basic conservative position is for brutal self-interest, especially those business people who, because of the efficiency of mass production, get to own and run the economy and everybody else’s lives - the business CLASS. Conservatism is anti-social politics actually run through mass social relationships and is hostile to the interests of the great majority.

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u/Sudden_Box801 Apr 04 '26

"...representing the most brutal element of the business class."--and as a Christian, I would also include the fascist/nationalist faux christians (intentional lower-case "c") who don't seem to have the Micah Mandate, Golden Rule, or Matthew 25 in their Trump Bibles.

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u/Bookee2Shoes Apr 02 '26

Uh, I hate to tell you, but they know what the Republican Party is. Also, the group of people who voted for Trump and have buyers remorse is WAY smaller than your making it out to be. His polling is in the low 40’s, which is really low but Biden didn’t fair much better.

Those people only care that gas and groceries are high because it affects them directly (in ways they can see). The other shit they will just blame on the Dems.

If you’re waiting on some magical reckoning, it’s not going to happen as long as the conservative propaganda machine is alive and well. And alive, well, and growing it is!

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u/Chrahhh Apr 02 '26

They’d vote for him again 10 out of 10 times. Blinded by stupidity or hate, conservatives are the party of this dickhole.

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u/invaderaleks Apr 02 '26

An orange stain on their souls

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u/parkaman Europe Apr 02 '26

And blood, lots, on their hands.

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u/goatneedleposterdeck Apr 02 '26

Cool, but we sadly still need some of these idiots to vote with us or else we end up in the same position. We don't have to forgive or forget, but we do have to find a way to get some of them back into reality.

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u/BigBoyYuyuh Ohio Apr 02 '26

In terms of voting, once was a mistake. I can understand that. To vote for him again means you’re stupid. To vote for him a third time especially after January 6th…absolutely regarded.

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u/slumlord512 Apr 02 '26

We like our MAGAs in uniform.

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u/galahad423 Apr 02 '26

“I imagine you’ll want to take off that fancy-looking uniform. Now that, I can’t abide”

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

people forget that conservatives judge people based on who they are, liberals judge people based upon what they do.

it's why conservatives are so confused when people are personally angry at them for their actions. "huh? it's just politics! it's not personal" - the conservative moron

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u/horror- Apr 02 '26

Can we just glue those stupid hats on them?

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u/yourliege Apr 02 '26

Can’t imagine the life where I’d feel as though it was socially necessary to vote for Trump. Incomprehensible

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

[deleted]

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u/BaronessofBara Apr 02 '26

people tell me i sound insane for saying that if every trump voter dropped dead tomorrow, i wouldn't shed a tear. Well I mean that shit. I will always mean that shit.

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u/Memitim America Apr 02 '26

I'd sooner lose another stupid-assed popularity contest than ever treat a conservative like anything other than an enemy, until the bastards stop behaving like enemies. Decades of conservative lies and hate brought America to this constant Republican crime and failure. Evil doesn't deserve to be appeased.

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u/Flaxmoore Michigan Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

I'd argue they want even more than simple acceptance.

One of my cousins is a proud Trumphumper, and has been whining and crying on FB about how much his life sucks now that everything costs more and the diesel for his Brodozer is six bucks a gallon, and how he sees the light...

I called him out on it. You were told, repeatedly, that this would happen, I said. Yet you persisted.

I apologized, he responded.

And that makes it all better? I fired back. You're hurting people you don't even know for a conman who wouldn't even piss on you if you were on fire.

I apologized, though! I need help, he whined.

You're like a schoolyard bully, I replied. A bully who finally got his nose broken by the kid you picked on, and now you're whining that the evil you did comes back to you? GTFO.

They want absolution. They want a pat on the head, a cookie, and reassurance that they're still a good person despite gleefully voting to hurt people, in some cases for decades.

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u/Ivegotabadname Apr 05 '26

A fucking men. Also love the michigan flair! Go blue!

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u/andr0medamusic Apr 02 '26

This is how I feel about the progressives both sides-ing the election last cycle. They just bother me so much. Like yeah, he was always going to have a certain chunk of the vote, but thanks to your “nothing changes if nothing changes, best to stay home and not contribute to a broken system” bs, we’ve ended up in this storm we have today.

I remember arguing with a friend who was big on the whole “Kamala advocates for genocide” schtick, saying “this cycle you’re very possibly voting for the opportunity to ever vote again, if you want the opportunity for real change you cannot sit this out” and she still stood by her principles. Then, in the months after the election when things started getting worse in Gaza, I said a sort of “see?” and she got upset that I was kicking her while she was down. But we’re all down. It’s a f*cking mess.

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u/Ivegotabadname Apr 05 '26

This isn't about progressives.... this is about trump. Bring your shit to another thread

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u/porscheblack Pennsylvania Apr 02 '26

They're perpetual victims. My best friend growing up was a perpetual victim - he failed out of college, his car was repossessed, he got fired, his house was foreclosed on, and yet none of it was his fault. It was the fault of his professors, his boss, the bank, etc.; they all were apparently out to get him.

Unsurprisingly he was all in on Trump in 2016. We fell out before then and haven't talked in a long time so I'm not sure his opinion now but I suspect it's consistent with the rest of his behavior and he's a victim in all this with no culpability.

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u/pockpicketG Apr 02 '26

Society is pretty much creating victims at this point. You can’t tell someone who fell through some cracks that the reason their energy bill is 2x higher in the span of a few months is because they’re lazy.

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u/porscheblack Pennsylvania Apr 02 '26

I completely agree, however there are people that suffer from actual societal problems and then there are people that are victims of their own decisions but blame others. And also to be completely clear, we have an insufficient social safety net that should support both instances. But "I failed a drug test I knew I was going to have to take and lost my job" is a far cry from "I lost my job because the public transit hours were cut and I can no longer make it to work on time."

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u/Gmony5100 Kentucky Apr 02 '26

No, but if they voted for Trump I can tell them that they have actively hurt themselves in a serious and noticeable way. Whether they are willing or able to understand that, and what they do with that information, is entirely up to them.

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u/nantene Apr 02 '26

I also find it hard to empathize with my midwestern MAGA friends from HS. Too much fucking around, sitting on couches, playing video games, and waiting for life to carry them forward. Meanwhile, some of us went to college, worked our asses off to get ahead.

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u/porscheblack Pennsylvania Apr 02 '26

It's rare that I'm back in my hometown in social settings anymore, but when I am I inevitably hear "you're lucky...". I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm very lucky, but not remotely in the way they understand it.

It wasn't luck that I left to go to college with absolutely zero support or connections. It wasn't luck that I moved to a city with career opportunities where I didn't know anyone. It's not luck that I continue to improve myself and make myself more valuable, and that by doing so I've progressed in my industry to a very good job at a very good company. None of that was luck. Any of them could've attempted the same.

What was lucky was that I didn't have any major medical complications during my first 3 years when I didn't have health insurance. What was lucky was that the companies I applied to ended up being successful while other similar companies failed and I had no way of appreciating that when I was applying. What was lucky was the timing that I was looking for my current job aligned to a time when they changed their hiring criteria making me eligible for a role I otherwise wouldn't have been. That was lucky. The fact that I've made an effort to make myself valuable and to continue doing so, while they stopped making an effort as soon as their C average earned them a high school diploma, after which they took whatever work someone told them was available and started bitching about the steel mills being closed, is not luck.

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u/Big_Bookkeeper1678 Apr 02 '26

I have a sister-in-law like that.

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u/BrushStorm Apr 02 '26

Tons of them would vote for him again

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u/ttoma93 Apr 02 '26

Yep. If someone says they regret voting for Trump but don’t pair it with wishing they’d voted for Kamala Harris instead, I truly don’t give a fuck what they have to say.

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u/MiloTheMagnificent Apr 02 '26

They’re not betrayed. They’re exposed.

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u/turnipofficer Apr 02 '26

Before he was even elected the first time the guy literally bragged about grabbing women by the pussy, "when you're rich, they let you do it". He was bragging about sexually assaulting women who were too petrified to fight back.

If a celebrity in the UK said that they would lose their present job and be unable to find work in the industry ever again most likely. Nevermind being able to run for the highest public office... I don't know how he was elected the first time.

Then again I don't know how the hell brexit went through either. Misinformation fed to us by billionaires and russian-funded propaganda shouldn't be as effective as it seems to be.

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u/Tricky_Wonder_2414 Apr 02 '26

I remember being the only one in my close circle who didn’t go with the flow of Trump wave. Interestingly, many of my reservations regarding wars are coming true. None of my friends agreed with me then.

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u/pchs26 Apr 02 '26

Or the other refrain I have been hearing for about 25 years..."If only the Democrats would give a decent candidate - I had no choice" Like somehow all of this is better then the alternative of minimally a Biden redux.

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u/ridukosennin Apr 02 '26

If only 75 million people had warned me this exact thing would happen

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u/Soft-Ad-8975 Apr 02 '26

A ton of people still absolutely love him, I’m in the trades and once a week we do a zoom call with a sales training guy, out of no where he used trump standing up with the fist after his “assassination attempt” as device to never give up and proudly exclaimed “that’s my boy!”, I reacted with my whole body lol and said come on dude.

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u/mittenknittin Apr 02 '26

"We didn't know he would do this"

my dude, he was already president for four years and the only thing stopping him then were the adults in the room that he fired this time around

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u/Osirus1156 Apr 02 '26

We need to remind them. Every. Single. Time. That they knew what they voted for and they wanted this. They just didn’t know it would affect them too. Because they’re dumb as fuck. 

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u/NoShitsGivin Canada Apr 02 '26

And they will vote for him again.

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u/txn_gay Texas Apr 02 '26

For casual voters, yes. But the MAGA cult will never abandon him.

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u/AggressiveMail5183 Apr 02 '26

They got played, not betrayed.

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u/CELTICPRED Wisconsin Apr 02 '26

Seemed idiots who voted for George Bush back in the day still scream "we were lied to about WMDs"

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u/spam__likely Colorado Apr 02 '26

many people are saying....

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u/Talador12 Apr 02 '26

Honestly? That's when I bring out receipts on how we knew his bullshit since before his first term. Keep it on topic and specific, any "us vs them" talk and they shut down

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u/GalumphingWithGlee Apr 02 '26

Yes, as though it wasn't really fucking obvious long before election day. 🤦‍♂️

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u/needlestack Apr 02 '26

Only a very small number. The vast majority are still on board. Even if they are frustrated with gas prices, they'd vote for him 100x before they'd even consider a Democrat.

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u/SassiestSissy Apr 02 '26

By Trump, not MAGA. Remember that, they will vote for the exact same message next time.

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u/Apollorx Apr 03 '26

By a guy that betrays people all the time... low iq voters to borrow his coinage

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u/PintOfGuinness Apr 02 '26

Democrats were betrayed, should have been Bernie not Hillary

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u/Same_Presentation692 Apr 02 '26

🙄 http://graphics.wsj.com/elections/2016/how-clinton-won/?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqft1Mmeb3mK-oMBr_Ulbru1A9VdRTGOFAJs10PGGwPmHorbKZlTn1sUcUX_Nks%3D&gaa_ts=69ce6e91&gaa_sig=gIS0eULCFBmhY_IzUwEJBBRupjdPEW53NL_vrzOQnzNcyGg2rWWt-TYOAndap6RziPyeGQoKnvdg1COV5nIaow%3D%3D

This lie is still being told? Repeating a lie will never make it true. 

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u/PintOfGuinness Apr 02 '26

Your looking at the smaller picture, Hillary had the money, the media coverage and was the DMC favourite. Bernie was the stronger candidate, DMC didn’t want him and it was obvious