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But regardless of your political alignment, the single biggest obstacle to changing anyone’s political opinions on social media (or in any other context) owes itself to one recurring, seemingly immutable phenomenon: no one ever, ever wants to admit they may have made a mistake.
So it was with some interest that I read on Facebook, in the context of a public discussion of some minor vandalism to a large, pro-Trump yard sign prominently posted in our neighborhood, a comment from an avowed Republican well-known in our local community. In response to the many anti-Trump comments she candidly said that her father, a die-hard conservative, wouldn’t be voting for Trump this year out of disgust with his performance in office. I have no reason to think this person (who aside from her political views is fairly well respected, even by my most ardent Democratic friends) wasn’t telling the truth. Great, I thought. But it was what followed that most struck me.
She said, “He voted for Trump in 2016 because he felt he had no other choice.”
That was interesting to me on a number of levels. My initial reaction was: Really?
He voted for a race-baiting, phony “reality TV-show” serial bankrupt with a history of assaulting women and zero public service experience over an experienced Senator and Former Secretary of State, because he “felt he had no other choice?” Yeah, that just doesn’t seem to pass the smell test.
But then I realized that’s because I’m seeing this through eyes of someone who has despised Trump from the beginning, who has seen fulfilled all his worst expectations of the man. While the depths of Trump’s incompetence and depravity may have sickened or disgusted me, I can’t say that they ever really surprised me.
They were all apparent from the way he campaigned against Hillary, visible to anyone paying attention. That the guy was a scumbag and would turn out to be a terrible president was no surprise. And the idea that Hillary Clinton somehow exhibited any characteristics or traits that could possibly change my vote for her was fairly incomprehensible.
But then, I’m not a Republican.
I’m fairly confident that if I asked this “die-hard” conservative what exactly was it about Hillary Clinton that prompted him to vote for Trump I’d get a mushy semi-coherent response about “Benghazi” and “emails” or some other nonsense that would all amount to thinly disguised misogyny. Because that is what motivated a lot—not all, but a lot—of Trump voters in 2016: it wasn’t so much that they loved anything coming out of Trump’s mouth (although many admittedly did), but that they hated Hillary Clinton beyond all sense and reason.
In short, I’m not sure whether this “die-hard conservative” really “felt that he had no other choice” in 2016 for any logical reasons, or whether it was something much deeper that motivated him. I’m inclined to believe that he just hated Hillary Clinton’s guts so much that he would have voted for anyone instead of her. “No other choice?” Please.
But—and this is the important part—I think his “excuse,” such that it is, speaks volumes. What he’s telegraphing here is that he’s not going to vote for Trump in 2020, but he didn’t make a mistake in voting for him in 2016. He had no other choice, you see? It wasn’t his fault Trump turned out to be such a disaster. Significantly, this gets him out of the terrible dilemma of having to admit he was wrong, and it allows him to rationalize not voting for Trump (and presumably voting for Biden) in 2020.
Again, the hardest thing to admit for any voter—Republican, Democrat, or anyone else—is that you blew it with your vote. Voters will look for any excuse to avoid that bitter acknowledgment. It’s a blow to their ego they’ll twist themselves into knots to avoid. That’s one of the reasons Trump’s “approval” levels have stuck around 40% in the face of the most disastrous presidency in American history. There are Republicans out there who see the wreckage that this man has brought about, but can’t bring themselves to admit they’re responsible for him in the first place. And my guess is that there are quite a few of them.
He “had no other choice in 2016.” Sure. Whatever.
If that’s what you want to tell yourself, we won’t say you were wrong.
We’ll be happy to get you to your precinct on November 3.
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