Four years ago during the 2016 presidential election, I stood in the “early vote” line with my mind firmly made up.
I was voting for Republicans down-ballot, but there was no way in hell was I voting for Donald Trump. I’d never understood the party’s fascination with him, and I had no intention of voting for him just because he had an “R” by his name.
During the 2016 GOP presidential primaries, I made clear where I stood on Trump. I viewed him as an inauthentic Republican. In my view at the time, there was no way he should be the standard-bearer for the Republican party on issues like abortion, illegal immigration, healthcare, Supreme Court Justices, and so on. Not only that, but regardless of how rough and tumble political campaigns could get, I didn’t like some of the things he said and did towards his opponents during the primary.
If he was elected, my thought process at the time was that he would commence in proving me right, not just about who I thought he was but also about all the pundits on the right who had thrown their support behind him.
I had family and friends who disagreed with me about Trump, and that was okay. I didn’t think differently about them over the difference in opinion on Trump, nor did they treat me differently.
My position wasn’t driven by what the media were saying about Trump. They were saying things I didn’t believe were true, like “Trump is a racist”, etc. Not only did I not see that in him in spite of my intense dislike, but the people in my life who I knew were voting for him weren’t racists and wouldn’t have voted for someone who they thought was. So I didn’t buy any of that from the press.
But I did know the guy was not my cup ‘o tea. And because of that, I wrote in another Republican’s name for president that day I went to vote. I knew of other anti-Trumpers on the right who were voting for Hillary Clinton as a protest vote, but that just made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. I was still a conservative Republican. So I was going to vote for a Republican, not an extremist Democrat pro-choicer like Hillary Clinton.
On election night, I turned on the news to watch results come in, thinking it’d be a short night. The polls were predicting a Hillary landslide, and though it depressed me I still wanted to continue my election night tradition of seeing the states being called, finding out if there were any surprises along the way, etc.
As we all know now, there were quite a few surprises that night – the biggest one, of course, being that Donald Trump won. Regardless of my dislike of him, I gave the guy credit for sticking it out and winning in spite of what appeared to be overwhelming opposition to him. If there was one thing I was willing to concede about Trump that year it was that he was not a quitter. He was going to see the election through, despite the various pundits predicting at various stages that he would drop out.
I’m very much one of those people who views election night results from an “okay, so and so won, now let’s see what they have to offer” perspective. Even when the results don’t go “my way”, my first thought is not “STOLEN!” It’s “where do we go from here?”
I was in a very unfamiliar position on election night in 2016. I had never not voted for the Republican nominee for president. So when Trump won, I thought okay – let’s see if he proves me right or if he proves me wrong in the coming months.
In terms of style and temperament, he proved me right for the most part. But on substance and the issues – where it most counts, in my book – he proved me wrong. And unlike the NeverTrumpers with who I had only been loosely affiliated in 2016, I was willing to admit that. I didn’t dig in my heels as they did and say “you just wait, he’s gonna prove everything we said about him is true at a certain point!”
I sat back and watched as time went on, and was pleasantly surprised as he carried out an agenda that most Republicans, conservative Democrats, and independent voters should be able to support – give or take a couple of issues, of course.
He also was and is a very unconventional politician, something that in this day and time is much more of a plus than a minus. I came to understand that to a much greater degree a few months into his first year in office than I had in 2016.
In comments, there are people who are trying to hijack the section, trying to be alpha males and telling everyone that Sister Toldjah’s- and by extension everyone else’s- conversion wasn’t fast enough or soon enough.
It’s not like Trump just picked someone out of a crowd and decided to call them a “pig” or anything like that. He responds to attacks and he responds in kind. NO ONE in office has been called a racist, traitor, criminal, bully, murderer or liar like he has, and without any actual provocation. Those are all pretty terrible insults, though liberals just throw them around as rhetoric. But Trump lashes back and then it’s “not dignified”. If I support someone and expect them to fight for my rights, I PREFER they fight back. After decades of vicious liberal attacks on Republicans, I think the notion that civility can be won over by just being polite is pretty much dispelled.
Would it be great if civility would return and people would stop calling each other racists, traitors and liars? Absolutely; I yearn for such a time. But until the Democrats rehabilitate themselves, there is no hope for change.
I voted for Trump in 2016 to keep Hillary’s criminal hands off of the Supreme Court. The stakes are much, much higher this time. For an American, there should be no question or hesitation in supporting Trump.