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.”
the 2008 housing market crash left him “really disillusioned with the Democratic Party.”
So the last year of Bush’s second term. What a fucking idiot.
Lol that’s how far I got and just fucking Roflcoptered…like how fucking dumb can you be…
Never been on Reddit or Facebook?
like how fucking dumb can you be…
Apparently dumb enough to repeatedly vote for a lifelong grifter rapist felon pedophile.
Republicans spend their term(s) wrecking the economy, then some people get pissed when the Democrats get control and don’t push the emergency “fix everything right now” button.
This disillusionment may refer to the D response to the 2008 crash (Obama’s first term, too big to fail, doubling down on Bush’s TARP, Tea Party, etc.).
Yes. the way Obama and his administration dealt with that crash was poorly thought out (to be charitable), but I really don’t think from what I read, this guy was that nuanced in his thinking. Probably more along the lines of “Democrats are bad therefore this is their fault.”
I DON’T CARE
IT’S TOO LATE
YOU FUCKING TOOLS DID THE SAME THING WITH BUSH JR
YOU WILL DO ALL THIS AGAIN BECAUSE YOU ARE IDIOTS
None of this means anything. These people do not learn from mistakes. That is abundantly clear at this point. And in the unlikely scenario that this one actually did, they are such a vanishingly small percentage that it really just doesn’t matter. The vast majority of conservative voters that actually are turning on Trump will NEVER, EVER, EVEN UNDER PAIN OF DEATH, vote for anything other than Republicans.
That’s how cults work.
Well, they did learn from their mistakes. Most of the time these stories are like ‘it affects me now so I’m against it now’, but these people took that selfish starting point and unpacked all the fox propaganda and how it all happened
It is a cult; but some people leave cults
I get that we all have to be really sceptical of ‘reformed’ Magas. Most of them will just be rats fleeing the sinking ship, with no actual reflection or admitted culpability
But at the same time, I’ve marched with a block of skinhead ex-nazis who were violently opposed to racism now. People do change sometimes - people are able to unpick the propaganda they once bought into and grow
So scepticism, absolutely. But a life-long condemnation of anyone who ever bought into Fox News, without exception, is not the way to go
I agree. Ron seems pretty legitimately aware of how it works now.
My favorite part was when he said they lost their home in the housing collapse, blamed Dems, and then voted Republican because…of spending on defence.
Defence spending doesn’t help the housing market but you do you. At least they finally woke up.
The great recession started a year before Obama took office, but of course it is pinned to him.
Same as covid happened year before Biden but somehow it is Biden’s fault.
Democrats always have to cleanup the shit Republicans make and get blamed for it.
At least they finally woke up.
A stupid person is stupid whether they’re asleep or awake. These dipshits are clearly no exception.
Beyond “dumb as a rock” for this. People really just take whatever the fuck was is spoonfed to them. At least he did wake up, but by a miracle IMO.
Yeah I got pretty confused there. Wasn’t Bush president leading up to 2008 and the market crash? Don’t was the dems fault? Faux news has done an impressive brain rot.
Just like how Biden caused COVID in 2020.
Exactly. Though maybe one person doesn’t remember who was president throughout 2020, lol.
Even NOW they still can’t understand that the deregulation of banks which directly caused the 2008 collapse, was entirely Bush’s policies… if anything Obama’s bailout probably saved his home
The deregulation of the banks started under Clinton and was finished under Bush Jr. It was unfortunately not only a GOP thing.
Some observers have persuasively argued that the Glass-Steagall act, which Clinton famously repealed, was already moot by the time he repealed it, that the banking business had figured out legal workarounds for all the activities it was intended to prevent.
The point being, not to excuse Clinton or any political party, but to recognize that the creeping greed of finance isn’t something that can be blamed on one or two actors. It’s built in to the incentives, the values, the culture.
Some observers have persuasively argued that the Glass-Steagall act, which Clinton famously repealed, was already moot by the time he repealed it, that the banking business had figured out legal workarounds for all the activities it was intended to prevent.
So you don’t repeal it you update it to fix the holes.
Obama’s bailout probably saved his home
Well… maybe but it sure did enrich the motherfuckers who created the crash in the first place.
Gas prices caused the 2008 collapse. The real estate market is what hurt the rich people, so that’s what we still hear about.
It was rich people that caused the collapse, not gas prices. Banks gave out variable interest rate loans, which are risky and predatory, to people that didn’t have the credit/income to afford houses. The banks then turned all of those variable rate home loans into housing related securities, which let investors in those programs earn interest on buying a tiny slice of the mortgages. Now the investors need the line to go up. What happens? Those variable rates on those mortgages get jacked up to make profit for the investors. Now Joe Schmoe can’t afford his mortgage, defaults on the loan, and loses his house. What happens next? All of those variable rate loans had mortgage insurance, which pays the lender when the borrower defaults on the loan/mortgage. What happens next, the collapse of entities that insured those loans. What happens next? We, the fucking tax payers bail them the fuck out. What happens next? The rich greedy assholes find a new thing required for existence to turn into a commodity to squeeze us more; like healthcare.
What exactly are you smoking?
And how old were you in 2008?
Old enough to not get a passing grade in kindergarten, one assumes.
Well, he’s at the beginning of his unlearning journey, hopefully he continues to go further.
No, they didn’t wake up.
They stuck with Trump through
- Child rape and trafficking with Epstein
- The subsequent Epstein cover up
- Felonly fruad
- Jan 6th insurrection
- Being the most drone happy president in his first term
- Unyielding loyalty to Israel
- Alienating US allies
- Destroying US international standing
- Killing countless with mass defending and killing of social services and aid
- The clusterfuck that was his handling of Covid, or lack there of
- The Epstein memorial ballroom
- The Arch De Epstein
Etc.
These people are still functionally sociopaths and fascists. They’re just upset that now its affecting their wallets.
I will still take 2 less Republican voters as a win.
He’s hurting the wrong people!!
wish idiots would stop voting for these leeches stealing tax money to enrich themselves and generally not giving a fuck about the population other than the megarich
Small government people when the government is military spending:
I remember talking to a winger about his defense contractor job. He was raging out about “government workers” wasting “his money”, and so on. This was under Obama and he had just seen two people driving in a county truck on his way to work in the morning - he apparently seemed to think having more than one person doing that job was wasteful?
Anyway, I asked him, point blank - “but isn’t YOUR job basically a government job?”
I thought the guy was going to pop a vein waving his arms around and yelling how it was the PRIVATE SECTOR, we have to WIN CONTRACTS with the big old mean government, and etc. I remain calm and ask: yeah, but if they are private sector, who are their customers? Are they going to sell weapons to our enemies? Why do you have to get a GOVERNMENT CLEARANCE for that job by the way?
I’m sure the guy is absolutely all-in on Donvict these days and still repeating bullshit mantras about “small government”, etc. The guy had full-blown Obama Derangement Syndrome, that’s for sure…
I used to work in a pretty right wing office as a government contractor. One day a couple people were standing around complaining about the government and one of the women said “the government has never created a single job”. She was on a military base working as a government contracter. She was also in the national guard and engaged to an active duty sailor. I had to walk away at that point.
I don’t think these people know what the “govment” even is, to be honest…
They just don’t connect the dots…
It’s well known that conservatives empathy is socially shallow (has to affect me or my family) and because of that trait I never really thought there would be a big shift in their thinking. But goddamn it if trump’s fuck ups haven’t done a speed run on changing views. When the man who is supposed to be looking out for the American people says “I don’t think about how much the American people are hurting” and then acts accordingly you’re going to get more MAGA people hitting that socially shallow empathy level.
Good for them for trying to get through to the cultists and good on them for snapping out of it. That’s not easy to do on your own in an identity cult. I still find them repulsive and have no desire to associate with them or people like them.
I know we gotta support people ammending their mistakes and all, but it’s hard when he speaks like “Now we can turn the ship around and fix everything.”
ICE already killed people, they aren’t getting revived.
We can reverse his monetary problems at most and he talks as if that’s the entire thing.Good for them.
I can’t believe things have actually gotten so bad that people are getting directly affected and realizing they fell for the propaganda machine. I had hoped this might help counteract the regime. Let’s see if it does.
Cheap words, motherfuckers.
“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.
There’s no sticking together. We’re already off the cliff. You don’t automagically fix the damage thats been done. You don’t unkill the millions dead from your choices. You don’t unsteal the data stolen from multiple gov agencies on all citizens. You don’t unfuck the climate from it’s tipping point. You can’t vote out a dictator. You’re human trash without redemption. Whatever happens next you must own with a smile, even if its death.
There’s no sticking together.
Yup. There’s no sticking together with people that condoned erasing our votes and systematically oppressing minorities.
These are trash humans and I don’t stick with trash.
Disillusioned by the subprime crisis?
That shit was driven by republican action and deliberate inaction.
Republican regulators prevented states from trying to crack down on predatory lenders and congress refused to impose oversight and pushed deregulation. The Bush administration allowed banks to begin “super leveraging”, iow they could lend even more than before yet have less in reserve, so when the crash happened there was no cushion. The repeal of the Glass-Stegall act got the ball rolling on creating these mega-banks that doubled down on bad lending, bought and sold bad loans, and then they all needed bailouts.
Republican deregulation and refusal to engage in oversight by both dems and repubs caused the crash.
I assume ‘disillusioned with the Democrat party’ after 2008 means the bank bailouts and lack of prosecution. Conservative brain is generally ok with businesses fucking the economy over, but they expect (at least ideologically) that companies will fail when that happens. Not their company, but nebulous companies that don’t employ them or their friends.
TBH, I would have liked to see a lot more fraud cases come out of 2008. I would have liked to see banks get ‘right sized’ so there’s no more “too big to fail.”
It’s always “Not MY face!”
It’s never about actual values or morals or rights or principles. It’s never about concern for family, friends, neighbors, fellow citizens.
It’s always “This isn’t working out for ME.”
Maybe it’s the nature of the news business. Maybe there are some who are changing their minds more quietly, who don’t get profiled in the news.
hahaha fuck them
Typical myopic stance. “I had no idea it was bad until it started to impact me.” The complete and total lack of empathy from people is a core problem I don’t care what political side you are on. How can you be so selfish to not think about impactful others around you? Do you live on an island of one? Are your fellow citizens nothing to you?
Social media has allowed us to slip even more into a solipsist mindset.
“It’s okay to be wrong. You made a mistake, it was a bad choice, but it’s not the end of the world."
Uhm about that …
That soon? I was with him until “follow our laws”; the onion of stupidity has many layers to peel away, and most of us will weep the whole time.
until he got into office this third term
Uhhhh… eh?
I mean, I’ll take the win. They owned up to it, are voting Democratic now, etc.
Can’t unring a bell but at least they’re somewhat atoning. Easy to be angry still and I don’t blame people for that but again, can’t fix the past. Maybe their story will inspire a few others to leave the cult.
Yup. It’s a weird quirk of human psychology that some people are more mad at these people than at the ones still in the cult. Focus our efforts, people!
I’m glad they’re moving in the right direction. Their loss of family and friends needs to be addressed so they don’t ever go back.
But I’m scared that it’s not enough. It seems like they are against Trump but are they against other Republicans and their policies? Are they going to be critical of Democrats too? Because we’ve got big problems that neither big tent party are addressing and these two people seem to be about sixty years behind the curve.
Yeah I don’t understand all the negativity towards folks like this. Yes they made a monstrous mistake that may be unfixable but I’d rather have people that can see their failures and are willing to change any day of the week. I’ve made multiple mistakes in my youth that I learned from and became a better person. And folks like this are better equipped at helping others to see the light that are in the same boat.
Believe me we are going to need as many people as we can to see the empires has no clothes (but I literally never want to see him naked…I’m gonna vomit)
The problem is that elections have consequences. Big ones. Ones you can’t take back, ones you can’t undo. People have died. People have lost everything. People have been hurt in ways that there will never be any amends for, or any possible. People saw this coming and begged people for a decade to see reason, and they were ignored. These were their countrymen, their families, their people and they did it anyway. There are real, tangible consequences to these votes, this isn’t some abstract ideological game. These people have actively turned the wolves on their neighbours, and that’s not a “mistake” that’s easy to forgive. If your brother killed your son while you were screaming for him to stop the car, would you ever be able to forgive him? To trust his judgment ever again?
It’s a privilege to be one of the ones who were not so directly hurt by them. To be able to welcome their change of heart and offer them grace. Don’t ask those who don’t have that privilege to do it.
To trust his judgment ever again?
This is the big one for me.
This wasn’t a confusing thing. Like you said, it’s not abstract. This whole experience has probably been the most clearly definable political thing in the history of our nation. To make this kind of mistake with that in mind I have to assume they either have brain damage or pure, unadulterated hate toward their fellow Americans. And the consequences are generational. Decades to claw back. We will live the rest of our lives with some of these consequences.
Why…how, would I ever trust them with anything important ever again? They simply cannot handle the responsibility as functional adults.
I’d at least rather have them than those who still refuse to see reason.
Because they haven’t really learned anything. They just know Trump is awful, but as soon as MAGAs try to slip back to being Republicans again, and pretend MAGA never happened, these people will race back to it. They don’t think Republican policies are bad, just Trump.
I don’t understand all the negativity towards folks like this.
Skepticism whether they’ve “changed their ways” or just rejected the one person who hurt them.
These are people who were totally down with draining the swamp of all its career politicians and bureaucrats, right up until they were the bureaucrat being drained. They were down with storming the Capitol so only real American votes would be counted. Article bravely stays away from racism. The whole “be a conservative like everyone else” and “vote for Trump like everyone else” vibe suggests they’ll be ready to vote for the next demagogue who promises them easy solutions to intractable problems.
There’s no indication in the text that they have suddenly discovered empathy, only that they’ve learned small government policies cost them their government job. Maybe that’s just the way the article was written, but I don’t think empathy is something one just discovers at middle age.
They were down with storming the Capitol so only real American votes would be counted.
Exactly. I will NEVER hold hands and sing Kumbaya with someone who condoned erasing my vote. They are my enemy forever.
And it’s a rare damn thing to find a conservative who condemns Jan6 and doesn’t try to excuse it as a simple “protest”. If that day had really gone their way, not a single fucking one would have stood up and spoken against it. Fuck them.
