This is long but I need to vent and haven’t had time until now. This thread seems as good as any. I grew up in rural Texas in a Christian conservative home. I don’t remember my family ever being very political, but I’m sure my parents were Republican and I personally voted for GWB twice, just by default. I thought that’s what good Texans were supposed to do. I did not vote in the ‘08, ‘12, or ‘16 elections because I was becoming more apathetic about politics, believing it didn’t actually matter for me who was in power. I’m a weirdo who liked Bush and liked Obama. I voted libertarian in ‘20 as a protest vote against the 2 party system. I definitely wanted Trump to lose by that point, but I felt like the EC rendered my Texan vote pointless, so may as well burn it on a 3rd party candidate. I hate the 2 party system and am envious of countries that have multiple candidates and ranked choice voting. I agree with the idea that the U.S. has a beta version of democracy that unfortunately never got upgraded, and now we’re like an iPhone 3 that physically cannot receive upgrades ever again. For 10+ years, I considered myself politically moderate, socially liberal, fiscally conservative. Despite my upbringing in the church, I supported and sympathized with LGBTQ groups, shifted more and more towards pro-choice, legalization of weed, etc. I also drifted farther from the church to the point of being completely disenfranchised and there was freedom in that. Maybe I was slightly left of center for a while, but for the past ~5 years, I feel like the far right has become more and more extreme, so the new “center” is significantly skewed from the historical center. That puts me farther on the left than I’ve ever been, not necessarily because I agree with every Democrat policy, but because I strongly disagree with many Republican policies. I voted down ballot D this cycle because I’m pissed off and genuinely concerned about Republican agendas. I also think Trump is morally reprehensible and unfit to be president I have a very hard time understanding how any halfway decent human being could vote for him. He sexually assaulted at least one woman that we know of and likely many more. Like, what the fuck America? We don’t even need to get into January 6 or hush money or classified documents. I wish like hell the GOP would’ve nominated Ron Desantis because at least then we could focus on policy differences and not have to accept that a rapist is in the Oval Office and many people are celebrating it. I was obviously disappointed in the outcome of the election, but bad things happen in life and we have to pick ourselves up and hope for a better future. A majority of our voting population wanted this. My knee jerk reaction was to hate everyone who voted for this, but that would involve turning my back on many people who are close family and friends. That’s a dark and lonely road, and to the conservatives in my life, it would paint me as an asshole who took his ball and went home, rather than maintaining those relationships and hoping to be an advocate or a voice of reason for my beliefs. After some reflection, when you remove the radicalized MAGA types from the equation, I think millions of people voted for Trump because of money. Pure and simple - money. I think rich people chose him because they believe he will protect their money and social status. I think poor people chose him because they are struggling to buy basic necessities let alone ever buy a house, and they view Harris as an extension of Biden, who has failed them in their eyes. Perhaps we don’t have millions of people who think it’s okay to elect a rapist, but we have millions of people who don’t think the American dream is working for them under the current status quo, and they felt it was their only choice. I disagree with that, but maybe that’s a luxury that I could vote on the basis of moral principals and not worry about feeding my family. I hope that many of Trump’s more outlandish promises were merely theatrics and don’t actually come to pass. I know that’s naive and all signs point the other direction, but I can’t throw in the towel. I want to continue living here and I want my young child to live a good and full life, so I have to hope that we as a society figure this thing out. A lot can happen in 4 years, but hopefully nothing becomes so irreparably broken that we can’t fix it down the road. I’ll do my part to be a good neighbor and friend and member of my community. I’ll vote again in 2 years and 4 years. I have a personal commitment to provide my daughter a good life above all else, and there may come a point at which a move is ultimately the only remaining option, but we aren’t there yet and I’m clinging to hope that things can still improve.