A noticeable contingent of Kamala Harris voters has spent this year demanding that people who didn’t vote for her — whether for Donald Trump or another candidate — admit to a mistake that’s not only hurting the country but is hurting (or will hurt) them, too. Social media feeds are filled with people citing the latest Trump outrage and mockingly asking Trump voters, “Did you vote for this?!”
In the main, the Trump voter with buyer’s remorse is a mythical character not unlike, say, the moderate Republican.
There’s been a new category of schadenfreude-inducing stories focused on Trump voters who’ve lost their federal job, had a loved one snatched by ICE or significantly suffered during the first few months of the administration. On top of that, some recent polls have found that Trump’s approval rating is below 40%. However, in the main, the Trump voter with buyer’s remorse is a mythical character not unlike, say, the moderate Republican.
The Public Religion Research Institute conducted a poll of more than 5,000 adults across 50 states between Feb. 28 and March 20 and found that 92% of Trump voters are satisfied with their vote. More than that, the PRRI poll finds that just about everybody who voted in November is satisfied with their decision, including 95% of Harris voters and 85% of people who voted third party. (PRRI reports a 1.69-point margin of error for its national survey.)
It seems obvious why Harris voters are the least regretful; her losing the election erased the potential for her to make any disappointing presidential decisions.
It is remarkable, though, that after Trump has fired thousands of blameless federal employees, antagonized allies, rattled the stock market, shrunk the economy, eliminated a number of lifesaving humanitarian aid programs, defied the courts and put Fox News know-nothings in positions of power a near-identical share of his supporters suggest that they’d happily vote for him all over again.
But PRRI’s poll is consistent with a poll released April 14 by the University of Massachusetts Amherst that found that only 2% of Trump voters polled answered yes to “I regret my vote and would vote differently if I could.” And both those polls are consistent with a survey The New York Times conducted among a focus group last month that found that none of the 13 independent voters who voted for Trump in November regrets not voting for Harris.
Not the person who feels “bad” about the way things have been going. Or the one who’s “frustrated,” or the ones who feel “pessimistic,” “worried,” “hopeless” or even “lied to.”
“There’s a lot of social media saying: Hey, are you Republicans or MAGA people regretting your vote?” a “hopeful” 55-year-old Latino restaurant manager said. “And no, I’m not. As far as I’m concerned, he’s not doing enough.”
When you read that Times piece, you may find yourself most struck by the 29-year-old Black construction manager in Texas who said he’s happy that Trump has kept his promises, if only because the Texan then says, “Although these are some hard decisions — a couple of friends that have been deported, stuff like that. So I’m sad at the same time.”
It must warm his deported friends’ hearts to hear that their buddy is kinda sad.
I wasted my hard-earned money on some forgettable thing when I was young, and when I turned to my mom for comfort, all she did was shrug and say, “Bought sense is the best sense.” I’ve come to agree with that, but I’ve also learned that a costly mistake doesn’t necessarily confer sense upon the person who made it.
Pain that was intolerable under Biden is apparently a welcome burden now.
Though inflation hit the whole world after the Covid pandemic — which started almost a year before President Joe Biden took office — higher prices, especially for food, were often cited by Trump supporters as reason enough to vote against Harris, Biden’s vice president.
But pain that was intolerable under Biden is apparently a welcome burden now.
The Times’ moderator asked that group of self-described independent Trump voters to spell out the limits of their tolerance for short-term pain: “What percent increase in cost would you be OK with, if we were talking about groceries, rent, gas?”
“Maybe 5 percent, 10 percent?” a 38-year-old white homemaker in Utah said. “Just kind of depends. It’s not going to get fixed overnight. It’s not even going to get fixed in four years of Trump. It’s going to hurt extremely hard before we get through on the other side.”
Would I be willing to pay more for food, gas and rent if I thought it would help bring about a better America? I would. Although it’s unclear how paying more would bring about that better America. Furthermore, my better America wouldn’t include cuts to cancer research, threats to Medicaid, a trillion-dollar Pentagon budget or a president who foments rage against the idea of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Soon after the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, I suggested that Republicans genuflecting before Trump sounded like the title character in the biblical Book of Job who says of the Almighty, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” It seems even more true today.
Consider Bradley Bartell, the Wisconsin Trump supporter whose Peruvian wife was snatched up by ICE at an airport despite the work the couple had put in for her to obtain U.S. citizenship. “I’ve received a lot of hateful messages, plenty of people saying we deserve this,” he told Newsweek. But he said, “I don’t regret the vote.”
Years from now, we’ll likely still be struggling to understand this devotion to Trump by people being harmed by him.
Instead, he seemed sure Trump would realize that it’s wrong for ICE to arrest folks like his wife and fix a broken system. His wife was released on $3,000 bond after 49 days in ICE custody. “I understand Trump is doing his job as president,” Camila Muñoz said, “but the cases should move more quickly if people aren’t associated with a gang or don’t have a criminal record.”
Years from now, we’ll likely still be struggling to understand this unyielding devotion to Trump by people being harmed by him. The answer may be more easily found in the study of psychology than in politics.
But in the meantime, it seems futile to demand expressions of remorse from Trump’s voters. They’re all in.
Even now.
