By “better” you mean “more consistent with what I want,” right? Because your average Trump voter voted for the guy who had Elon get on stage with a chainsaw.
> By “better” you mean “more consistent with what I want,” right? Because your average Trump voter voted for the guy who had Elon get on stage with a chainsaw.
Do they want healthcare? Because I want Medicare for All (affordable, accessible, universal healthcare), and large swaths of conservative and rural America are going to lose their ~700 hospitals and Medicaid coverage (50% of rural births are paid for by Medicaid, a June 2025 KFF poll found that more than one in four (27%) adult Medicaid beneficiaries under age 65 are Republicans or lean Republican). Do they want to be able to export their ag to China? I was fine with farmers having their export market with federal subsidies, they voted against it (China has zeroed out US ag imports due to the tariff war, 75-80% of farmers voted for this admin). Do businesses want immigrant labor? I voted for it, they voted against it, and now they face crushing labor shortages in ag, construction, food services, hospitality, etc. Do they want their social security and veterans benefits and support systems? I voted for it, but they voted against it and now these social systems are going to rapidly degrade at scale. Do they want good paying jobs? I voted for it (pro worker, pro union, pro labor policies), they voted for the chainsaw (federal renewables subsidies cuts, federal gov workforce reductions, staunchly anti union positions, etc). Do they want universal daycare/childcare and school lunches? I want this for them, but they vote against this.
I want better for these people (accessible and affordable healthcare, childcare, social security, economic success broadly speaking to live healthy, fulfilled, meaningful lives), but they keep voting to hurt people like me, minorities, and vulnerability populations while shooting themselves in the feet. It's unfortunate. Having empathy is a terrible curse on this timeline. I can only ask them to vote better or I can stand back while they get the chainsaw. The choice lies with them.
"Too strong a belief in the rationality of people in general, or of the world, will lead us to seek purposive explanations where none exists."
Trump supporters are voting the same way as you—for the kind of country they want to live in, not just narrowly on policies to benefit themselves personally. But they think that their policies will achieve that, while your policies will just direct more taxpayer dollars to the layers of government and NGO employees who never manage to fix any of the problems they’re tasked with fixing.
I want your average Democrat to grow up with the privileges I had: a household with two married parents, an upbringing that emphasized hard work and resilience and discouraged ethnic identity or solidarity, a school where everyone speaks English and nobody belongs to a gang, a society with a safety net but without long term dependence on the government, etc. I think these things will make the country better for you, not just for me. Look at Mormons: they’re happy, healthy (the longest lived people in the country besides asians), and upwardly mobile. I want that for Baltimore!
I have empathy too! I lived in downtown Baltimore and saw that extensive social programs mostly go to funding middle class lifestyles for government workers and NGO employees. I think the people in Baltimore would be better off if they had the rigid social infrastructure they have in Utah rather than spending more money on programs that never seem to work.
