Those of us foolish enough to vote Trump in 2016 weren't convinced he was going to leave the swamp drained, rather that it was so bad he couldn't do worse. A lesser of two evils kind of choice.

Within weeks I saw the naked racism and left the whole party behind. Having learned more about Trump and Republicans since has been ... humiliating after decades of voting 'R'.

Trying to engage in good faith here. What did you see in the first few weeks after your 2016 vote that were materially different from how he ran his 2016 campaign (and I mean the hits - "they're sending rapists, ...", "grab her by the pussy", ...)?

I can imagine people souring over lack of follow through on economic promises, or the naked corruption with your $coins, but from a racism/xenophobia/morals perspective, I'd feel like most of the signal was there in the 2016 campaign was it not?

> from a racism/xenophobia/morals perspective

A larger fraction of Americans voted for a supported Trump because he seemed to credibly criticize the Iraq War and promised no new fuckups in that category.

For me personally it was trying to ban travel from whole countries based on race. Morally I didn't expect him to personally be a paragon of virtue. My hope was that the vile parts of his retoric were mostly campaign bluster and "locker room talk", and that he'd defer to experts once in office.

The mask-off racism was just beyond the pale, and lead me to look deeper into his past and how he was starting to govern. It became obvious that he'd mostly cheated or lucked his way into fortune and fame.

Gotcha.

> Morally I didn't expect him to personally be a paragon of virtue.

Lot of people respond with this, but honestly, that is setting up a straw man to knock down isn't it? No one claims that we should expect any politician to be a paragon of virtue but in terms of how they conduct themselves and the language they choose, there is still a reasonable bar that Trump blew past and set an awful precedent.

"Not a paragon of virtue" is an old expression that I use to mean I have low expectations of someone, not that everyone must have low expectations.

In hindsight there were signs I should have known about it taken more seriously. Which is why I suppose Jensen is on the ropes now.

Thanks for the honesty and humility. These types of perspectives are wonderful to read.

Wherever you land on your views in the future, being willing to question everything is a superpower.

Onward!