"'I failed my fellow Americans': the white women defecting from Trump"

[StarfishSaver]

Donald Trump’s 2016 election win may have been propelled by white working-class men, but another key group in that narrowest of victories was white women with college degrees.
...
In 2020, however, after four years of tumult, there are signs that Trump has not managed to hang on to that constituency.

“I really failed my fellow American citizens,” said Claudia Luckenbach-Boman. “I’m extremely disappointed in myself, and sometimes I am really afraid to talk about it. If I were to vote again for Donald Trump in 2020, it would be just as much a failure as an American, but also a failure as a human being.”

Luckenbach-Boman was a 19-year-old college student in November 2016. From a Republican-voting family, she cast her ballot for Trump in Wisconsin, a swing state which he won by just 22,748 votes. Voting for her first time, Luckenbach-Boman said she believed Trump, as a political outsider, was the change the US needed. She quickly changed her mind.

“It was just a few months into his presidency that I realized the biggest mistake I could have made as an American citizen was not informing myself,” Luckenbach-Boman said.
...
She will vote for Biden in Michigan – another key swing state Trump narrowly won in 2016 – and harbors hopes of one day running for elected office.

Luckenbach-Boman is not alone. Polling shows Biden ahead of Trump by an average of 6.4% in Wisconsin, and 8.4% in Michigan. The swing isn’t just down to white women with college degrees, but their switch has hurt Trump’s chances.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/29/women-who-voted-trump-who-regret-decision?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[tanyev]

1. I can understand someone that young and from a Republican family

making that mistake. Good on her for growing up. I wonder how the rest of her family feels now?

[Blue_true]

12. When I was 20 years old and in college, I cast my only ever vote for a republican.

She was a solid consumer advocate that was running for a business regulation office in Florida. For the first few years, she was solid. But as the Republican Party in Florida became more and more regressive, she went full teabagger. I never voted for a republican again until for the August Judicial election, where the choice was a decent sounding republican with environmentalist creds, versus a “lock them up” republican - I chose the environmentalist.

[lagomorph777]

14. My wife was born Republican.

I helped her recover.

[Blue_true]

16. You role-modeled a better way for her, and she apparently paid attention. nt

[lagomorph777]

17. Frankly it's the only thing we agree on in life.

So at least there's that.

[RKP5637]

2. I think a number of people are in this boat ... he talked a good line for many and sucked them

in on pretty much emotional votes ... and they did not bother to have checked out what a critter he was and how detestable. And how completely unfit to be president.

[Blue_true]

15. With 30 years of lies about Hillary, I can see how some women got suckered

into believing that Hillary was horrible, especially with clowns like Susan Sarandon, Cornell West, Nina Turner, Jill Stein and others mouthing off.

[RKP5637]

21. The GOP spin machine will one day bring the US down into oblivion. The GOP

abuses free speech endlessly, a bunch of fucken liars and cheats ... and some of them think it's cute. Between the GOP, deranged pastors, religious freaks and what's becoming a moronic population living in Idiocracy as they slide into a dystopic society ... it's a wonder the US functions at all.

[LiberalFighter]

22. The party needs to do a better job of fighting these lies.

[Blue_true]

27. I really don't know what else could have been done to fight the lies.

People seemed determined to believe what they believed. Senator Sanders could have helped by immediately and fully endorsing Hillary once he saw in June of 2016 that he had no way of overcoming her lead, but we know how that went.

There are going to be lies about Joe Biden, it is just a matter of time. Already people like Cornel West and Nina Turner and Senator Sanders former press secretary have started their bullshit, it will get worse.

The thing that Biden has working for him that Hillary did not is that Trump now has a government record, at that record is one of incompetence.

What we should do in tv, online and radio ads is ask people whether they are comfortable living four more years under a Trump presidency. I believe only the truly deluded would answer yes or even maybe to that, but those people are not numerous enough to get him elected.

[betsuni]

31. +1

[GreenEyedLefty]

34. Why such a specific list?

Particularly Cornel West?

[Blue_true]

35. Because the assholes on that "specific list" did nothing but attack Hillary during the Fall of 2016.

Their behavior is unforgivable, especially given what was at stake.

[GulfCoast66]

3. 19 from a republican family. She gets a pass from me.

Know who will never be totally forgiven my me? Me!

I was 40 before I came to my senses. Will regret my past republican votes to the grave.

[ooky]

10. Yep. And first time voter.

With eyes open she will start a new family tradition. This is good stuff.

[Blue_true]

18. Given your profession, it is easy enough for me to see how you would have stayed republican.

I was born into a hell and leather Democratic Party family. The only pictures that hung in my parent’s living room were of Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, JFK and LBJ. So, I didn’t have to come to the light, I was born in it.

You are here now, so that is all that counts.

[GulfCoast66]

23. The sad thing my parents were FDR Democrats!

They moved away from a rural area in the South to escape the intolerance and small mindedness

I think my politics was wrapped into teen rebellion. But I was not hard core and did vote for some democrats. Bill Clinton and Walkin’ Lawton come to mind. Only when I realize they really stood for nothing I believed did I switch. Working for the diverse company I do and traveling internationally change me totally.

My friends were shocked, some pleased some not when I started calling myself a social democrat!

And you are correct about my profession. I’m definitely outnumbered but we do not talk politics at work.

[Cracklin Charlie]

4. If you have friends that do this...

Please be kind. Welcome them back. Tell them how proud you are, and how the bigger person admits their mistake, and works to correct it.

I feel bad for some of these folks. Not all, but some.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. I likewise will cut her some slack.

19. Republican family. Glad she's seen the light.

[Boomerproud]

6. So many people say they voted "to change things".

Did they ever ask themselves what they were replacing everything with? I hope they're happy with the pain and chaos their decision created.

[cstanleytech]

11. It happened in Germany to a few decades back.

I just hope we can get Trump out of office before it gets as bad as it did back then.

[Solomon]

33. This is what I don't get. What was the "change" she was looking for? SMH

[Aristus]

7. I was her age when I voted for a Republican.

The Republican was George H.W. Bush, a decorated WWII combat pilot, youngest aviator in US Naval history, ambassador to China, CIA chief, and two-term Vice President. IOW, a man of accomplishment who understood the ins and outs, the whys and wherefores of governing.

Anyone who votes for an ignoramus who has failed upward his entire life, just because she wants him to "shake things up", is an idiot. I am not quite as eager as some to forgive. This shitstorm is her fault.

[burrowowl]

29. HW Bush was in some very shady business

Under Iran-contra his malfeasance killed 200,000 to 250,000 Guatemalan indigenous people.
He was a war criminal, Barr saved his ass.

[Ferrets are Cool]

8. Out of ALL the turnabout stories I've heard, this is the ONLY one I

truly believe as sincere. I hope she has learned that there are NO good repugs and changes her vote to ALL Democrats.

[NNadir]

9. She may harbor hopes of running for office but to vote for ANYONE who voted for Trump is...

...Unamerican.

Period.

[Blue_true]

19. She very well could be a democrat now.

Instead of rejecting her out of hand, I would prefer to see what her platform is and which party she identifies with when she runs.

[NNadir]

24. It's possible she'll grow up, but voting for Trump without much introspection suggests...

...that she's a fairly lazy sort.

I'm around young people to a fair extent. At 18, one should have developed a fair sense of responsibility.

If she runs as a Democrat, she's probably not going to tell us she voted for Trump, though.

[Blue_true]

25. She is from a republican family.

That is a lot of baggage for an 18-19 year old who is likely still under the strong influence of Mom and Dad. She is a 22-23 year old woman now, likely working or in Grad, Law or Medical School. Her outlook now is different on Trump and potentially different on politics at large.

[NNadir]

26. So was I.

I never voted Republican in my life, My first Presidential vote was for McGovern, despite the fact that my father thought Nixon was the greatest President of his lifetime.

Look, she's not running for office now, and if she does, it's very unlikely she'll be anywhere near me. I'm glad she's come to her senses and I'm glad she confesses responsibility.

I heard that Hillary Clinton worked on the Goldwater campaign in 1964, so there's that.

If she becomes another Hillary Clinton - a very high aspiration - by the time she does so, I'll surely be dead.

I'll take any vote from anyone in 2020, just because Trump is a threat not just to this country, but humanity.

But I'm sorry, these 4 years have made me so raw, I cannot forgive, right now, anyone who is responsible for it, anyone who voted for this obviously intellectually and morally piece of raw unbridled shit.

What part of pussy grabbing did they not understand?

[crickets]

13. I'm glad to hear she's voting for Biden, but

any woman alive at the time couldn't escape hearing the "grab them by the pussy" comment. If you voted for a man who said that and it was still months after the election before you realized your mistake... yikes.

[Blue_true]

20. A 19 year old woman at college.

She was likely influenced by the loud voices of her male friends. I have seen that happen before. Good to see that she is a thinking person who realized her mistake and is willing to own up to it.

I would be interested in knowing whether she voted for Governor Witmer and other statewide democrats in 2018. That would be the true test of whether she has learned.

[ibegurpard]

30. I don't hold it against someone that young

She is just gaining independence from her family and finding her own voice. I didn't change my very conservative upbringing views until my early 20s.

[betsuni]

32. "I didn't think Hillary was honest about wanting to help women."

What a fucking idiot. She believed propaganda that erased Hillary's career. She didn't bother to research. Nineteen isn't a child. Idiot.