Arizona man who voted Trump in 2016 switching vote to Biden after wife died of COVID-19

[sabra]

Source: The Hill

A retired Air Force veteran in Arizona who voted for President Trump in the 2016 election announced on Monday that he will be casting his vote for Democratic nominee Joe Biden in November after the man's wife died of complications from COVID-19.

Dave Dahlstrom, a self-proclaimed lifelong conservative, told ABC's Phoenix affiliate station, KNXV, that Trump and other top officials downplaying the threat of the virus after it first hit the United States earlier this year caused deaths and hardships that could have been prevented.

"Our leadership really failed the American people, and they failed my family, and they failed our friends," he said. "I'm really bothered by all of that."

...

"They pulled the ventilator. Two minutes later she passed away," Dahlstrom told KNXV. "It was just a dynamic I would never wish on anybody. It was just terrible."

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/518718-arizona-man-who-voted-trump-in-2016-switching-vote-to-biden-after-wife

---

[chwaliszewski]

1. .

[DownriverDem]

2. trump supporters

will just say she would have died anyway. They are total sick dogs.

[Xipe Totec]

21. Until it's their turn.

Then they will care deeply.

[Yavin4]

29. And expect empathy from everyone. n/t

[samsingh]

3. in big swathes of the country people only care when something happens to them

[Kind of Blue]

6. +1000.

[aggiesal]

4. Sorry to hear about his wife dying, but this shows he has no empathy whatsoever ...

This is what it took to make him see just how truly bad Pendejo45 is?

What if she didn't die? Would he still vote for Pendeo45?

I believe so.

[Kind of Blue]

7. +1000.

[lostnfound]

30. He has suffered enough. And at least now he is voting to stop it from happening to others.

It’s all so sad.

[aggiesal]

31. I agree, he's suffered enough, but it had to take this much suffering for him to see the light. ...

He had to suffer the loss of his wife.

Will he vote (D) in 2024 or will the hurt & suffering diminish enough for this person to revert back to voting (R)?

[cyndensco]

5. I am sorry Mr. Dahlstrom lost his wife.

I am also sorry many republicans are seemingly okay with 205,000+ Americans dying of COVID and only see the light when it affects them directly.

[Vogon_Glory]

8. Back in 2008, I was afraid that the cure for Conservative stupidity

would have to be so harsh and painful that even the hard right would have howl in grief an anguish. Then we elected President Obama that November and I hoped that the disabusing would be less horrible.

After red-state goobers selected Donald Trump, I realized that the cure would be as brutal as I feared eight years earlier.

I fear that the Dahlstrom are just a pair of hundreds of thousands getting hideously painful political lessons about the consequences for voting for right-wingers in today’s world.

[oswaldactedalone]

11. Well said

👍

[KS Toronado]

16. Hopefully the cure will be 20+ years of Democrats having the W.H. and both houses of congress.

If we raise the minimum wage to help the poor, get the economy going rebuilding our infrastructure, raise Social Security benefits for seniors, national health care policy to stop people from going bankrupt, etc, etc. We can take this country where almost everyone
will be content and pleased where their road of life has taken them under Democratic leadership. The oligarchs will have a tough time convincing people to vote RebupliCON.

[Vogon_Glory]

19. I suspect something as long as the Israelites' sojourn in the desert would be a better cure.

Except that Unlike Moses and Aaron, I hope the Righties never find the Promised Land.

[KS Toronado]

27. Hope you are correct.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

25. Those changes need to happen. CONservatives, however, won't know about them.

Because fux spewz won’t tell them.

[demosincebirth]

9. It's the whole Republican Party!

[IronLionZion]

10. More and more people know someone who is impacted by COVID

It didn't have to be this way.

[Botany]

12. "Our leadership really failed the American people, and they failed my family, and they failed ....

... our friends," he said. "I'm really bothered by all of that." Dave Dahlstrom, a retired Air Force veteran.

Trump's base which was small to begin with and needed Russian help and the electoral college
to "win" is not growing but it is getting smaller every day.


Trump has a 25 to 30% base that will never leave him because he has told them it is OK to use
the n****r word.

[Boomer]

26. What about that famous GOP personal responsibility?

HE failed his family by believing a proven liar/crook/cheat/traitor of a president.

[PerceptionManagement]

13. Don't voter for trump in 2020 or god will murder your wife too

[niyad]

14. Sorry your wife died, you idiot, but YOU helped it to happen. YOU, a veteran, voted for a five-time

draft-dodging, misogynistic, racist bastard. You knew exactly what he was, and yet you pulled the lever for him. Your wife's death, and those of over 200,000 others of our people, is on YOUR hands.

[procon]

15. Is it normal for people to have no empathy or sense

of compassion for the suffering of others? I want to think that by display of coldhearted indifference or apathy, like hate, is a learned or acquired response.

Maybe it's their way of avoiding any social, financial or moral responsibility. In today's bizarro of hardwired biases its just too great a leap to admit the hated opposition was right so they have no face saving way out once they've drank the poison cool aid.

Evidently the only way to break free of that toxic mindset is to hit rock bottom. When someone they love is taken then the pain and anguish of their loss hits home.

[CozyMystery]

17. It is for tRump Humpers, IMO. nt

[marble falls]

18. Its a shame it took a personal tragedy to open his eyes. I am still sorry for his loss.

[Roc2020]

20. It's almost as if

the closer the election the more the virus will tragically affect Trump supporters in red states. The ultimate lesson of death.

[Javaman]

22. This is a sad but classic example of the repuke mindset

Something is only a problem until it happens to them. Until that point everyone else is lying, telling “fake news” or just “unamerican”.

[muntrv]

23. Only when it happens to them does it become an issue.

[kairos12]

24. Here in AZ it would be great to see the state turn to

Biden, but don't bet on it.

Too many Chump crazies.

Kelly probably wins though.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

28. This is an example of what it's going to take for most people

to understand what's at stake with Covid-19. Either someone close to them, or (in a way better yet) several major celebrities are going to need to die. Now I'm not wishing that any major celebrities, but if, for instance a couple of famous movie stars, someone made famous by TV reality show, plus a prominent politician or two. I believe Herman Cain is the most well-known person out there who's died from it, at least so far, and at that I bet most of the electorate have no idea who he was.

So many people live vicariously through celebrities of various ilk, that only them being affected will hit home. Or, of course, as in the OP, someone close to them.

As shocking large as the number as is 210,000 dead, and 7.37 million infected, (from this site: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries) the latter is still a bit less than 2% of the population, and the former is (if I did the math right) six one hundredths of one percent. Which means there are a lot of people out there who still don't know anyone who has died, and a decent number who don't know anyone who's gotten the virus. Especially given how many are asymptomatic.