In his first month in office, President Donald Trump has garnered a 44% approval rating. A surprisingly high score considering some of his most vocal objectors are his own voters.
Republican pollster Sarah Longwell interviewed multiple Trump voters, her consensus being the very first wave of MAGA buyer’s remorse is settling in.
“And the voters that I was talking to both before the election and after … They voted for Donald Trump for one very specific reason—they thought things were too expensive, and they still think things are too expensive,” Longwell said on MSNBC.
We have all heard the argument “eggs are too expensive” which seems to have been the driving motivator for the MAGA movement in November. The working class is tired of not being able to afford basic things like groceries, housing and transportation. Eggs are a small part of a large problem but managed to represent everything a campaign could hold on to.
They’re more expensive than ever, partly because of an Avian flu outbreak. But the Trump administration hasn’t done much to help, particularly when firing thousands of government workers. Now, the administration plans on rehiring the federal workers they fired to manage the outbreak.
Trump supporters didn’t listen to former President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris when discussing economics. Harris’s economic policies that would have been implemented had she won the presidency include not increasing the taxes of families making less than $400,000 a year. As for grocery prices, her plan involved proposing an end to price-gouging and helping local growers and small businesses.
The Trump supporters did not listen to this. They simply went to the grocery store, were unhappy with the amount of money totaled at the end of their trip and took that anger to the polls.
Now the left is faced with a moral issue. After their arguments fell on deaf ears for over a year, former MAGA Republicans and Trump sympathizers are finally listening, but too late.
How should Democrats react to the non-voters and Trump voters? Is there a sympathy shortage? Should they feel any pity?
In 2016, regretful Trump supporters were embraced. But as the years climb on and the idea that Trump is not your average Republican becomes less and less appealing, the left now has one message: there is no more room for empathy.
But here’s the thing, there will be other Trumps. When his four years are up, you can bet there’s another, younger candidate who learned everything they know from the Trump administration. The truth is, we need those regretful Trump supporters to ensure nothing like this happens again.
If you hate Trump and didn’t vote for him in November, you don’t have to be best friends with his former fans and apologists. But there is something important to recognize. To beat the two-party system that allowed for Trump’s second term in office, you have to put down the pitchforks when approaching them.
Politicians rely on the ability to divide a nation. They thrive off of one-upping each other, getting a base of loyal fans unable to criticize and making the possibility of genuine reform nearly impossible.
If you’re a leftist and someone you’re speaking to begins to have buyer’s remorse, let them. Let them be frustrated with an administration that may not be all it was promised or the fact that what was promised does not apply to working-class Americans. It’s the first step to ensuring it doesn’t happen again.
It feels wrong to tell someone not to be outwardly spiteful after everything that has happened over the past six months. However, politics wasn’t always so divided, and in order to break that cycle, regretful Republicans must be met in the middle.
