Statue of LIberty, Crying, Buyer’s Remorse
As I said last week, it hasn’t taken long for buyer’s remorse to set in after the 2024 election. What strikes me is that so many people cast their votes for Donald Trump based on incomplete, erroneous, or fallacious information. Some voted based on no information at all.
If you are on social media, you are seeing stories of Americans who voted for Trump without understanding how the Republican administration would affect them personally. Let’s look at impacts by category:
Tariff Repercussions and Buyer’s Remorse
The American people largely don’t understand how tariffs work because (1) Outside of college economics, schools don’t teach students about them; and (2) Tariffs have been irrelevant to the lives of most folks. Now, however, they are about to have a big impact on a largely unsuspecting public.
We can see those ships loaded with imported goods with bigger price tags but now they will plow right into people’s budgets. Aside from much higher prices, there will be other impacts, not discussed by Rupert Murdoch and Fox News.
The workers who won’t be getting their Christmas bonuses didn’t know how tariffs work and that’s the way the Republicans wanted it. Would the employees have voted differently had they known there would be an impact on them personally?
More Buyer’s Remorse on Tariffs
From Facebook:
“My MAGA neighbor five minutes ago: ‘I just read that tariffs are going to raise prices for stuff. I don’t get it. I thought China was going to pay them.’”
“One of my GCs I partner w is a Trump guy. We won a new job that will start next year. I just told him I won’t honor today’s materials’ pricing past January. He asked why. I said tariffs could cause 100% increase in COGS or more. That I would send new pricing in the spring. He said but I have to sign the fixed price contract w them tomorrow! And there you have it! One lesson learned two days too late! Too bad. So sad.”
Immigration and Deportation
Lots of immigration and fear of deportation stories are popping up. In Michigan, for example, many Arab-American citizens registered a protest vote against the Biden administration’s handling of the Gaza crisis. They didn’t necessarily want Trump but voted for him to “send a message to the Democrats.”
Unfortunately, they also voted for a man who is besties with Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump has spoken to the man behind the devastation in Gaza six times. In those calls, the President-elect urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to “just get it done.” Whatever that means. It doesn’t sound peaceful.
Protest votes may make sense in a normal election but this one isn’t normal.
Hispanic Panic
Hispanic voters also voted for Trump because (A) they had never heard of plans for mass deportation of immigrants or (B) thought it would only apply to criminals, not to them or their families. Mind you, Trump didn’t actually say that, but they inferred it from the campaign’s emphasis on immigrants perpetrating crimes.
Now they are waking up to the reality of what the Trump administration plans — which is mass deportation for all undocumented immigrants — and they are frightened. They fear for themselves, their parents and their relatives. For example:
“A true story: One of my employees, a former DACA recipient who became a U.S. citizen through marriage, recently shared his reasons for voting for Trump. His parents, who are undocumented, have worked hard to make a life here—his father in construction and his mother in medical equipment manufacturing
“Despite the risks, he feels the need to protect them, especially now. His choice to support Trump was driven by concerns over inflation, which he believes has made it increasingly hard for his parents to make ends meet on their wages.
“He wasn’t aware of the mass deportation narrative, until he started getting text messages from people saying, ‘Pack your bags.,’ people not realizing he is actually a U.S. citizen now. He started researching it, and now he is utterly terrified for his two parents.”
Too bad he didn’t research it before the election. Meanwhile,
Racism and Buyer’s Remorse
I hate to touch on this topic because I’m white so I will give you the words of Rev. Al Sharpton, who is Black in a conversation with Joe Scarborough on MSNBC:
Scarborough: “It’s misogyny from Black men, things we have all been talking about, who do not want a woman leading them. Might be race issues with Hispanics, they don’t want a Black woman as president of the United States. You know, the Democratic party, I’ve always found when you’re sitting around talking, they love to just sort of balkanize everybody into separate groups, and say, ‘Oh, white people don’t like women and Black people.’ No. We’ve talked about this before: a lot of Hispanic voters have problems with Black candidates.”
“And with other Hispanics!” Sharpton exclaimed. “You’ve got some that don’t like each other. And some of the most misogynist things I heard going the get out the vote tour came from Black men. So you’re absolutely right, it’s not simplistic and we have to have real honest conversations about it.”
Now those Black men who couldn’t stand the idea of a woman in the White House are feeling some repercussions.
Cabinet Selections
We’re just getting started on the Cabinet selections, but already we’re seeing levels of astonishment, disgust, fear, and buyer’s remorse. We may even get some resistance on the part of Republican Senators. Who’d have thought they could still summon the courage? But they are our only real line of defense against people who are unqualified, incompetent, and sometimes downright dangerous.
