Trump Voters, Is This Really What You Wanted?

A vote is loud.Whether that vote is cast joyfully or with trepidation or begrudgingly or without all the information or as a protest, it makes the same bold statements:This is my choice.I am with this person.I consent to their conduct.I co-sign their actions.I endorse them.A vote doesn’t have qualifiers or caveats or escape clauses. It simply says Yes or No.And as we’re witnessing a rapid and expansive dismantling of our nation’s systems, a complete mockery of our Cabinet positions, a pervasive chaos enveloping everything from our social services to our healthcare to our Military to our essential needs to our standing in the world, the one question I keep wanting to ask those of you who voted for him is:Is this really what you wanted?Did you want prices on groceries and gas to rise stratospherically as he taunts our long-time allies?Did you want a senseless and unwinnable war of choice in Iran that is depleting our financial resources and throwing the world into unnecessary turmoil?Did you want to live under an oppressive police surveillance state, to have every intimate aspect of your life monitored by the Government, to have surrendered any sense of privacy or personal freedom?Did you intend for immigrant families to be terrorized in their workplaces, schools, and homes, with no regard for due process or for legal and human rights?Did you vote for the Epstein Files to be hidden from view, protecting the absolute most vile predators and pedophiles?Did you vote for the selling off and destruction of protected natural lands, for concentration camps, for screaming, water-guzzling data centers swallowing up your community? Did you vote for the elimination of programs that provide veterans their benefits, poor children a school lunch, the elderly their hard-earned retirement?Did you want us alienated from the world and removed from every global humanitarian and diplomatic partnership we have participated in for decades?Did you vote for massive, opulent ballrooms, gaudy vanity arches, ego-stroking building alterations, and wasteful reflecting pool renovations?Is this what you voted for?Because if this isn’t what you voted for, you need to be vocal now.Silence is not a luxury anyone can afford in days like these. To be silent now, after voting so loudly, is irresponsible and unhelpful.Your silence doesn’t protect refugees or avoid disastrous Cabinet appointees or pay treatment bills for the now uninsured.It doesn’t shield marginalized communities from hate crimes or protect America’s farmers or care for the disabled or challenge the President’s flagrant nepotism.Your silence doesn’t encourage lawmakers to push against their party even if they feel they should, and it doesn’t show solidarity with activists in the streets spending themselves to advocate for equality and justice.It doesn’t discourage the President and his spokespeople from rolling out an unrelenting stream of lies or attacking those doing real, Constitution-guarding journalism.It doesn’t hold those in the highest levels of power and influence accountable for disregarding every procedure, rule of law, and safeguard established to ensure that every citizen is protected from those governing them.Your silence doesn’t do anything right now but allow you to divorce yourself from your vote, to avoid any accountability for the man you’ve chosen, and to perpetuate the erratic, reckless, criminal behavior that is endangering every human being here.What this means, friend, is that if you are indeed regretting your vote in any way, this would be the time to stand up and say so. Millions of us are out here doing the work of pushing back and speaking for the marginalized and poor and disregarded (including Trump voters), and we’re marching, and we’re calling our elected officials, and we’re busting our butts to keep our Constitution intact.And all the while, the narrative the President is selling is that this is a partisan, Liberal Media-created mirage. He’s attempting to manufacture a political civil war via social media to divert attention from the insidious stuff happening right now that should be horrifying all of us.And every day you say nothing, our Republic is more and more vulnerable, more and more compromised, more and more in danger of losing the very essence of its freedoms and liberties.All this to say, I’m really sorry for your embarrassment or your guilt or your feeling foolish, but even more concerned about your silence.I hear that many people are leaving MAGA, that they are tired of this waste, this recklessness, this greed, this incompetence. Maybe you’re one of those people. I just hope you won’t leave quietly.Your vote in 2024, for whatever reason you cast it, was loud.And if you regret that vote or if you don’t consent to what you are seeing from this man and this Administration, your volume and your vote now is necessary, too.Please join those of us who are resisting together because we love America more than a political party, because this isn’t about any of us; it’s about all of us.Please speak, and speak loudly.The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe