Ex-Trump Voters, Tell Us The Moment That Made You Go "Enough Is Enough"
Recently, we featured Rihanna Teixeira (@thediaryofrihanna), a 38-year-old ex-Evangelical woman who went viral for sharing how she deconstructed her racist and sexist beliefs and stopped supporting Trump despite voting for him in 2016.
Rihanna opened up about how, after George Floyd was murdered in 2020, she saw the hypocrisy within the belief systems held by her conservative, Evangelical communities.
"Seeing how people that I once really respected and would pay money to go hear them speak...the way that they would not even acknowledge that this man was wrongfully murdered, and they found ways to actually justify it, or they found ways just to not speak out about it whatsoever, really messed with my head," she said.
Rihanna also explained that her church's inability to excuse and give "grace" to Trump's behavior, including intense racist, anti-Islamic, and anti-trans conspiracy theories about the Obamas, but not do the same for Barack Obama's less severe shortcomings, further opened her eyes to the hypocrisy.
She explained that this led her to do her own research outside of Christian thought leaders and eventually deconstruct her unconscious racist belief systems. In the comments on one of her viral videos, many others shared their own "deconstruction" experiences:
Because so many people shared that they had similar "deconstruction" experiences to Rihanna's, I'm curious to know about them. So, if you previously voted for Trump but won't in 2024, what changed? What was the "last straw" that made you shift your perspective or even deconstruct your own belief systems?
Perhaps you live in a working-class town where all your life has run red, so you've always been in circles where distrust of the government was high. When Trump came along, you liked that he brought something different as a businessman, and being around your people who supported him so much, you made many excuses for his behavior.
The turning point for you, though, was Trump's denial of losing the election and, the final straw, the January 6 insurrection. You were appalled and embarrassed at the mental gymnastics people performed to defend him afterward and saw right through his inability to accept defeat, fueling anger over facts.
Maybe you're a nurse, and after you turned on the TV to hear Trump suggest injecting ourselves with disinfectant to beat coronavirus, there was no going back. You were in the thick of the crisis working with COVID patients and already frustrated by Trump's denial of the severity of the virus, and that comment finally did it for you.
Perhaps you've always been slightly swayed by your parents' POV, who are staunch Trump supporters. Now that you've moved away and are surrounded by new perspectives, you're unlearning many harmful beliefs you had taken on. The breaking point for you was actually recently while watching the presidential debate. You saw Trump's demonization of migrant communities as hateful and rooted in fear, anger, and lies, not as a bold talking point.
So, if you previously supported Trump but don't anymore, what was your breaking point? What moment made you say, "Enough is enough"? Let me know in the comments or by using this anonymous form. Your response could be featured in an upcoming BuzzFeed Community post.
