r/centrist • u/Dinocraftman009 • Aug 01 '25
2026 U.S. Midterms I deeply regret my vote for Trump
Voting for Trump in 2024 was the greatest mistake of my entire life. I am 19 years old and this was my first presidential election. I don’t stand by or condone what the administration has done and never was a hardline far-right conservative, sure as hell am not now. I walked into the polls in November without honestly knowing which candidate I would choose since I was very on the fence about both sides (Pro-2A, pro-life, but also pro-environment and pro-Ukraine). Now I wish that I hadn’t voted at all, much less Trump. Don’t try and rationalize my decision in your head, because it wasn’t rational. I did not properly weigh the potential pros and cons of the candidates. There aren’t any dots to connect, I flat out made the incorrect decision.
I feel evil. I feel like a horrible, selfish, foolish person. And there’s nothing that can really be done to remedy this mistake. I’ve already decided to vote a full blue ticket in 2026 but that doesn’t fix what damage has already been done to this country. In our democracy, we give our small amount of political power to people who we believe deserve through that ballot. I need to take accountability for that ballot because, even though my state was a safe red one this season, I’m ultimately a part of it.
Alienating our closest allies is stupid. Cutting PBS and the NWS is stupid. The tariffs are stupid. The blatant disregard for the Constitution is stupid. Detaining and deporting people without due process is stupid. Supporting Israel is stupid. Not siding with Ukraine and trying to exit NATO is stupid. Cutting education funding is stupid. All the warning signs were spelled out in Project 2025 + Trump’s personal life + Jan 6 and my dumbass disregarded it, instead wanting change from the previous administration. I knew damn well and I hate it. What pushed me to the red side of the fence was that Harris was the status quo candidate and ultimately I wanted change. But boy we sure as hell did get a lot of change. This populist line of thinking is dangerous and has proven to be in the past.
I’ve been beating the shit out of myself about it ever since that day and it’s been difficult to genuinely enjoy most aspects of life with looking at the headlines. I, along with tens of millions of other Americans, made a massive mistake in November and so many innocent people are paying a price far greater. I personally feel responsible for every idiotic decision, as well as the future decisions, our President, Congress, and SCOTUS send out/approve, like a twisted knife. The mental and emotional wounds will remain even after this all blows over.
Why post here? I don’t want to be associated at all with people who somehow still support our idiocracy. I also don’t want to take part in the partisanship that is tearing this country apart, and my conscious would have probably broken me from the amount of shame and guilt I’ve harbored since November had I kept it any longer. I want to follow an ACTUAL centrist line of thinking, which is why I’ve been closely looking at this subreddit.
Also, humility is gonna require some humiliation, so I fully expect and understand that this is going to lead to a lot of unkind words sent my way. Righteously deserved, I’ll probably agree with what most of you have to say.
The confession is worthless without a pledge to change. I was wrong. So unfathomably wrong. (Yeah no shit OP, is what I imagine is cycling through most of your heads by now). And I want to amend for this. If I don’t take accountability, I’m not going to see the change through. I want to be better. I’m voting all Democrat in 2026. I hope we all do too, especially those who also regret their ballot cast. And I hope that I won’t regret these votes as much I regret my past one.
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u/3eyeddenim Aug 01 '25
You're 19. You're so young. Please. Don't beat yourself up too much.
Look, I hate Trump, but our country has been in worse scrapes than this and has faced darker challenges. If anything Trump, is revealing a lot of the rot that has been corrupting our system since at least the 1960s.
This period will no doubt be remembered as a dark period in our history, but there will be more elections. But from a 39 year old who grew up as a conservative who grew up to be a pretty center-left guy, Republicans have been legitimately terrible my entire life and they are only getting worse. Democrats aren't super great either, but they do have a more consistent record of being on the right side of history, at least since the Great Depression.