Yeah, once it starts to settle on Drumph voters just how exquisitely they were played (as was, frankly, the media, the political establishment, and - well, pretty much everyone who isn't hoping for some sort of "New Confederacy" type White Homeland - and who knows? - perhaps even them as well), the "buyer's remorse" is going to be EPIC.

Boo fucking hoo.

Fuck every Trump voter.

And every Jill Stein and Johnson and Bernie write in and just-didn't voter.

Fuck them all.

Meanwhile we are ALL going to pay dearly (and let's face it some more than others - MANY with their lives, MANY with their livelihoods, MANY with their civil rights, MANY with their rights to manage their own bodies) and it is going to brutal. Buyer's remorse? Anyone who voted for Trump is stupid and/or racist. They couldn't tell he was full of shit up to his comb over from the get go? Now we ALL have to pay? Fuck these people I am so revolted by how stupid Americans are and how much damage will be done because huge swaths of our nation's population are so stupid and so full of hate they really shouldn't be allowed to live.

Charles Mudede, do you know anything about Venezuela, by chance?

There's plenty of psychological research which shows that people victimized by scams actually will double down in denial and absurd rationalizations to protect their own egos rather than face reality. The Trumpists will become even more shrill, hateful, and insane, even after the RepubliKKKans gut the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and every other commie benefit program that's barely keeping them alive.

All these Trump voters who are going to feel all this remorse for the next four years and beyond can kiss my ass.

Something similar to @7 there. They're stubborn, ignorant & spiteful enough to refuse admission of their own idiocy. And President Shithead will do just enough to appease their spitefulness (i.e. Bannon, etc.)

Almost makes ya wonder why you guys went with a (D) candidate who was such a flawed, bought-off shill, instead of a guy who would've won.

Laughs aplenty.

Suck it up buttercup.

She regrets her vote. However, her vote (as you briefly mentioned) didn't matter. If she had voted in MI or one other state which was a close call and Trump won, this kind of article would be worth reading. Its entirely irrelevant to feature a tory about someone who voted opposite the way of the majority in her state, and even less so in a state where the margin of victory was not even close.

Now, I suppose this feeds into the visceral trend here at the Stranger where we declare everyone voting for anyone other than Hillary to be idiots. Looking at the comments posted before mine, thats pretty much all any of you have had to say.

Do you think you're going to get the votes we need to win the 2020 election by telling everyone your trying to convince to change that they're idiots?

I didn't vote for Trump. If I had, and I heard you calling me stupid for having done so, I think I would vote for him again out of sheer spite, especially if that insult was amplified by the echo chamber that is mass media. Then again, I'm the kind of asshole that, when confronted with a gay basher, who replies with "Oh yeah? You ever get your ass kicked by a faggot? Well! I guess there's a first time for everything."

I don 't think I'm alone in that kid of sentiment, however. At least, not in a general sense. I think most people, when confronted with someone who needs me to do something for them, and yet is incredibly rude and nasty about it, would decline to support that rude person. I'd cite a cliche about biting hands, but I hate cliches.

Here's a thought, Charles. Why don't you write an article making the case for voting for socialist values in the 2018 congressional elections? Something that explains how it would benefit people in WA should select a champion of the working class to represent them in the Congress? Maybe you could try building those voters up, telling them that the reasons why are because Washingtonians deserve better than they've gotten in the past.

If we see more articles like that, we might actually get a socialist in a position to do something useful.

Let's see more Eugene V Debs, and less Martha Coakley.

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

H. L. Mencken

@ 13,

I agree with you that we need to run decent candidates next time. This year's Democratic primary was heavily manipulated by the DNC. They decided the winner before the contest even began.

Unfortunately, so did a lot of the DNC's main fundraisers. Planned Parenthood and the HRC notably endorsed Clinton before the first debate. This was a new thing for both organizations. Normally, they wait until after the primary to endorse. When I called the HRC (I as a donating member) to complain, since they had never asked the membership who we would want the HRC to endorse, I was actually told by the head of Member Services that they did not want my donation money anymore, and that he was cancelling my membership. They were so deep in the tank for Clinton, Bernie supporters like me were not welcome in their exclusive little club.

The Superdelegates had the unique effect of making the Democratic primary less democratic than the GOP primary. At the time, most Democrats I spoke to suggested this was a good thing. They pointed at Trump, and considered the Superdelegates to be the only thing that prevented them from being stuck with a candidate who (like Trump) could not possibly win the general election.

Except that Trump did win the general election. And he won it because he was more reflective of the popular will than the will of the party brahmins. Clinton wasn't chosen by the voters-she was chosen by the superdelegates. Too bad for the Democrats, the Superdelegates don't decide who wins the general election- the voters do.

However, we need to keep in mind that most voters are not the fire breathing pundits on Faux News. Some of them voted for Trump because Clinton was openly corrupt. Others, because they didn't want neoliberal economics. Personally, I wish these folks had voted for Jill Stein instead, and they very well might have if the Greens had enough media presence for people to understand what the Greens represent.

Now, if you want to commit political suicide, and shrilly insult the people whose votes we will need to win in 2020, I suppose you'll be proving the point many newly converted Greens are making- that the Democratic Party cannot be reformed. I'm kind of on the fence about this, because Bernie gave me some hope. However, you and most of the Stranger staff are kind of pushing me in Jill Stein's direction, since you're not even bothering to ask yourself where you screwed up.

You cannot learn if you do not look at your mistakes. And your knee jerk tendency to declare anyone who disagrees with you to be an idiot is a huge fucking mistake. You cannot win an election all by yourself. Democracy doesn't mean you get your way just by behaving like a self righteous asshole.

I volunteered heavily for Referendum 74 in Tacoma. I went to the phone bank 5 nights a week. I door knocked. I dropped literature on people's doorsteps. I travelled to Yakima and helped he campaign there, too. And that meant having some difficult conversations. There's nothing like standing on someone's doorstep in a deeply conservative part of the state where everyone's a gun nut and telling them I'm gay. And it was really hard to hear them say nasty things to my face about what rights they believed I should and should not have. But I listened to them. I appealed to what Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature". I told them about my partner, and the family I wanted to raise.

And I could very well have been shot. Several times over. I did this in Puyallup. I did this in Hilltop. I did this in Yakima. I did this in East Tacoma. I did it for six months, every goddamn night.

And we fucking won.

We did not carry the entire state with just King County voters, although that certainly did make a huge difference. However, if we had lost the erst of the state, only only won King County, R 74 would not have passed. The additional votes- even if Pierce County was only 49% of the vote- carried the day.

I did not win R74 by myself. There were countless others doing thankless work, whose names none of you are going to remember, all over the state. Listening to bigots. Telling their stories. Relating to people. And winning.

If you'd like to win too, I can show you how. It starts when you treat people with decency and respect, even when that's not easy to do.

Every person I know who voted for Trump did so in spite of the fact that Trump was the nominee. That is to say, they are people who always vote Republican and even Donald fucking Trump was not enough to deter them from doing it yet again. And every single one of them is already washing their hands of it and saying they never wanted him anyhow and spinning bizarre tales for how Donald Trump is the fault of the Democrats (!!!)

What a world. I imagine that a couple years from now when the question of the day has become "Who rules Bartertown?", they'll retroactively impeach Barack Obama.

OneWest foreclosed not just on thousands of American families. It forclosed on TENS OF THOUSANDS of families. I salute this voter for waking up, but as someone who has protested outside of TBTF banks (and sometimes inside these banks) dozens of times on behalf of people victimized by illegal foreclosures by these CRIMINAL BANKS, I can't help wondering whether the tens of millions of people who voted for Trump will even notice when they start get royally screwed screwed over beginning on January 20, 2017.

OneWest foreclosed not just on thousands of American families. It forclosed on TENS OF THOUSANDS of families out of the 10 million who lost their homes due to foreclosure in 2007 to the present. I salute this voter for waking up, but as someone who has protested outside of TBTF banks (and sometimes inside these banks) dozens of times on behalf of people victimized by illegal foreclosures by these CRIMINAL BANKS, I can't help wondering whether the tens of millions of people who voted for Trump will even notice when they start get royally screwed screwed, beginning on January 20, 2017.

@15

You are completely right, but I doubt anyone will listen.
I voted for Hillary. I thought she was the best candidate, but I knew how unpopular she was, and I knew it was going to be a difficult race.
Her 'basket of deplorables' comments undoubtedly alienated many Republicans that would have voted for a Democrat for the first time in their lives.
I have to admit I'm extremely worried about the future of the Democratic Party. In fact, I don't know how much longer I can support them.
The party establishment isn't just out of touch with the voters, it's out of touch with reality.

The fact that Nancy Pelosi is going to be minority leader again is proof that the establishment has no interest in changing strategy or leadership.
The Democrats have become nothing more than Republican lite.
It's almost as disturbing as president Trump, and all three branches of the government controlled by Republicans.

Socialism will cure everything here. Right, Hugo?

@ 19,

It's a gerontocracy. And thats why young people are leaving the party in droves.

@10 it always amazes me when you and people like you jump around waving their arms and shouting "LOOK HOW IGNORANT AND UNPLEASANT I AM!" Are you still a teenager, or do you have deep-rooted psychological problems?

Wait. I'm supposed to have sympathy for someone who's hubris and greed got her into trouble?

We're not talking about a family trying to buy into the American dream. We're talking about someone who took some huge risks with her own house and then was surprised when they didn't pay off?

And then she votes for Trump? Please.