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Not enough question marks in the world for this person's voting record. Obama –> Not Obama (unspecified) –> Trump –> Trump + rioted to overthrow democracy on Trump's behalf –> Harris.
Honestly uninformed people with low critical-thinking skills are very easily swept away with whichever way the winds take them but the article gives clues:
But Hemphill said she usually votes for whoever her mostly Republican-supporting family recommends. Her family, drawn to Trump’s rallies and messaging, drew Hemphill in as well.
“I didn't realize that brainwashing was happening with Trump in 2016…this is how they would talk to me. ‘Pam, you know, the Democrats…are trying to take over. They're getting more aggressive.’ I tend to believe them. You know, I wasn't doing my own research.”
Hemphill said that Trump’s aggressive rhetoric on the border appealed to her at the time because he “had us (believing) that immigrants were criminals and out to take over our nation.” Trump called immigrants from Mexico “rapists” in 2015 and would use words such as "killer," "invasion"and "alien" in his rallies as a way to stoke fear among his supporters and present himself as the prime candidate to solve the border issue.
So in this case:
“It’s like a scar that I have to carry for the rest of my life…it's gonna be that shame(ful) feeling," she said. "It's not like I knew I was breaking the law, and I broke it anyway. However, I still was a part of that craziness, that cult. So it's like something I can't brush off.”
Credit to her doing what most cannot, though. (Speaking from a family who flipped from Republican to Democrat following Bush's first term).
100% She fucked up. All of us have at various times on various things. Maybe not as bad. But the fact she can both acknowledged and regret are two things that shouldn't be so outstanding and rare. But they absolutely are.
This shit was literally 1930's Germany schtick. It's how so many German citizens were radicalized to enable and commit monstrous things. And it's far from over yet.
You know, I wasn't doing my own research.
Because we all know how doing your own research goes. I mean by all means, but a couple Google searches of fear-mongering terms isn't it.
We all know that REAL research requires a Facebook account. /s
Google search, top result, never look at the URL, forever believe what you read. Got it
It's easy to explain. You and I are critical thinkers who do our own research and are not easily swayed. As for her, she herself said that she didn't do any research, but was influenced by her family:
But Hemphill said she usually votes for whoever her mostly Republican-supporting family recommends. Her family, drawn to Trump’s rallies and messaging, drew Hemphill in as well.
And boy that influence of family can be strong. It was funny because I was talking to my mom one day about — at the time — the possibility of Biden stepping down and I just said, "boy, isn't all this stuff about Biden crazy!?" without even thinking she had a different view and she (fellow Democrat) goes, "Yeah, I can't believe they're trying to force him to step down!" I was like, "Aw shit, hold on... I think you and I disagree on that..." and within 5 minutes she at least had the capacity to understand the points and almost immediately switched in agreement. But it's hard to tell if that's because I made a strong case or if she just blindly trusts me... For Republican families who are even more patriarchal, that shit can be even worse.
The Tea Party happened in 2010
I have a lot of sympathy for this lady. It's easier than people think to get sucked into cults - even get smart people. And this lady is an example of that. Her involvement in the January 6th sedition riots is shameful. But we all make mistakes, and she was punished for it. Whether it was enough of a punishment is another matter. But the important thing is that she realizes and acknowledges her mistake. Good on her.
If our justice system is supposed to rehabilitate people instead of punish, then it seems like she received the correct sentence.
It’s not though, it’s designed to provide for profit prisons a slave labor work force. Mandatory minimum sentences.
Vote for something different
So simple, I’ll just vote for the party that has those issues on their platform, which was that again?
“I didn't realize that brainwashing was happening with Trump in 2016…this is how they would talk to me. ‘Pam, you know, the Democrats…are trying to take over. They're getting more aggressive.’ I tend to believe them. You know, I wasn't doing my own research.”
She said coming across facts by researchers helped her gradually drift apart from the MAGA group. Serving time in prison made Hemphill also rethink “who Trump really was” and the misinformation he spread surrounding the 2020 election, she said, to the point where she lost all support for him.
And that's why skepticism and critical thinking is important for a healthy democracy: you don't get carried away by these rhetorics and get brainwashed.
People like her are so incredibly rare.
There is a path to redemption, and this is what taking that path looks like.
They finally found her. The mythical undecided voter
Highly encourage people to get involved in volunteering because you will quickly learn there are more undecided voters than you might think
some people... let's hope this mood swing lasts for a couple of months!
USA Today is so proud of themselves.
A feel-good story about a J6 participant with a photo of a little old lady holding her dog, no less. It's fucking bizarre.
They left out the part that it wasn't her first time (she was involved in the Idaho Capitol breach in 2020) along with her posting a pic of herself with a gun on a Facebook post about J6.
What do you mean by this?
All corporate news are scrambling to find some story about Harris/Trump to get the horse race going full throttle. There’s no “her emails”, trump’s schtick is old and smelly, Harris hasn’t obliged with a goof up - there’s nothing to drive the tsunami of clicks a corporate news organization exists to foster.
So they’re fishing. NYT went with “Harris is changing the face of the Presidency even before the election”, which - wtf was that. Others have tried the old reliable “Trump says outrageous bullshit” but to little avail. Even techbro turd Corporal Crayon can’t Animal-House his way into a decent amount of clicks.
So USA Today - the news organization that launched with a specific mandate of keeping the writing at a fifth-grade level - said, “Hey member that crazy lady who voted all over the map? Lets go do a piece on her and make it look like that’s a thing people are doing now. Maybe that will get people to click - to find out what both sides should be doing to swing a clearly confused political example to their side.”
It’s - it’s something.
Hey, if it clues in someone else (or a lot of someone elses) who's still drifting along behind their Wrong Wing family, and allows them to consider woking up from that fever dream and voting in their own actual self-interest, it could be really something. Just putting a chink in the idea that a MAGA mindset is locked in and immutable.
There are far too many defeatists who no matter what Trump says or does will repeat the mantra, "It won't matter to his base." His base isn't a monolith and the individuals that comprise it aren't immutable.
Fair enough, if it does that - great.
Thanks for the insight and the context, friend.