OPINION
When Donald Trump announced J D Vance as his running-mate in the 2024 election, media were quick to dredge up Vance’s virulently anti-Trump comments from 2016. Back then, Vance called Trump a “cynical a-hole” and “America’s Hitler”.
But that was back when, he says, he “bought into the media’s lies and distortions, I bought into the idea that somehow he was going to be so different, a terrible threat to democracy”. Then he got to see the reality of a Trump presidency, and realised that the Orange Man Bad narrative was a gross lie. “I was certainly sceptical of Donald Trump in 2016 but President Trump was a great president and he changed my mind.”
Most importantly, both he says, Trump “delivered that peace and prosperity”.
Vance’s road to Damascus experience is one many who formerly leaned to the left have made, at some time or other. Some earlier, some later. I jumped ship from the left well and truly by the mid-2000s. An American friend of mine who voted for Obama twice changed his mind and voted for Trump in 2016.
Another recent convert is entrepreneur Stephanie Tyler. On a thread on X, she detailed her reasons for moving from the left to right, from Hillary in 2016, Biden in 2020, to Trump in 2024. It’s a familiar litany.
First, was the unhinged witch-hunt of “MeToo”.
MeToo came in hot – the Aziz Ansari incident was a turning point for me – Aziz’s career was nearly destroyed over what amounted to a bad date. The fervor with which the MeToo movement was pushed, often without nuance or due process, became increasingly unsettling.
For all the leftist self-praise about “following The Science”, it is clear, says Tyler, that they are trampling on scientific reality and basic rationality.
[Elon Musk]’s endeavors with SpaceX, from launching satellites to potentially colonizing Mars, have faced considerable opposition from environmentalists and regulatory bodies on the left. The protests over seals and birds in relation to SpaceX’s activities seemed to overshadow the potential for groundbreaking advancements in science and exploration. As someone who values innovation and progress, the left’s resistance to Elon’s visions feels counterproductive and stifling.
The left’s stance on gender identity, particularly the assertion that boys can be girls and vice versa, conflicts with my understanding of biology. Having minored in biology, I found the disregard for scientific facts troubling. This issue underscored a broader pattern of the left prioritizing ideology over empirical evidence, which deeply resonated with my commitment to scientific integrity.
But nowhere has the trashing of science and rationality been more obvious than the Covid pandemic.
The handling of the Covid-19 pandemic was fraught with misinformation and heavy-handed mandates – initially, we were told to trust the science, yet the narrative kept changing. Vaccine mandates were imposed, leading to significant public pushback and divisiveness. Subsequent revelations about the vaccines’ effectiveness and side effects, along with the suppression of dissenting opinions, only fueled distrust.
The pandemic response became more about control than public health.
Tyler also points to the twinned obsessions of identity politics and “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) initiatives. The consequences of each, she says, have been disastrous. Not least the astonishing crime wave unleashed by the “defund the police” movement.
Finally, there’s the lies and misinformation from the media about both Trump and Joe Biden.
My political reorientation was further influenced by Jared Kushner’s appearance on Lex Fridman’s podcast. Hearing Kushner discuss the Abraham Accords provided a fresh perspective on the Trump administration’s achievements, many of which were either underreported or misrepresented in mainstream media […]
The recent debates and public appearances of President Biden have been alarming – his frequent verbal stumbles, moments of confusion, and physical frailty suggest that he is not fully in control. Watching Biden freeze during debates and struggle to make coherent points underscored the deception by the left, who had assured us of his competence. It’s disheartening and embarrassing to see the leader of the free world in such a state.
X/Stephanie Tyler
The replies to Tyler’s thread were full of similar sentiments.
“I never stopped being a liberal. I just came to recognize that the Democrats are completely opposed to liberalism.”
“Add our funding for Ukraine proxy war with Russia and forbidding a peace agreement early on.”
“Also, as a Veteran, I [am] VERY angry that Veterans have been turned out of housing & it’s been given to illegals. It’s happened with elderly facilities too, & some schools have started “learning from home” because illegals were moved into the schools.
“You aren’t old enough to retire, but the fact illegals are being given SSN, & money which exceeds the amount of their SS checks, & given free health care & the ability to buy homes that those same programs & benefits aren’t available to Americans & that doesn’t include the housing being built for them & free rent (Massachusetts comes to mind)…these are all Democrat policies.”
But the final word has to go to one Liz Churchill:
We were labelled as the ‘Extreme Right’ for simply wanting sanity.
X/Liz Churchill