A Lesson Not Learned

At the time of this article's writing, there is a rather strong push against President Trump in the United States. The reason for this pushback is due to a lot of factors that happened early in the year 2026, and I don't have time to go through all of them right now. I will talk about some of them, but more importantly, what I want to talk about is why this phenomenon is happening, how it's happened before, and why it's important to remember what happened for the future.

Perhaps the biggest factor against Trump right now is gas prices. His war with Iran and the subsequent closing of the Strait of Hormuz have caused a surge in gas prices across not only the US but the world. This, of course, has a ripple effect on basically everything else as expensive gas also means expensive transportation costs. This is the main reason why so many people, including many Republicans, are finally speaking out against Trump. His incompetence and greed have finally started affecting many who supported him. Many podcasters, including Joe Rogan, who endorsed him for president, now no longer support him. When he campaigned, he targeted a lot of influencers like Joe Rogan to try to sell his image as a "regular guy," despite growing up in the lap of luxury. And of course, now Joe Rogan and others act as though Trump has somehow "betrayed" them and he is no longer the person "he once was." They believed that Trump was someone who would "help the working man," would fix inflation, and make things more affordable. This is, of course, entirely false and is just a pattern of the modern Republican Party.

One of the biggest lies that continues to be repeated is how the Republicans are "good for the economy." This was started in the 80s during the Regan administration, most likely coined from his whole idea of "Reganomics" (aka: trickle down economy). The idea of a "trickle-down economy" was that if the people at the top did well financially, then those gains would trickle down to the rest of us. This led to the passing of massive tax cuts for those at the top and a lot of deregulation of businesses so that the 1% would do better and then "trickle down that wealth" and allow the rest of us to also do better… except, of course, it never happened. Instead, we had a recession in 1981. And ever since then, the Republicans have parroted the same thing over and over again: "tax cuts and deregulation for the top." Their politicians repeat this same idea, as do their talking heads, whether on TV, radio, or podcast. The phrasing changes in some ways, but the core message stays the same, and it's been like that for basically the last 40 years.

We've never seen this supposed growth or reaped this idea of trickle-down wealth. Taxes on the top have continued to go down (occasionally, some bills are passed that raise them back up, but not enough to make any real change). What happens instead is that the top 1% kept all those savings for themselves. They grew their wealth even more and made it seem cool to be greedy; in fact, one of the slogans used to try to encourage this behavior was that "greed is good." It is, of course, good for some people, but not for you. Despite all the evidence of this economic system not working, politicians, talk show hosts, and influencers on the right continued to insist this was the only way to grow the economy, and many of their listeners believed them. Every candidate that the Republicans have run for president believed this in some form or another and made it their mission to convince as many as they could that this was a good thing. And somehow they have succeeded, they've managed to brainwash millions of people on the lower socio-economic scale that tax cuts for the rich will work in their favor and make them rich as well.

In practical terms, it should be noted that the minimum wage has not kept up with the cost of living in this country. At the time of this writing, it sits at $7.25/hour. That change was made in 2009 by a DEMONCRATIC Congress (not a Republican one). The Democrats tried to raise the wage again to $15, but REPUBLICANS largely opposed it, and so it failed to become law. In fact, since the minimum wage creation in 1938, it has been raised twenty-three times, twenty-one of those times were during a democratic majority in Congress, while only TWO of those times were during a republican majority in Congress. This singular fact is the most important for this article, as it is the basis of proof for why the Republicans do not care about the working class, despite what they may say. They've even tried to make ridiculous arguments about how "raising the minimum wage is bad for business." Related to that, some states have laws that allow employers to pay you less than the minimum wage if it's a business that has tipping (tipping is a whole other issue that should be talked about). And guess what, all those states are mostly controlled by Republicans.

So, going back to how all of this relates to Trump, another thing he liked to say, especially during his first campaign, was that he was an "outsider" (as in he wasn't a politician, so he wasn't "corrupted" by the system). He claimed that because he wasn't a career politician, he would make a better president; he wouldn't be beholden to corporations, donors, lobbyists, etc. He said he was going to use his own money to fund his campaign, but that ended up being a lie. Yet still his supporters believed him. Despite Trump not being a politician, he was and still is a billionaire; he has always been a part of the elite class. The class that has always had it easy and never had to worry about going to bed hungry or worrying about being homeless. The class that thinks one million dollars isn't enough, the class that spends obscene amounts of money to buy Congress so they can earn even more obscene amounts of money. The class that tried to get us all to believe that "greed is good," and that giving tax breaks to the rich will somehow benefit you. Despite Trump having been a member of this class his entire life, somehow enough people believed he would work for the "common man" and help make things affordable for everyday people.

When Trump finally decided to enter politics, he did so as a Republican candidate, the party that, as we've established, has spent the last forty years trying to convince you that if you just give billionaires enough tax cuts, things will work out for you. The party that has only ever increased the minimum wage TWICE while they held congressional power. To those of us who were more aware and not gullible, Trump's decision to enter politics as a Republican is obvious; he views the vast majority of Republicans (especially the lower-class ones) as idiots. He knows they are fools and will willingly believe any lie he tells. They are much less likely to question him and will spend the little money they have to help him get elected. This should have been an obvious hint that Trump had no interest in helping the common person out or passing any sort of laws to try to make our economy work for everyone. It should have been obvious, but it wasn't, and now we find ourselves here in a mess we can't easily escape, and with a lot of people "regretting" their vote for him. I don't know if this is a saying or not, but it is something I've come up with, and that is: "regret is useless if you don't learn from it."

I can't say what the future will hold for us as a nation, or if our political system of government will ever undergo any sort of overhaul that will try to fix the problems it has. But what I can say is this: If you voted for Trump because you thought he was somehow going to "fix the economy," then you are a fool! If you are now regretting your vote because you feel he has "betrayed" you, no, he hasn't. Trump was NEVER on your side to begin with; he has not betrayed anyone, he has lied, and you have continued to believe it. Just like you believe the lie the Republicans keep pushing that they are somehow good for the economy, and that only their system of government is the one that works. The Republicans have enabled Trump every step of the way. They voted against his impeachment twice and have proudly stood by him and his craziest proclamations and delusions. They have done NOTHING as he tries again and again to acquire more power and wealth for himself, and they don't even have the courage to invoke the 25th and remove him from office over his continued cognitive decline. My point with all this is that Trump is not the problem; the Republican Party is. They've done everything in their power to try to convince you that whenever Trump says something crazy or stupid, it's perfectly normal. They've stood by and done nothing every time Trump breaks a norm of the office of the president, and despite holding a majority in all three branches of government have done nothing to end the war with Iran that we currently find ourselves in. The war is a major reason why things are so expensive.

So if you truly do REGRET your vote for Trump, then you need to stop listening to the Republicans as a whole. You need to learn that the Republicans are not on your side. You need to start paying attention and noticing patterns of lies. You need to understand that a person like Trump is never going to be on your side, and you need to not vote for people like him in the future. At some point, when Trump finally dies, the Republicans will start to act as if they did nothing wrong. They'll distance themselves from Trump and try to claim that they had "no idea what he was like." Whatever new candidate they put up for office will be "different." This new candidate will be "for the people" and will care about trying to help you be prosperous. But I hope that if you truly regret your vote for Trump that, you won't believe them when they tell you this. I hope you won't be so easily fooled in the future and that your regret for Trump will allow you to think more clearly. I hope you'll listen to more experienced people who try to warn you about people like Trump. I hope you'll try to educate yourself more about the economy, politics, etc. To learn how those systems work so that you understand them more. I hope you'll realize that your vote DOES matter and it has consequences, and that you consider those consequences before voting, so that you won't have regrets about it in the future.