‘I Didn’t Vote for This’: A Revolt Against DOGE Cuts, Deep in Trump Country

[FreeAir84]

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/12/15/doge-cuts-donald-trump-montana-00681695

It's an interesting take, perhaps our Montanans can weigh in?

 

[Pagosa]

I know Terry briefly from running across him during hound pursuit season and emails, very stand up guy and Im in full agreement with him. I would like Kennedy better and there are probably much more efficient ways to manage a budget besides slashing the FS/BLM budget, I think Republicans, Democrats, and Independents can all agree on that. Praying for the Lords return soon.

 

[406dn]

I'm sorry but it is a self own to say you did not vote for this.

The first time, yes, maybe.

This time, no his track record pointed in this direction. He was his normal classy self earlier today, posting about Rob Reiner's murder.

Now, I can say I did not vote for this, but I got out voted. I'm along for the ride.

 

[belshawelk]

I voted for it. No president or congress will give you everything you want.

 

[Nameless Range]

I’ve met Terry as well. Seems like a good guy who does a lot of the things celebrated on this site. There’s a lot of damage being done and a lot of good has lost momentum and a lot of knowledge lost.

I don’t know if the disappointment of certain folks who voted for Trump will really matter in the long run though. One, America has a short memory. Two the other side is insane as well. And three, the highest premium on Trump’s side is fealty, and any deviation from that in the form of independent thought is punished and cast aside by the financial machines called political parties and the dupes they’ve suckered.

I don’t really hold folks who voted for Trump responsible in the way I would hold individuals responsible for other things. Hard to blame the choices of my fellow Americans when the choices they had were those from time immemorial.

 

[Nick87]

I don’t really hold folks who voted for Trump responsible in the way I would hold individuals responsible for other things. Hard to blame the choices of my fellow Americans when the choices they had were those from time immemorial.

View attachment 396023
[/QUOTE]
Its sad beccuse it really doesn't have to be like that for choices. Unfortunately it probably always gonna be. Also I give this thread about 40 minutes until its about as #@)(*%* up as a soup sandwich.

 

[elkduds]

I don’t really hold folks who voted for Trump responsible in the way I would hold individuals responsible for other things. Hard to blame the choices of my fellow Americans when the choices they had were those from time immemorial.

Stop enabling conservation/environment idiocy. Magats had every piece of info needed to predict the gutting of USFS, NPS, BLM; right down to the specific page # in Project 2025. No excuse:

 

[Big Sky Guy]

I don’t really hold folks who voted for Trump responsible in the way I would hold individuals responsible for other things. Hard to blame the choices of my fellow Americans when the choices they had were those from time immemorial.

View attachment 396023

Exactly, I said before the election how frustrating/sad/disappointing it was that our options were Trump or Biden, and then Trump or Harris. For me, the Dems skirting due electoral process and pretending Biden was something he evidently was not to the majority of Americans until it was too late to have a normal primary was the tipping point in the election, especially when they were trying to portray Trump as the antithesis of Democracy. Harris refusing to do the Rogan podcast and the Trump assassination attempt(s) were nails in coffin.

So, honestly I can relate to the article. I agree with @belshawelk that no president or elected office will give you everything you want, but I think between DOGE, the BBB and sending $20B to Argentina fiscal conservatives such as myself and likely the guy in the article feel pretty abandoned politically. The biggest thing I think we "got" with Trump was a secure southern border, which I am still confused why that was such a sticking point for the Dems to not compromise on for those 4 years when historically it had been a pretty common sense idea to have a secure border.

I genuinely believed Trump cared more about the United States and it's citizens than the other option. Now, not so much.

 

[Nick87]

So, honestly I can relate to the article. I agree with @belshawelk that no president or elected office will give you everything you want, but I think between DOGE, the BBB and sending $20B to Argentina fiscal conservatives such as myself and likely the guy in the article feel pretty abandoned politically. The biggest thing I think we "got" with Trump was a secure southern border, which I am still confused why that was such a sticking points for the Dems to not compromise on for those 4 years when historically it had been a pretty common sense idea to have a secure border.

Yep.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

Stop enabling conservation/environment idiocy. Magats had every piece of info needed to predict the gutting of USFS, NPS, BLM; right down to the specific page # in Project 2025. No excuse:
View attachment 396028

WATCH: ‘I have nothing to do with Project 2025,’ Trump says

Former President Donald Trump denied any connection to Project 2025, the handbook for a new conservative government written by the Heritage Foundation and several right-wing think tanks, in his Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

www.pbs.org

He answered the question definitively and directly, which is more than politicians usually do. Easy to say he was lying then, now. But unless you have some sort of magic 8 ball figuring out when a politician is lying is about a coin toss from what I've seen. If we just assumed they were always lying then I'd probably never vote.

At the time I personally dismissed Project 2025 on the same, but opposite side, level of Qanon type stuff.

 

[jimh406]

Politico is a political site. Keep that in mind. They are against pretty much everything from the current administration. It seems most of this article is simply wrong. I wonder if anyone checked anything written in it.

 

[Nameless Range]

Stop enabling conservation/environment idiocy. Magats had every piece of info needed to predict the gutting of USFS, NPS, BLM; right down to the specific page # in Project 2025. No excuse:
View attachment 396028

I've only been allowed to vote for 23 years, but I've yet to experience a national election that wasn't a version of Pick Yer Idiocy, though it seems to get worse every go-round. That is if you want to put your name down for a side that could plausibly win. I haven't picked a winner for over a decade, and instead will continue to point out that neither drinking from a barrel with turds in it or a barrel with piss in it are options I can get on board with. I understand there are valid criticisms of this perspective, but I think the larger fact that a scumbag like DT could even be president are the result of folks who continue to try to get the rest of us to come hither to their toxic liquid filled containers - D or R.

I suppose I am derailing the thread though. I've written quite a bit on HT about the damage I see the Trump/DOGE administration doing to public lands and working groups in my neck of the woods, and it is unprecedented and I believe will be viewed as a blight on our history.

 

[elkduds]

WATCH: ‘I have nothing to do with Project 2025,’ Trump says

Former President Donald Trump denied any connection to Project 2025, the handbook for a new conservative government written by the Heritage Foundation and several right-wing think tanks, in his Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

www.pbs.org

Easy to say he was lying then, now. But unless you have some sort of magic 8 ball figuring out when a politician is lying is about a coin toss from what I've seen. At the time I personally dismissed Project 2025 on the same, but opposite side, level of Qanon type stuff.

We said it before the election, ad infinitum. It is the story of the frog and the scorpion, the leopard never changing his spots.

 

[Laszlo Cravensworth]

the leopard never changing his spots.

Or eating faces after people voted for "Leopards Eating Peoples Faces 2024"

 

[jimh406]

Project 2025 is like QAnon. The only significant number of people paying attention to it are on the left.

 

[MTGomer]

I know this is a crazy idea, but democrats could run someone that doesn’t suck.
Trump won because they ran an unprincipled, unintelligent, unlikable twit that according to the 2020 primary wasn’t liked by democrats.

Trump is a horrible president-likely one of the worst ever- and he’s 100x better than her.

 

[INMT]

Politico is a political site. Keep that in mind. They are against pretty much everything from the current administration. It seems most of this article is simply wrong. I wonder if anyone checked anything written in it.

Have you? I’m not disagreeing per say, I’ve not read anything from political before.

Can you please explain what is wrong with it?

From what I read and know of Project 2025 and DOGE it’s pretty spot on.

Thanks.

 

[Irrelevant]

Two points and I'm done.
1: It doesn't matter.
Politics are people's religion.
And very few people evaluate their religion, let alone change it.

2.

I've only been allowed to vote for 23 years, but I've yet to experience a national election that wasn't a version of Pick Yer Idiocy, though it seems to get worse every go-round.

That is only a perception that we allow the media to instill in us. In those 23 years, we've had good presidents. Perfect presidents? No. But good? Yes, absolutely, on both sides of the political spectrum.

 

[Nick87]

Two points and I'm done.
1: It doesn't matter.
Politics are people's religion.
And very few people evaluate their religion, let alone change it.

2.

That is only a perception that we allow the media to instill in us. In those 23 years, we've had good presidents. Perfect presidents? No. But good? Yes, absolutely, on both sides of the political spectrum.

I feel like thats a measure of comparison and the bar is pretty low.

 

[jimh406]

Have you? I’m not disagreeing per say, I’ve not read anything from political before.

Can you please explain what is wrong with it?

From what I read and know of Project 2025 and DOGE it’s pretty spot on.

Thanks.

It would take too much time to point out everything besides would you believe me? Just because something in Project 2025 has come to pass doesn't mean it's the play book.

The bigger point is assume "everything" you read is false and biased, and then follow up to find out if it is actually true. That goes for all sources not just left ones, btw.