{"id":79,"date":"2026-04-07T09:05:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\/?p=79"},"modified":"2026-04-07T09:05:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:05:26","slug":"i-want-my-money-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\/?p=79","title":{"rendered":"I want my money back&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have friends that are post-liberal, MAGA folks.  It probably goes without saying, but I&#8217;ll say it anyway: I have a hard time agreeing with their assessment of our current President&#8217;s performance.  As I was pondering why they seem to post defenses of the President so frequently, I think I discovered the reason: They are afraid and defensive because they really do see what we &#8220;normal&#8221; Republicans see:  A deeply flawed man whose vulgarity and narcissism really can&#8217;t be defended.  Nothing says &#8220;I want my money back&#8221; more than someone who constantly defends a  purchase. It&#8217;s the classic marketing ploy.  You launch a product that was *supposed* to be vetted and eagerly anticipated by the market, just to discover that your market research was wrong and now you are stuck with a product you have to unload.  So you over-sell.  Constantly promoting the product as SO much better than what people are saying.  It&#8217;s &#8220;New Coke&#8221; all over again.  That is why MAGA folks saturate their feeds with how great the President is.  They are having &#8220;buyers remorse&#8221; in spades&#8230;.<br><br>What I also find interesting is that all of the comparisons to previous Presidents and administrations are comparisons to Democrats.  That is a rather low bar.  If he really is the greatest President that ever lived, why not elevate his standing by comparing him to other Republican Presidents.  Surely Nixon was worse (not by much)? <br><br>So, my heart goes out to you MAGA folks.  You bought a 4 year subscription to economic ruin, the disassembly of democracy and a staff of incompetents that will eventually completely erode whatever version of America you thought you were getting.  You get to experience some of the pain that normal Republicans are feeling.  It is actually MAGA folks who have the &#8220;Trump Derangement Syndrome&#8221; so often attributed to us folks who see the man clearly.  Welcome to our world&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have friends that are post-liberal, MAGA folks. It probably goes without saying, but I&#8217;ll say it anyway: I have a hard time agreeing with their assessment of our current President&#8217;s performance. As I was pondering why they seem to post defenses of the President so frequently, I think I discovered the reason: They are &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\/?p=79\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;I want my money back&#8230;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,14,5],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-commentary","tag-conservative","tag-maga","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>I want my money back... - I am the Grumpy Republican<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\/?p=79\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I want my money back... - I am the Grumpy Republican\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have friends that are post-liberal, MAGA folks. It probably goes without saying, but I&#8217;ll say it anyway: I have a hard time agreeing with their assessment of our current President&#8217;s performance. As I was pondering why they seem to post defenses of the President so frequently, I think I discovered the reason: They are &hellip; Continue reading &quot;I want my money back&#8230;&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\/?p=79\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"I am the Grumpy Republican\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-07T15:05:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/P1010031.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2288\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1712\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pete Helgren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Pete Helgren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/?p=79#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/?p=79\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Pete Helgren\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/aee5624e401e9ce48636f5612ffefd66\"},\"headline\":\"I want my money back&#8230;\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-07T15:05:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/?p=79\"},\"wordCount\":324,\"keywords\":[\"Conservative\",\"MAGA\",\"Trump\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Political commentary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/?p=79\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/?p=79\",\"name\":\"I want my money back... - I am the Grumpy Republican\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-07T15:05:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/aee5624e401e9ce48636f5612ffefd66\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/?p=79#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/?p=79\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/?p=79#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"I want my money back&#8230;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"I am the Grumpy Republican\",\"description\":\"A gnarly stump in a political desert...\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/aee5624e401e9ce48636f5612ffefd66\",\"name\":\"Pete Helgren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3e1dfb178d0c97b9b205a627015081195d65a0769cc877490ab415ff8d03956b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3e1dfb178d0c97b9b205a627015081195d65a0769cc877490ab415ff8d03956b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3e1dfb178d0c97b9b205a627015081195d65a0769cc877490ab415ff8d03956b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Pete Helgren\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyconservative.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\\\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I want my money back... - I am the Grumpy Republican","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.grumpyrepublican.com\/?p=79","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I want my money back... - I am the Grumpy Republican","og_description":"I have friends that are post-liberal, MAGA folks. 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