As Mr. Wolf mentioned, Trump was certainly not any kind of Caesarian strongman who was ever realistically going to go against the globalists. We know it. The opposition know it, but pushed the narrative anyway. I don't blame them. It worked.
The reason Trump had to go is because, back in 2016 anyway, he represented something dangerous to the establishment, and particularly since WWII, is totally forbidden in the West. He represented an illiberal spirit among Americans; rising national consciousness. Nationalism with a big 'N'.
It wasn't that Trump himself was anything special. He was objectively hilarious and has made for some great entertainment in his owning of the libtards, but he didn't threaten the status quo. Any reasonable Trumper can now see the swamp cannot be drained through legal and democratic means, even if someone like President Trump wanted to.
As I said before, even his supporters couldn't fail to notice how he became an establishment Republican pretty quickly. He didn't create his own alternative media company as promised. In fact, other than some mean tweets and remarks in the White House press briefing room, he didn't do anything to counter MSM propaganda, or Big Tech internet censorship - which has cost him more votes than any widespread voter fraud.
Instead of easing tensions in the Middle East, he murdered an Iranian hero general with a drone-strike because "terrorism". Where have we heard that before? He has only built on the momentum to start an eventual war with Iran - the last domino to fall in the neo-con Middle East project. His moves in Israel only exacerbated tensions in the region.
He promised to eradicate national debt in 8 years. Instead, he realised it was an impossible promise, and so added to it.
The list goes on - and I was enthusiastically supportive of Trump four years ago. I've realised his marketing message and campaign promise was simply impossible to realise.
Jenni, your progressive pals were prepared to vote for Biden - a senile, incoherent, child-sniffing former racist - because in their minds anything was preferable to the growth of the spirit of real Nationalism which Trump's ascendance represented. Just as they were prepared to vote for a blood-drenched, war-obsessed convulsing demon candidate in HRC to prevent it four years before. They voted Trump out for a return to "normalcy" - normalcy meaning neo-liberal capitalism and woke culture. Actually, it is a return to "money" as the core spiritual component and driving force behind America, as opposed to dangerous ideas like Nationalism bubbling up and taking center stage.
You can't blame them, as such. They have been completely brainwashed by a lifetime of state education and consumption of corporate media product to associate any form of "nationalism" with evil "fascism", as you mentioned. Terms like "Green" and "fair" and now "public safety", as with COVID-19, are merely the tools used to bludgeon people's opinions into submission.
You asked "When did we get to the point where it's considered cool to judge someone's ethics and character based on who you think they voted for?" and the answer is when our institutions realised identity politics was the most powerful tool to manage the opinions and behaviour of a mass of people.
Identity politics is particularly effective with a mass of people who have been taught to think of themselves as atheistic, materialistic individuals and who have no traditional sense of community anymore. People who look for an identity, and seek out meaning in their lives, in the products they consume, and the political ideology they cling to.
The ideas behind the narrative of oppression and identity politics may have historically come out of the political left, but it is now owned and employed by both sides and throughout every tier of power in our society. It's not limited to the "Stalinists". From corporations and the media to academia and science. Even the "strongman" Trump himself, when faced with widespread public disorder and rioting after the death of a single black man, just started haemorrhaging hundreds of billions of dollars at blacks and consciously supported and built-upon this narrative of oppression and identity politics. As long as our institutions behave this way, there will be no change. As long as we vote this way, there will be no change either.
Maybe we now need a new Caesar or Augustus. Maybe we're approaching the part of the civilisational cycle which requires a strongman rather than a politician.