Understanding Trump Voters

I know and like too many Trump voters to believe that half the country is made up of racist, sexist, idiots. Progressives’ failure to understand what most Americans care about is why we lost November 5th.

I couldn’t support Trump under any circumstance, but I have tried to understand how half the country could without being horrible people themselves.  From my conversations with folks, I imagined this interview.  Each of these responses could be countered effectively, imo, but none of them strike me as crazy, stupid, or deplorable.

Q: Political considerations aside: how can you vote for that horrible human being?

A: I wouldn’t invite him to dinner, or want to have a beer with him.  He’s an ass.  But every person seeking the presidency is vane, selfish, and has skeletons in their closet.  Trump is over the top in all these categories, but in that sense, we know who he is.  Moreover, I don’t put politics aside; it’s the political choices that matter.

Q: But he’s a racist, sexist, homophobic beast!  How can you forgive that?

A: I couldn’t if he actually put words into action, but he hasn’t.  Black people did just fine during his first term, he didn’t try to outlaw gay marriage, and hasn’t said anything about banning abortion nationally, just the opposite.  People get offended by anything we say.  We need to teach kids “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Black folks in the 60’s said “Don’t call us N******, call us negros” so we did, then “don’t call us negros, call us black”, so we did.  Then “don’t call us black, call us Afro Americans”, so we did; then African American, then People of Color, then black… we’re just tired of trying to keep up and being called racist for not playing linguistic games that never end.  Now you want us to announce our pronouns?!? Get real.

Q: But words do matter.  Everyone deserves respect and kindness.

A: Except people like us, right?  Y’all want us to feel sympathy for gangbangers who had a tough childhood, but you have nothing but scorn for kids who grew up in poor rural communities whose parents might not have had the most progressive beliefs about race and gender.  You spend all your time worrying about crap at or near the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, while the real world mostly cares about the stuff at the base of that hierarchy.  We also don’t want government requiring people to “be kind.”  You want respect?  Earn it.  You want people to stop picking on you? Punch them in the nose.

Q: What about caging undocumented children, and the Muslim ban FFS!?!?!

A: Caging kids wasn’t cool, but we have to get control of the border and raising the stakes for getting caught crossing illegally creates a disincentive to cross.  We can’t take every poor person on the planet who wants to come here.  Many many legal immigrants support Trump and his border policies because they went through the process the right way, and the border crossers are jumping the line in front of folks trying to do it legally.

Q: Surely January 6, 2021 was a disqualifying event though…right?

A: Again, I don’t deny that was really bad.  He’s a baby, threw a tantrum, and his most nutty supporters ran amuck.   Half the population feels like we’re losing the country to wacky leftist academics who aren’t living in the real world.  The 2024 election was a choice between two visions of the future, and while January 6th was a bad overstep, it doesn’t change the choice about the future.

Q: On balance, immigration and outsourcing some manufacturing have benefited the US economy.

A: “On average” we’re all hermaphrodites.  Globalization has benefitted some sectors and destroyed others.  Telling displaced steel workers they’re welcome to become web developers or fruit pickers is the height of arrogance.  We’re proud people, we don’t want hand-outs, don’t want to be dependent on others, we just want to work.  Y’all told us illegal immigrants weren’t taking our jobs, while we watched pickup trucks full of illegals undercutting local contracting businesses in the building trades, sometimes pretending to be those local contracting businesses.  Y’all told us we weren’t seeing what we were in fact seeing.

Q: But Trump’s policies didn’t really change anything for people like you.

A: In our experience, it doesn’t fricking matter who’s in office, nothing changes for us and the future for our kids looks bleaker and bleaker.  At least Trump acts like we matter and takes our concerns seriously.  He treats us with respect where the progressive elites look down their noses on us, trashes traditional values, and tells us we should abandon our religion and our guns, which are a way of life.

Q: Trump calls climate change a hoax and seeks to let corporations destroy our environment.  But surely you realize the environment matters and it is certainly changing!

A: First of all, I do care about the environment.  Folks like me spend a hell of a lot more time in the great outdoors than you coastal elites, and hunting, and fishing are what we do for fun, not taking a jet to knock around museums in Europe.  I’m guessing my “carbon footprint” is less than yours.  Second, people on the left talking about ending fossil fuel production tomorrow are idiots. It can’t happen, it would be a disaster if it did happen, and while a warmer planet will cause problems in some places, it will create more temperate environments elsewhere.  I don’t deny it’s happening, but I think the right response is figuring out technological solutions that look promising and adaptations that seem a heck of a lot less disruptive than putting the fossil fuel industry out of business.

Q: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy plan to push for dramatic cuts to public housing, WIC and food stamps on which millions of Americans depend. This will disproportionately harm black and brown families.  Isn’t that a racist action?

A: Here’s the thing: no question that slavery and segregation were bad for black people.  No question that there are racists out there that still discriminate again people.  But, there hasn’t been legal discrimination in this country for the last 56 years!  We’ve pumped trillions of dollars into helping black folks, and their kids have gotten scholarships over poor white kids for 45 years.  When is it ever going to end?  People in the projects bellyache about there not being any jobs, meanwhile contractors can’t find enough electricians, welders, plumbers to do the work they need done.  We’ve got millions of illegal immigrants coming to this country to work, and even though they don’t speak English, they get work, and to their credit they work hard.  Why aren’t the folks in the projects taking those jobs?  I served in the military with black folks, and work with them on the job site.  They were my brothers in arms and got no problem with them.  They work hard, too.  Why aren’t the folks in Southside Chicago doin’ that?

Q: Republicans across the country are banning books, and trying to prevent teachers from educating kids about the complexities of gender and sexuality. Reversing progress towards a more inclusive world encourages discrimination, doesn’t it?

A: Look, when I was growing up kids who were ‘different’ got the crap beat out of them in the bathrooms at school.  That wasn’t good, and no one wants that now.  But calling my kid a bully ‘cause he isn’t interested in trying to figure out what “Pat’s” gender is today, isn’t right.  Having every story in elementary school be about gender preferences, sexuality, neurodivergence, etc just doesn’t make any sense!

Q: But they’re also trying to prevent the teaching of the actual history of this country.  How is that okay?

A:  History classes these days are all about how horrible America is and what awful people my kids’ ancestors were. That isn’t right.  Saying that people of European ancestry have committed all the evil in history, and that indigenous people all over the world were peace loving, kind, and life was a paradise until the evil Europeans arrived is just as racist as saying white folks are smarter than everyone else.  If we’re all equal than we’re all equal for better or for worse.

Q: Trump may withdraw us from NATO, hand Ukraine to the Russians and destabilize the world order that has been in place since WW2 under US leadership.  That doesn’t matter?

A: Friends and brothers of mine died in Afghanistan and Iraq.  For what? Nothing apparently.  If Trump wants every country to fend for itself, that’s fine with me.  Why should we send our kids to fight other people’s battles?  I’ll bet most of you eggheads couldn’t identify Ukraine on a map before Russia invaded it.

Q: You acknowledge that Trump is an ass.  Do you wish someone who favored the same policies as him, but was less toxic was on the ballot in November?

A: Yes and no.  He’s over the top and offends people unnecessarily, and he’s not a good role model for our sons and daughters, but I think half the stuff he says is just to drive people like you nuts and keep his name in the news. Maybe it’s that “bull in a China shop” thing that makes him effective.  Maybe the “crazy, unpredictable president” keeps our international adversaries in check.

Q: Thanks for your time

A: You know, if y’all listened to us, and took us seriously, you might not have lost us at the ballot box.