Time for Reflection
Trump won. I was definitely surprised by this, but the time has come to reflect, and to seek to understand. As I posted before the election, I don't think this is the end of the world, or the end of America. Unlike the anti-Obama crowd who said "he's going to ruin our country" and were counting down the days until he was out of office, I will hope that Mr. Trump is successful and can deliver on some of his promises. Certainly I disagree with many of his policy positions, but there are others I think are good ideas - simplifying our tax code, term limits for congress, a ban on congressmen becoming lobbyists, foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections to name a few.
I also want to understand America better. I've been living in a bit of a bubble, apparently. Lexington is a well educated city. Most of my friends are good people who are open minded - not bigots, if you will. There is simply no denying that hate was a key part of Trump's platform. He was open about it, and he was consistent about it (at least during the campaign): build a wall, ban the Muslims, and monitor the black polling places for fraud were all FREQUENTLY part of his stump speeches, and his crowds went wild for it. If you don't see how those are bigoted statements, you need to look yourself in the mirror and admit that you're ignorant. There are a lot of Trump's fans who heard those things, completely agreed with him and, for example, urged him to start the deportations immediately. This is sad, but not surprising. America has a race problem. Some people here don't like foreigners, don't trust non-Christians, and in some cases still openly hate blacks. Hell, Kennedy had trouble getting elected as a Catholic.
There is another category of Trump supporter which is even more interesting to me: the group who heard those things, knows full well that they are hateful, and voted for the guy anyway. To me, that means that a president who's kinda racist and xenophobic is alright with them, even if they don't harbor those sentiments themselves. Is that because Hillary was so unappealing? Definitely a possibility. But if you're smart enough to have some highly nuanced position on Trump, you're also smart enough to know that Hillary is far more qualified and far more stable. We're talking about control of the world's largest nuclear arsenal here. Our standing in the world matters. The role we play or don't play in the international community matters. If you're going to make compromises, and we all agree both candidates sucked, but they sucked in very different ways. So I'm curious to understand more about the educated Trump voter, because only a small portion of those who voted for him are truly hateful, ignorant people. Right?
I also want to understand America better. I've been living in a bit of a bubble, apparently. Lexington is a well educated city. Most of my friends are good people who are open minded - not bigots, if you will. There is simply no denying that hate was a key part of Trump's platform. He was open about it, and he was consistent about it (at least during the campaign): build a wall, ban the Muslims, and monitor the black polling places for fraud were all FREQUENTLY part of his stump speeches, and his crowds went wild for it. If you don't see how those are bigoted statements, you need to look yourself in the mirror and admit that you're ignorant. There are a lot of Trump's fans who heard those things, completely agreed with him and, for example, urged him to start the deportations immediately. This is sad, but not surprising. America has a race problem. Some people here don't like foreigners, don't trust non-Christians, and in some cases still openly hate blacks. Hell, Kennedy had trouble getting elected as a Catholic.
There is another category of Trump supporter which is even more interesting to me: the group who heard those things, knows full well that they are hateful, and voted for the guy anyway. To me, that means that a president who's kinda racist and xenophobic is alright with them, even if they don't harbor those sentiments themselves. Is that because Hillary was so unappealing? Definitely a possibility. But if you're smart enough to have some highly nuanced position on Trump, you're also smart enough to know that Hillary is far more qualified and far more stable. We're talking about control of the world's largest nuclear arsenal here. Our standing in the world matters. The role we play or don't play in the international community matters. If you're going to make compromises, and we all agree both candidates sucked, but they sucked in very different ways. So I'm curious to understand more about the educated Trump voter, because only a small portion of those who voted for him are truly hateful, ignorant people. Right?
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