“Calling it lunacy makes it easier to explain away the things we don’t understand.”
– Megan Chance
Who did you vote for in the 2016 Presidential election?
“If you voted for Trump, you must be an ignorant racist with ties to the KKK!”
“If you voted for Clinton, you must be an immoral moocher and a baby killer with no morals!”
No other election in history has been as divisive and as polarizing as this year’s. Many relationships have been destroyed: friendships have been ruined and family members refused to meet each other for Thanksgiving in 2016.
Driven by the media’s bias towards sensationalism, many liberals have decided that all Trump voters are accurately represented by the violence shown at Trump rallies. At the same time, many conservatives have decided that Clinton voters are irresponsible moochers whose reliance on Big Government hurts our nation.
But maybe we’d be wiser to focus on the types of voters who are not so easily caricatured.
“TRUMPOCRATS” IN THE RUST BELT
In 2008 and in 2012, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania (collectively called the “Rust Belt”) all went to Barack Obama. In 2016, all four of these states, comprising of 64 electoral votes, went to Donald Trump. What happened? After all, it’s difficult to believe that these swing voters “became racist” over the past 4 years.
Prior to the election, over one million registered Democrats, called “Trumpocrats”, committed to voting for Trump over Clinton. This effort was led by Christian Rickers who had previously supported President Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders before campaigning for Donald Trump. According to Rickers, the driving force was the loss of manufacturing jobs across the Rust Belt.
This was driven primarily by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which was first negotiated by President George H.W. Bush but finalized by President Bill Clinton. In some ways, NAFTA benefited the United States as a whole. By removing tariffs and taking advantage of the free market, the average American consumer paid much less for groceries and for gas than they did before. Overall, 5 million new jobs were created due to the increase in trade between the United States, Mexico, and Canada and wages increased for workers of all three countries.
However, this was at the expense of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the Rust Belt. “Roger and Me,” a 1989 documentary by Michael Moore, chronicles the Americans who lost their jobs at General Motors as the company moved its factories to Mexico for cheaper labor. To make matters worse, General Motors was not doing this out of economic hardship, as it had made record profits the prior year. Although the layoff of General Motors employees took place during President Ronald Reagan’s term, this sort of situation was undoubtedly accelerated and exacerbated by NAFTA which began impacting American lives during Bill Clinton’s presidency.
Most jobs in any rural town revolved around one company. It could be an oil refinery, coal mine, or auto factory. But once this business left, all the jobs in that town disappeared along with it. No longer able to depend on the job that kept their parents and grandparents alive, many people become unemployed overnight with no hope of a brighter future. It’s the reason that the suicide rate amongst young people in rural areas is double the suicide rate within big cities.
During the Great Recession, rural areas were especially hard hit by these harsh economic conditions. Companies that had not already moved overseas under NAFTA were now unable to stay open and had to be shut down.
And when our economy finally began to recover, all of the jobs went to the big cities. As a nation we saw our monthly unemployment reports painting a rosy picture of economic recovery. In fact, as of November 2016, 15.6 million private sector jobs were added during the past 81 months. But many of these jobs are service jobs, which are available in cities with big populations, not the manufacturing and coal mining jobs that were lost. So while the nation celebrated an economic recovery, rural Americans felt neglected and left behind.
While the Democrats had moved on to cultural issues such as gay marriage and transgender bathrooms, Donald Trump at least understood what Americans in the Rust Belt were going through. His calls for higher tariffs on products from Mexico and China to protect American jobs were music to the ears of Americans who had felt neglected for so long. Trump also blamed the current economic woes of Rust Belt Americans on NAFTA, reminding voters that it was Hillary Clinton’s husband who screwed them over.
When the plight of rural America is presented to big city liberals, the common response is, “It’s their fault they chose to settle. Think of how many advantages they have over the immigrants who went from rags to riches in this country. Why are they competing for jobs with people who can’t even read or write English?”
Although this response is not untrue, let’s take a step back and recognize that settling is a universal human condition. Take, for example, lawyers or doctors whose parents and grandparents were in the exact same profession. Throughout most of human history, sons did the exact same job their fathers did (think of the last names “Baker” or “Mason”) because that is what they naturally did best.
All people tend to settle. Unless the situation they are in becomes unbearable.
IMMIGRATION
“No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.”
– Warsan Shire
While the “Trumpocrats” represent one segment of society who felt abandoned, immigrants represent another segment of our population who feel extremely vulnerable at this time. Undocumented immigrants, in particular, may represent up to 11 million people living in the United States as of 2016.
As previously mentioned, most people tend to settle where they are once they have been established. There is no reason to leave home until it becomes an absolute necessity.
Take, for example, Elena, who was only 11 years old when a gang member asked her to be his girlfriend. She had no choice but to accept; her friend had declined and was raped and killed. At the age of 11, Elena was working as a drug courier, lookout, and forced to be intimate with the gang member. After years of such abuse, she and her family decided to run away from home. Needless to say, they did not wait and apply for a visa from other countries to immigrate “legally.”
Would we have let Anne Frank immigrate to the United States? That is the question posed by Nicholas Kristof in a controversial New York Times article.
Although we may like to think that we would have welcomed her with open arms, our current attitude towards Syrian refugees suggests that even in 2016, you and I would have let Anne Frank die.
And if Anne Frank and her family had immigrated here illegally, we would have deported them.
“By coming into the country illegally, [undocumented immigrants] are not respecting our laws.”
– Tomi Lahren
The common sentiment expressed by those wary of undocumented immigrants is that “they did not get in line” and wait for a visa from the United States.
But Anne Frank’s father had been desperately looking for help, trying his best to immigrate his family to the United States, Britain, or Cuba legally. Despite his repeated pleas of desperation, he was ultimately rejected and Anne Frank’s family was killed by the Nazis.
As history has shown, in times of fear, we tend to scapegoat and ultimately hurt the wrong groups of people. Many Americans during the 1930’s and 40’s were opposed to Jewish immigration. Jews were seen as Communists or perhaps even Nazis. In fact, many Americans were afraid that German Nazis would immigrate to America while pretending they were Jewish refugees.
These are the same arguments we use against Syrian refugees today. Syrian refugees are just as afraid of ISIS as any American is. Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of your family members screaming and your house being bombed. This is a reality for many Syrians today. Yet, we are so hesitant to give them a place of refuge in the United States out of fear that they will become terrorists.
Due to the extensive vetting process our government has in place, of the 2 million refugees the United States has welcomed since 1990, not a single one has committed an act of terror. In addition, you and I are seven times more likely to be killed by a white supremacist than by a Muslim terrorist.
The election of Trump, although understandable from the perspective of the Rust Belt voters, symbolizes a disregard for the right to life for many of our fellow human beings. Given that he pledged to ban all Muslim immigrants, including Syrian refugees, Trump is essentially allowing the United States to do to the Syrian children what we did to Anne Frank during World War II.
LOOKING FORWARD
“You can be right or you can be happy.”
– Gerald Jampolsky
As divided as we are as a nation, it’s crucial we view those on the opposing end of the political spectrum with compassion and a desire to work towards a mutually beneficial society. It is especially true today now that we have bigger fish to fry.
In particular, the CIA and FBI have recently concluded that Russia, under the direction of its leader Vladimir Putin, meddled in our elections in order to help Donald Trump win the presidency.
One of the requirements to run for President of the United States is to be a “natural born citizen.” At the time this rule was written, our Founding Fathers were afraid that the prince of a European nation could easily take over our country and abuse it for the benefit of that foreign power. Although Trump was born in the United States, Russia’s meddling in our election is a violation of the principle behind the “natural born citizen” rule. To make matters worse, Trump has recently appointed Rex Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil CEO with close ties to Russia, as our Secretary of State. This puts us, economically, under the influence of a foreign power just as our Founding Fathers had feared.
Furthermore, the election of Donald Trump’s election has resulted in a 115% spike of ethnic hate crimes in New York City alone, targeting Jews and Muslims in particular. The rhetoric he used to win the presidency has given hate groups a green light to come out into the open and to discuss white supremacy while giving in Nazi salutes.
Speaking with Trump voters, one can quickly conclude that they did not support Trump out of racism or ignorance but rather out of a frustration with the status quo. They neither anticipated an increase in hate crimes nor the appointment of a pro-Russian businessman as our Secretary of State.
However, it is now the responsibility of all voters, especially those who supported Trump, to speak out against the unintended consequences of Trump’s presidency. At the end of the day, in a democracy, politicians are our employees, the people you and I voted into power to serve our interests. In December 2016 alone, the Obama administration blocked the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and South Korean citizens rallied together to impeach their president, proving that with time and persistence, governmental changes really can be made.
The easiest first step for any of us to take action is to write letters to our local Congress member and sign petitions. Click here for a list of recent Change.Org petitions that turned into actual victories. There are also organizations that need donations more than ever.
But just as important is the way we deal with those on the other side. The common sentiment is to say, “There’s no reason for me to be friends with someone who voted for (insert name).” As much as you and I may hate someone on the opposite end of the political spectrum, how much more would Black Americans be completely justified in hating the KKK?
And yet, Daryl Davis serves as a model we can aspire to during this time of division.
Although he is black, Daryl Davis has become friends with members of the Ku Klux Klan, having difficult conversations and giving them an opportunity to get to know him. Although many people have called him “a nut,” Davis has successfully convinced more than two dozen Klansmen to give up their robes and disavow white supremacy. In fact, Davis single handedly dismantled the Klan in Maryland by becoming friends with the leaders; today, there is no longer a KKK chapter in Maryland despite attempts to revive it.
This is an extreme example, and out of fear for their safety, I would never advocate that people of color should start befriending members of the KKK. However, if someone like Daryl Davis can start a conversation with the KKK and eventually get its members to see the light, there is no reason that you and I can’t start a conversation with well-intentioned but misinformed voters on the other end of the political spectrum.
Refusing to do so will only make things worse:
