Here’s the problem. We love to simplify these things to try to find one reason for them. That’s not how life works. Is our country racist? Absolutely. Was that a big reason for Trump’s win? Yes. But is it the only reason? Far from it. You see, we’re all victims here and when you put people into a hard situation they make hard choices. They compromise their morals. They’re desperate and that leads to bad decisions. If you don’t think the stagnation of wages for the last couple of decades, the widespread poverty throughout the whole country, and the feeling that the whole system is stacked against us had a big role in Trump’s victory you’re just not listening.
The problem with this whole narrative is we’re lumping all the people who voted for Trump into one category. And this is part of why we lost. No, not because we’re “overly PC” or too eager to call people racist or whatever. No, because we’re not listening to people. And Trump made it sound like he was listening. He wasn’t but that’s what he said. These people got played. They got taken by a con man. Don’t get it twisted, all Trump voters did a very racist thing by voting for a candidate with a blatantly racist message. So yes, they all do deserve some blame for that. But racism is based on effect and not nearly as much on intent. You don’t have to intend to do or say something racist in order for it to be racist. And that’s what we’re missing here, in part. I don’t care about the demographic breakdowns. Those represent large groups, not individuals. We need to stop using those stats to determine the reality here because they don’t show the whole picture. Do you know why it’s a bad thing to paint with a broad brush? Because the resulting picture lacks detail.
So what we should be looking at is why individuals voted for Trump. I don’t want to downplay the racism here. It’s part of it. But it’s not the whole thing. When your family can barely pay the rent on two salaries and doesn’t have enough food, you do desperate things. Even if you’re white. White people are victims too here. Not racially. But economically. This system is rigged. And they keep it rigged partially by making us poorer. We have to work all the time so we don’t have the time or energy to fight back or absorb the info we need to know how to fight back. Yes, white people are included.
Essentially, the people were voting for change. Same as with Obama. I know it’s not the majority. But we’re talking about Trump supporters so that’s beside the point. Some were voting for a change back to a white male-led country. But some were also voting for something, anything, that might be able to change the power structure that made them this desperate in the first place. Trump told them what they wanted to hear. He wasn’t honest about it but that’s beside the point. They were desperate and they let him con them. And if we don’t start talking to these people we’re going to keep losing. Both locally and nationally. We need to get voters everywhere. We don’t have a popular vote. We should but we don’t. So we need to work with what we have until we can change it. Unfortunately white people are still in power here in a racial sense so we need to bring them along. Minorities are already voting Democrat. It wasn’t enough this time and it might not be enough next time either. So if we don’t listen to these people and do something to help them we’re not going to be able to get people in office who can help change it. I don’t like it any more than you do. But it’s the reality.
If we’re busy fighting one another we don’t have time to fight the people in power. That’s how this scam works. Trump is a con man. It was not just about race. It was also about desperate people who have legitimately been oppressed for decades. Trump conned them and we let it happen. It’s time for some serious self-reflection. Not just finger pointing. Some of that is justified but not all of it. There are a lot of innocent victims here who were so desperate they compromised their morals and voted for him ANYWAY. Not because of the racism, in spite of it. These are not all bad people. A great many of them are victims of a con artist. If we don’t address the reality here we’re going to be in a lot of trouble.