If you haven’t already, start taking Donald Trump supporters very seriously

I know I’m not the first to tell you this anecdote, both in general and political contexts. But here it is:

You put a frog in boiling water, it’ll jump right out. You put a frog in warm water and slowly ramp up the heat, it’ll inadvertently boil itself to death. It’s an adage often used to describe situations where people either can’t (or, in this case, I think won’t) recognize danger and react to it appropriately.

I confess I’ve been sitting in warm water for a while. Warm, comfortable Trump-is-a-joke water. And every time I scoffed at someone who said they supported Donald Trump, the water got hotter. Every time I relegated his supporters to a category of undereducated, powerless minorities, the water got hotter. Every time I told myself, with full confidence, “Donald Trump will never, ever get the ticket,” the water got hotter.

I suppose I owe an apology to Trump’s followers; I underestimated you. I was wrong about where you’d be on Super Tuesday, assumed all along that your promises to vote for Trump were empty. I assumed you were far away from me in deep red states, but the Republicans here in Massachusetts, the state whose citizens started a war to cut down oppressive power hundreds of years ago, are saying collectively, we believe in Donald Trump.

You are my neighbors and my colleagues and my peers and I get what I deserve for not taking you seriously. You are a force to be reckoned with. You all have turned that dial way, way up, and the water is boiling, and I’m jumping out injured.

But not enough people seem to be jumping out with me.

Make no mistake: The worst thing you can do right now is reduce Donald Trump’s campaign a punchline. Telling yourself “Donald Trump will never _____” is a dangerous response to what’s going on. The same people I see dismissing Trump and his supporters, and turning Trump’s family name into quickly-eroding meme, and making jest of his very serious, very earnest, very strong campaign are the same people that don’t want him elected. The Democrats of America — and, more specifically, Massachusetts — fucked up. We jerked around while our worst nightmare, our worst-case-scenario candidate, crept up those polls and took over, and now he’s got our state and no, it’s not a joke. It’s not a joke anymore. It hasn’t been a joke for a very long time.

The population whose actions could mean the difference between Trump winning and Trump losing are sitting, complacent and comfortable, in that increasingly hot water. So listen, with open and attentive ears, to Donald Trump supporters. Talk to them. Challenge what they say if you disagree. Meet their arguments with counterarguments, not laughter. Change the tides of the conversation surrounding him. Don’t let the two platforms boil (no pun intended) down to “Donald Trump is a clown!” and “Donald Trump is the future president!” Because the latter will most definitely prevail. Make it “Donald Trump is the future president” versus “Donald Trump is a scary, scary possibility.”

It’s time to be scared. The water is boiling and we all need to jump.