Trump Voters Complain That Dems Are Unfairly Disrespecting Them
Are the Democrats wrong to call someone who knew Trump is a scoundrel and voted for him anyway a bad person?
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
One of my Republican friends recently told me that many of the people who voted for Trump are upset by many Democrats calling them bad people. Are they right?
Different Choices Flow From Different Criteria
Suppose two employees are told to sort a list of customers without being given any additional instructions. One person sorts the list by last name. The other sorts it by date of birth.
The resulting sorted lists will be wildly different, and each person will complain that the other person’s list is wrong.
If two people perform the same task based on different premises for determining the results, they will reach very different conclusions.
Do You Pick Someone Based On Who They Are Or What They Will Do?
Let’s suppose that two employees, Bob and Sally, are told to sort a list of potential executives to be the CEO of their company’s new, major subsidiary.
Bob sorts his list based on each candidate’s resume, personal history, training, reputation, and employment background.
Sally sorts her list based on the attractiveness and costs of the goals and methods each person proposes in their mission statement.
Again, we will get wildly different lists, each of which reflects the criteria that were used by the person making the list.
Bob is primarily concerned with the characteristics of the executive who will perform the work.
Sally is primarily concerned with the performance results each candidate promises to deliver.
Bob’s Criteria — It’s All About The Candidate
Bob thinks it is madness to give control of a major company division to someone whose resume shows them to be incompetent, dishonest, and untrustworthy.
Bob thinks that the intelligence, values, integrity and character of the person picked to run a division will reflect the values, integrity and character of the company that hires them.
For Bob, only a crook would hire a known crook; only a liar would hire a known liar; only a cheat would hire a known cheat.
Bob believes that anyone who hires a despicable, mean, lying, dishonest, criminal to run their company is themselves, by definition, a bad person.
For Bob the motto, Birds of a feather flock together, is true.
Sally’s Critera — It’s All About The Bottom Line Performance
Sally thinks that the character, intelligence and talent of the candidate is unimportant compared to the results the candidate promises to deliver.
Sally thinks that there is no relationship between the values, integrity and character of the person hired and the values, integrity and character of the company employing them.
This Is The Difference Between Harris & Trump Voters
The Harris Voters’ Point Of View
Some Americans believe that anyone who would knowingly hire an admittedly corrupt person to run their company, or their country, is, by definition, themselves a bad person.
They believe that anyone who knew that Trump is a despicable scoundrel and still voted for him is, by definition, a bad person.
The people voting for Harris believe that the person you pick to run your country reflects your character and your values, and if you knowingly pick a scoundrel to run your country then you are just as bad as the person you choose to represent you.
The Trump Voters’ Point Of View
Other Americans think that political candidates should be viewed similarly to vendors bidding to supply a product. These Americans think that the vendor’s character is irrelevant, that the only thing that matters is the performance of the product they are promising to supply.
If one vendor who has a terrible business history is offering a product whose battery is claimed to run for two days and another vendor who has a clean record is offering a product whose battery is claimed to run for eight hours, then these people will pick the vendor with the bad reputation because their only concern is with the promised performance of the product.
They believe that picking the known-to-be-dishonest vendor is not a reflection on their honesty because they’re not really picking a vendor, they’re picking a product.
The Difference Between The Two Sides
The people voting for Harris were sorting based on the integrity of each candidate. They were picking a vendor.
The people voting for Trump were sorting based on the results each candidate promised to deliver. They were picking a product.
What Would You Do?
So, evaluate this scenario:
You own an apartment house. You want your tenants to pay their rent on time, not to be loud, not to damage the property, and to vacate quickly when they don’t pay the rent.
You need a new manager. One applicant has managed buildings for many years and has a clean record. Another applicant is a tattooed former gang member ex-convict who promises that he will keep the tenants in line by any means necessary. You know what that means, what he will do to collect the rent.
If you hire the ex-convict because you want the results he promises you, are you a bad person?
The Harris voters will say “yes.” The Trump voters will say “no.”
My Point Of View
I understand the argument the people who know how bad a person Trump is and chose to support him anyway make.
But I come at this from a different direction than they do.
Who You Empower Tells Us Who You Are
If you’re a CEO and you hire someone who was a senior executive at a company that sold tainted food as your new Chief of Quality Control because you think he will make your company more money, what does that say about your character, ethics and integrity?
If you’re that same CEO and you hire a person who ran a large Ponzi scheme as your new CFO because you think he will make your company more money, what does that say about your character, ethics and integrity?
If you’re that same CEO and you hire a person who who has been the target of multiple sexual harassment suits and whom a jury has found guilty of sexual assault as your new head of HR because you think he will make your company more money, what does that say about your character, ethics and integrity?
If you knowingly hire a cheat, liar, conman, sexual predator, and criminal to be the CEO of your country because you think he will pursue political goals you favor, what does that say about your character, ethics and integrity?
You Are Responsible For The Harm Done By Bad People You Choose To Empower
When you give a gun to a person you know is mentally unstable, you share responsibility for the people he kills, as Jennifer and James Crumbly found out.
The people who know what Trump is and voted for him anyway want to claim that who they hire as America’s CEO does not reflect on their own character, ethics and integrity, and that they bear no responsibility for the harm that he does in their name.
The people who voted against Trump disagree, and that is what the Trump people who complain that they don’t deserve the disrespect they get from those who opposed Trump don’t understand.
When you choose to empower a bad person, you ratify the harmful conduct they commit in your name, and you bear responsibility for the evil that you empowered them to do.
Why would you think that you don’t deserve to be disrespected for doing that?
— David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)