Like many liberals, I have spent the weeks since Trump won trying to figure out not only how he was victorious, but how he was even close. It is far too simple to complain of racism or misogyny. Equally choosing to believe Trump supporters were conned or deluded is overly simplistic. The truth is more complicated: Many Americans voted for Trump because they felt their lives, livelihoods and culture were under threat. And they may have been right.
Democrats are fond of accusing Trump supporters of deluded conspiracy theories. But the reality is that there is more than a kernel of truth to Republican complaints. A lot of democrats really do want to take people’s guns – and to destroy the 2nd amendment – A lot of democrats believe that religion has no place in public life, and that religious people are hopelessly backward and stupid. The hatred and condescension with which liberals have addressed these people is the height of electoral stupidity.
It is important here to address the topics of discrimination and bigotry. These reprehensible prejudices are all too common among Trump supporters, but their role in his election has been wildly distorted. Differences in policy or cultural values do not necessarily reflect hatred or discrimination. One can be pro-life without being a sexist, against expanded immigration without being a racist or against same-sex marriage without being homophobic. There are millions of Americans who hold these views and yet maintain respect for the equality of all.
In short, Democrats, and this is especially true for those of us in college, tend too often to view those we disagree with not just as wrong but as on the wrong side of history, as people who have no respect for modernity, and for whom the modern world has no place. Donald Trump was a horrific candidate and he will be a horrific President, but faced with a Party that too frequently wished for the evisceration of every value they held, it is unsurprising millions of honest Americans voted for Trump.
It is time we realize people with different cultures than us are not our enemy. Religious, gun-toting, struggling Americans should be our allies against the Trump administration and against the policies it will enact. To win them over we should acknowledge our common differences and our common goals, not devolve into allegations of hatred. The real bigots thrive when we swell their numbers with insults and rants. Instead we should work to separate the decent people who voted for Trump from the indecent values he represents.
College campuses offer an ideal starting point for this effort. I am a left-wing Democrat. I detest Donald Trump and everything he stands for with every fiber of my being. I believe he is the representation of the worst of America. But for my fellow students who cast an honest, well-informed vote for him I have nothing but respect. As liberals, we must realize not every policy we not like is a sign of hatred; it may merely be a different solution to a common problem. And as we convince our Trump supporting friends and neighbors that his solution, and everything he stands for, is wrong, we must not resort to the hatred and anger we so frequently decry. For one thing it is morally reprehensible, but perhaps more importantly, it is terrible politics.
