First of all, see my comments on my news sources.
Politics in general and the recent presidential election in particular are contentious and emotional. Many posts in regards to politics end up emotionally charged. Talking about it at all may be emotionally triggering, but I want to attempt to share my perspective reasonably and avoid emotionally triggering language as much as possible. As an analogy, if there is a politician Bob and I think Bob harms rabbits, then I will be inclined to think that anyone who supports Bob either wants to harm rabbits or doesn’t care. I have to catch myself in order to avoid making this assumption which is likely inaccurate for most people.
From my point of view, I find it challenging to understand how so many people support Trump. That said, I want to try and understand rather than saying or even suggesting that everyone who does so is stupid or evil. I may be wrong, but here is my attempt to do so.
Let’s say there is a random person Chris who had very questionable ethics, had been convicted of one crime and in proceedings for several others, had numerous allegations of sexual assault, etc. I’m guessing most people, regardless of political persuasion, would say this is a bad person who should be locked up or otherwise punished and prevented from doing further harm.
However, Trump in a similar position but as a presidential candidate presents a dilemma. Unfortunately, our political system only affords two realistic options when it comes to the final race. So conservatives in this case are pulled between two desires: one for a respectable candidate and the other for a candidate whose policies most align with their own.
How do people handle this dilemma? I think for some, they subconsciously push it out of their mind by internally denying Trump really has negative qualities. They may outright deny the accusations against Trump, claiming that they’re all just politically motivated. They may also emphasize in their mind any portraits of Trump which put him in a positive light. In this way, they allow themselves to support him in an unqualified manner and resolve internal conflict by denying it exists.
Many more conservatives are quite aware of and are torn by the dilemma being more aligned with Trump’s policies simultaneously repulsed by his character. Nevertheless, they decide to vote for him because the president makes policy decisions and his expected policies are perceived to be more aligned than any Democratic candidate. They support Trump while regretting not having a much less flawed candidate.
Finally, there are those who, like those above, are aware of the dilemma. However, in contrast, their concerns have become so great that they can’t bring themselves to support or vote for Trump, even though his policies may align more with their own.
I acknowledge that people support Trump for a variety of reasons. Many may hold some similar concerns to my own, but nevertheless on balance think that he will do better than the Democrats. I want to try and respect those who do support Trump for reasonable reasons. That said, I am concerned that many people have felt that Trump’s flaws are not concerning enough to prevent them from handing him arguably the most power office in the world.
As I wrote about here, I believe Trump’s core base of support is primarily rural, white, working people including both those in agriculture as well as labor. They are experiencing significant hardship and have felt forgotten. I think they have legitimate concerns which I believe we should address (though I do have doubts that Trumps policies will actually help them that much.)
I had some significant concerns during Trump’s first presidential term. Things didn’t change for me, but I am a middle class, white, heterosexual American man. I do know that things got scary and took a turn for the worse for other groups of people. For whatever reason, this really bothers me.
I once again feel worried about this upcoming Trump presidency. On one hand, I could say that his first wasn’t as bad as feared (at least for me). So maybe my concern seems unreasonable. I hope this will prove true. Yet I think the concern is warranted. While his first term wasn’t as bad as feared, there were still problems and there is still potential for more harm in this upcoming term.
No person is perfect and much less any presidential candidate. One reaction to frustration with political systems is to say that both parties are the same and therefore that all candidates are more or less the same as well. In some respects, this is quite true. But not in all. I think that saying that all candidates are the same (usually meaning just as bad as the other) is a reaction to the challenge of actually parsing out the differences.
This is the intro to what has become a series of blogs which are my attempt to clarify and share my concerns.
See the next post in the series: Concerns About Trump Presidency Part 2: Foreign Policy.
