I am still basking in the light of Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump. It has helped to redeem the difficult year 2020 has been thus far.
I feel good enough, in fact, to turn my attention to trying to understand Trump voters better, and the most logical place it seems to me to begin is to listen to what they say about themselves.
Take, for instance, the Wisconsin man who was sitting in a bar when a reporter asked him if he had heard about Governor Tony Evers’ recent executive order requesting Wisconsinites to wear masks and limit indoor gatherings, including family celebrations of Thanksgiving.
As you know, Wisconsin is on fire with the coronavirus. The Governor would have made his order a mandate, but Trump Republicans and a conservative majority on the state Supreme Court stripped him of that power, thus, his order was limited to being “a strong recommendation.”
The man at the bar responded to the reporter’s question by saying, “Yea, I heard it, but I have nine siblings so for Thanksgiving I think we’ll just ignore what the governor said.”
To understand this Trump voter better, I wish I could ask him why he and all the Trump voters like him think their families are more important than anyone else’s.
Many families in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and other states will sacrifice their desire to have a family Thanksgiving because they don’t want to contract the virus themselves or spread it to others (studies prove family gathering as a major cause of this current outbreak).
So what makes this Trump voter’s family so special that they don’t have to think about getting the virus or spreading it to other people not in their family?
I also wonder if he and Trump voters like him think about potentially making the situation worse for hospitals already running at capacity? Have they given any thought to the rapid spread of the virus placing unbearable stress on already fatigued nurses and doctors like our doctor son?
These are things they can tell me that will help me understand them better because I admit that at this point I don’t have a clue about why 245,000 deaths from the coronavirus don’t seem to concern them or the fact that the month of October alone the U.S. had a million cases of the virus diagnosed.
Yesterday my heart broke listening to the tragic story of a 17 year-old teenager with no underlying conditions who died three days after she was diagnosed, and then today it broke again because of a 13 year-old boy in Missouri also without any underlying conditions dying from the virus.
Did theirs? I need some help here.
But their attitude about the pandemic is only the beginning of questions whose answers can tell me a lot about who these people are.
For example, I am confused about their lack of concern for Trump’s lack of character, his refusal to tell the truth about anything, his ego-centric public statements.
Yes, I know, they don’t believe any of it is true, but I suspect they know more than they say they do.
How could they not when Trump repeatedly said at his rallies that Democrats and the fake press were hyping the pandemic and that the proof would be when it all goes away after the election?
Well, it hasn’t all gone away, as any sensible person knew it wouldn’t. Am I to believe Trump voters don’t see this as an example of Trump having no concern for truth? Answering that question would go a long way in getting a clearer picture of who they are and what values they have.
Trump voters are saying a lot about themselves indirectly, but answering the kind of questions people like me have would allow us to know if what we think they are saying about who they are is in fact who they are.
Unless and until that happens, we cannot even begin to think about ways to overcome the bitter divide the election confirmed that between us.
More on this subject next time.
Gaslighting Jan. I don’t know how many reasonable close friends that I have talked with over the last year that could look me straight in the face and say that Covid is a hoax and/or plot to get Trump out – people i have known for a long time. If you say it often enough, people are going to believe it, and believe it forcefully
It’s interesting too – I’m reading this book about Anti-intellectualism in American Life and this author suggests that this is a thread that has been woven through history (the book was written in 1962 – could have been written today). He is talking about this anti-intellectual fervor around the time that Eisenhower was elected. Then the Russians put Sputnik into space and the country realized we need intellectuals involved in the decision making process if we expect to succeed and survive. Hopefully COVID and this last election will be our “Sputnik” moment. I’m growing tired of the lack of empathy or concern and the rejection of facts that are irrefutable
Thanks, Tony. They are a delusional bunch. The Hofstadter book is one every American should read.
Jan, first of all, thank you for all you have written and done to influence others, like myself, to be a part of the 78 million American Citizens who voted for Joe Biden. And, as you have pointed out in your previous blog and intro to this one, we all deserve to celebrate big time. Most of us are doing that or have done that already. But as is the case with most celebrations, they become “short lived”. So, now we face the reality of “what are we now going to do about it?”. Our Democracy has been torn apart in the last four years, and we have to figure out how to put it all back together fairly quickly. And we know that Trump can do more serious damage in the next 68 days.
As we are now learning, whatever we can do about it is going to be a significant challenge. This challenge will be more daunting than the challenge of electing Biden in the first place. First, all along in this election process, many of us have stated repeatedly that if the Dems did not take back the Senate, we are still at a standoff, particularly with respect to legislation that Biden needs to make happen. Yes, there is still hope that Dems will win the two Senate runoffs in Georgia. But even if Dems win these two runoffs, the challenge for bipartisan legislation will be resisted by Republican leadership – unless the 4-5 GOP Senators vote as a bloc, or in some individual way allow Dems legislation in the Senate to proceed. And maybe more GOP senators will begin to break rank with Trump and want to seriously negotiate with Biden. But we cannot predict that at this point. Second, the GOP picked up far more seats in the house than expected and this speaks to the continued strength of the GOP. Third, almost 73 million American citizens voted for Trump! And fourth, The Supreme Court now is heavily tilted toward the GOP. Maybe they will have a conscience and not repeal the Affordable Care Act – looks like they will not repeal it. But, beyond that if there is stalemate in the Senate, GOP hopes will more than likely be supported by the new Supreme Court. Yes, we can rationalize that Biden’s victory is conclusive, significant and represents a mandate of some sort. We would be correct in doing so. But the GOP can form the same rational conclusion as the Dems and they also would be correct in doing so. As of today, the GOP stills maintains substantial power, and that power will not begin to diminish any time soon – or go away because Trump leaves or because Republicans will magically find “a soul”.
So, the Great Divide remains!
Jan, in this post of yours, you state up front that you will “turn (your) attention to trying to understand Trump voters better, and the most logical place it seems to (you) to begin is to listen to what they say about themselves.” I applaud you for forming this most important objective. It is exactly what all 78 million of us must do if we are to pull ourselves out of this Great Divide and create some sort of Unity in the “United” States of America. Biden’s campaign strategy for the most part was based on this objective. They won back significantly the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and yes Arizona, because they understood those voters better than in 2016 and they listened to them. But when “we” try to understand those voters, all 78 million of us, we must try hard to do so from a “neutral” point of view. After listening, we may conclude that certain elements of those voters are lost forever (because they are evil or hypocritical in some ways, or because there is no potential for learning), and then try to understand how we can “accept” the rest and rationalize our objectives with them in ways that might lead to our being able to “educate” them in some way. But we cannot enter this process of trying to understand and accept, with either a “chip on our shoulder” or with some pre-conceived notion that they are all evil and corrupt in some way Yes, most maybe were considered “complicit” to allowing GOP and Trump’s agenda to proceed. But the GOP is not going to fracture or explode overnight. We must now create a process that allows us to separate “the wheat from the shaft”, and then create appropriate strategies for Trump supporters that best serves America’s interest as a whole. If we do not do this, then they will continue to flourish and probably “grow” in the next two and four years. And those elections have begun with the GOP as we speak.
So, Jan, at this point, I would like to make some comments in response to your very transparent, and I know sincere, questions that you pose in this post. But, in so doing, I am going to respond based on a good bit of experience with “Trump Voters” having traveled all over this country the last six years in my motorhome. I have made it a strong objective of mine to try to “understand” and try to “accept” some of these voters based on my experience with them. I have observed many of them. I have talked with many of them. I have asked them many questions about who they are and what they believe in. And I now can admit to you, that just “trying” to understand and accept has been one of the hardest tasks of my life. I have not formed strong conclusions or judgements about these people. But I have been educated beyond previous beliefs and I have formed some very distinct opinions about who they are and what they believe in. Trump voters fall into many distinct and different categories: 1. Far right white extremists, populists, neo-fascists, and cultists; 2. Strong, powerful white supremists, neo-nazis, and anti- semitic, racists; 3. White, wealthy, corporate supporting America; 4. White Christian evangelicals; 5. Remaining Reagan Republicans; 6. Remaining Moderate Republicans; 7. Fiscal Conservative Republicans; 8. Tea Party Republicans; 9. Libertarian Republicans; and, 10. White, rural, small town, working class America. And at this writing, Trump controls them all. But that is soon about to change. And thank God for that.
To your questions to “the man at the bar”, who in my opinion, falls into the category of number 10 above. This man is:
1. White
2. Lives in a rural area of Wisconsin
3. Is sitting at a bar because that is what “he” does most evenings
4. Is struggling to survive as a white worker, because of the recession 12 years ago that turned many small towns in most rural areas of the south and Midwest into almost ghost towns
5. Is striking out against Dems and liberals because they left “him” behind in the recovery since that recession
6. Understands that “opportunity’ has been lost in today’s small town, rural, working class America
7. Faces just as much deterioration of his own culture because of “addictions” (to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, sex, gambling, etc.) as minorities in large cities
8. Is secure in knowing that the virus is far less dangerous in his rural area where most of his neighbor conservatives share his point of view of a lifetime
9. Is a very “uneducated” American citizen and has bought hook line and sinker into Trump’s lies, deceit and manipulations
10. Is probably a struggling farmer, or works at some minor trade in a predominantly rural environment; loves working in more natural, open aired world where despite his grievances, believes in his “freedoms” and won’t allow anyone to take them away from him; ergo, believes in the right to carry arms, has many guns in his possession (for hunting and other purposes); and will go to his grave to fight for “his rights”, because he believes “His” Country has provided him with “little privileges and entitlements”
11. Is either a “racist” or lives in “a racist white rural world” where “competition” for jobs with blacks and other minorities is now in his DNA
12. Believes inherently, that His Family of nine siblings “Is” more important than anyone elses; and sees no evidence that you and I might think or feel that “His Family” is equally or more important than our own.
In other words, this “man at the bar” in Wisconsin is basking in his world of “Victimization” and is convinced that you, and I, and in his mind – the rest of America – doesn’t give a hoot about Him and His Family. This man at the bar is not concerned about the 245,000 Covid-19 deaths because they are “out of sight and out of mind”. Tough to swallow, but I think true.
For the other nine categories of Trump voters above, please let me know what you find out. Because, I have no clue either.
John Hamerski
Hi John. Your comments will need more response than I can make in this reply. I hope my future blogs will be my answer to some of the questions you raise. My point in the current blog is to ask questions that raise issues that are part of the great divide that exists today. The answers Trump voters have given or will give in the future will likely not be a path to understanding, as your experiences with them confirm. That tells me our response will necessarily be independent of why they are who they are. I hope to explain that in detail in blogs to come. We are on the same page here, John. I will do my best to address the divide we face from that common perspective.
John,
You spent (wasted?) an incredible amount of words and time analyzing the “man in the bar” and people like him. You are not wrong per se, but the simple explanation for Trump supporters is that they are IGNORANT !!
Bill Blackwell
I guess I am drawn to the “complicated” explanation, Bill.