Deplorable in Talk Radio

This was my angry, post-election Facebook post:

I’m just as disappointed with the dems and liberals and how blindsided they are. This entire election, I have been begging people I know to take Trump seriously, and my experience with this conversation is that they mostly refused to until yesterday at 9pm. Like NYT who said HRC had an 80% to win yesterday afternoon, there’s at least an 80% chance the dems have their heads up their ass.

You didn’t think he’d get the nomination, and when he did, you were sure he couldn’t win. You didn’t know he had real supporters, you were wrong when you didn’t think he’d win the primaries, and you are still shocked when he won the presidency? You had a chance to see this coming, yet you stubbornly chose to believe he was running purely on KKK endorsements and entertainment value. You bounced between claiming his supporters didn’t really exist and making a straw man out of them, which only served to anger and motivate them.

Especially tired of seeing, “if you voted for Trump, unfriend me!” ooh, so brave, except that it’s way more likely you don’t have any such friends required to make this statement an actual risk. This happened in part because you underestimated the Trump people but by all means, keep ignoring them and preaching to your choir.

I just hope that I have somehow been wrong about Trump and that he has some redeeming qualities I missed, but that’s the same thought in 2004 when GWB got re-elected.

Maybe writing this was a bit harsh and a possible mistake. I’m also mad at the dems for choosing Hilary instead of Bernie and also with the 3rd parties who are not just problematic for existing in a two party system without Instant Runoff Voting…but Stein and Johnson, personally, are just terrible, no better than Hilary or Trump. I would much rather throw my vote away on Nader or even Paul.

What I’m not really mad at are the Trump supporters. The other side is always going to vote against their best interest and it’s our side that’s supposed to be smarter and deal with it by defeating the enemy at the voting both. An essential part of this process is not underestimating the enemy.

The world is still turning. It might still be here in January. As for my emotional reaction, it is dramatic. Maybe too dramatic. Reaction of my FB friends possibly even more emotional. I’m not really sure what the appropriate response is, because it does matter. I was listening to some comedian– Bill Burr I think–and he was like, what the fuck does the president do for you? Does he ever make you a sandwich? And for Bill Burr the president probably doesn’t actually matter. But for people with AIDs during Reagan admin, or people who lost their house in 2008, anyone who is a non-violent drug offender or can’t afford good healthcare, or a long list of people– it matters.

But acting like everyone who voted for Trump is doing so out of a hatred for brown people or gay people or Muslim people, that has gotta chill. Ignorant maybe, not one of the groups of people for whom it really matters, so they don’t understand. Guilt isn’t a good weapon. It won’t help them understand. Not trying to deny that Trump was well liked by actual deplorables, but I’m hoping that the deplorables are a minority of Americans and Trump supporters.

I’m trying to hard to think about how this might not be a total disaster. What mostly got Trump elected this has some in common with what got Obama elected in 2008. Obama was so young and all “hope” and “change”, still a politician, but he tapped into the anti-Washington feelings and he was able to do it because he didn’t have 20 years of political baggage like Clinton. (this is why Bernie would have been a strategically better choice vs Trump, but whatever) After Obama got elected we found out that presidents actually don’t have the kind of power to live up to that kind of hype. Maybe the Trump people will be disappointed by his unfulfilled promises, but also likely that they won’t hold him accountable because they haven’t so far.

Last updated May 05, 2022