This is about this past year. It is about the election results and the fear and uncertainty felt by both sides of the aisle throughout the process. It is my stab at trying to understand it all.
Those who know me should not be surprised that I am a liberal. But I have always taken pride in my moderate stance on all things political. It comes from my training as a historian. When you dig into the past you can’t ignore the fact that most truths are found somewhere in between two extreme opinions. Still, dichotomies are sexy. There’s something innately human in wanting narratives to be clean, clear, and cut along a bifocal plane. Two sides make sense. Anything else is just too complicated, too messy. But “it’s complicated” is an awful answer to one of the greatest questions Americans living today must answer: how did this happen?
I don’t necessarily mean Trump. Trump is a symptom of an overall sickness that has plagued this nation, and humanity, since the beginning of storytelling. I may be wrong, but the word that keeps coming to mind, and not a single Trump or Hillary supporter has convinced me otherwise, is selfishness.
I’ve always been a person who supports selfishness. If everybody acted in their own self-interest they would treat people better. That way, they are treated well in return. But the problem with my logic is that it depends on the second function, that others would treat you well, also. That is the main issue with the whole “turn the other cheek” parable; you have to assume that the response would not be an escalation.
Your conscience comes from somewhere. At some point, something taught you how and what to feel. If you’re lucky, a parent served in the role. They nurtured the good and stamped out the bad. When you did something selfish, they scalded you. If you were selfless, you received a reward or praise. Each of these things has value added to them. So, my readers, what happens when the opposite occurs. What happens when selfishness is rewarded and selflessness questioned? What happens when bad is good and vice versa?
Rewards come in many forms. If you did well in school you received a gold star or an ‘A.’ Parents may treat you to your favorite dinner or ice cream, that is if your’s were like mine and rewarded you with food beginning a long history of an unhealthy relationship with your meals that ultimately leads to a weight problem. But, enough about me. Other rewards come indirectly. The thief who always gets away with the crime is this type. Also in this category are the partners who never get caught cheating, the businessman who never gets caught laundering, and the politician who gains more power with every lie.
So far, this has been a think piece. Something derived from my analytical mind, not by my heart. In truth, it is broken.
Hope is amazing. Those who voted for Trump in 2016 expressed the exact same desire as those who put Obama in the seat in 2008 and 2012. There is no difference. None. It’s just that many of Trump’s supporters are not the same as Obama’s. But is that really the answer? Is that really the dichotomy that works for this story? Could you not be both? Surely, there are many others who at one point in time voted for Obama and also for Trump. Those who fell in between the two major parties. Those who felt let down by Obama’s insistence on continuing many questionable practices that saved certain segments of the economy and not others.
The bottom line for me is that the supporters who voted for Trump because they are afraid, poor, feel left behind by their nation, and had hoped that he would speak for them are as much a representation of the failures of this country as those who continue to fight for their basic rights. Democrats villainize Trump supporters because it is easier to view them as monsters rather than humans struggling in this country. The same is true of Republicans. All Trump did was bend his campaign toward that element that he somehow noticed and did what it took to win. The difference between him and his peers is that he has no problem being the bad guy if it means that, in the end, he will win. For Trump, the ends always justify the means.
Anthony Sadler 