Monday, January 30, 2017

How to Tell a Trump Voter "I Told You So"

How should you go about telling your friends and family who voted for Trump "I told you so!" now that Trump's worst campaign rhetoric is being enacted as policy?

Don't.

How should you mock your uncle who forwarded you all those chain letters and blog posts about Clinton's private email server now that Trump's administration is doing the exact same thing?

Don't.

How should you demonstrate your clear superiority, the fact that you saw this coming and yelled loudly that we had to stop it?

Don't.

How should you point out that all of the Trump supporters on your social media feeds who between November and January were constantly telling you to "let it go" and "wait and see" have fallen completely silent in the last week?

Don't.

I'm going to make an assumption that if you are as disgusted, angry, and fearful about what Trump has done with a mere week in office as I am that you--also like me--want to fight back with the greatest power possible. I am going to assume that seeing this man lie repeatedly (with "alternative facts") with a straight face about all of the voter fraud he "knows" happened has made you realize that we're dealing with something unprecedented. I am going to assume that watching legal US residents get barred from returning home this weekend sent chills down your spine, and your head echoed with the reminders of how other human atrocities have begun. I am going to assume that you weren't surprised when he didn't release his tax returns or divest himself from his businesses as promised, but that you are outraged that the highest office in our country is being used to line a failed businessman's pockets instead of governing the people. I am going to assume that you watched Bannon get handed an insane amount of power for which he has no qualifications and shuddered.

I am going to assume that you want to fix it.

If that's the case, then we have to give the people who voted for Trump (many reluctantly) room to pivot. We can't give the impression that half of the country is okay with what's happening because I know that they're not. I know that many, many people who thought Trump would suffice now see that they've made a mistake. It's a mistake we need to discuss. We can talk about social media echo chambers, legitimate news sources, religious-like devotion to partisan identity. We can talk about all of those things--but not today. Today we need to come together. Today we need to recognize that we have far more in common than this administration would like us to believe.

Think about what they've done. They're throwing so many executive orders (and I say they because I believe Bannon is as much behind it as Trump--maybe more) at us at once so that we can't get our feet under us. They throw out the most divisive topics (abortion, immigration) to ensure that we're fighting each other instead of recognizing we've all been had. They're banking on us tearing each other to shreds while they walk away with our democracy.

We can't let that happen.

The strongest moments of our democracy have come forth when unlikely groups formed focused coalitions around shared ideals. Those coalitions don't always last long, and we can go back to arguing over the meaningful differences we have after our work is done, but right now--today--our work is to reclaim our democracy, and we do that together.

If we don't, I fear it really will be too late. Don't make me say I told you so.

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