They Might be a Trump Thumper If…
Watch out for these signs, if it’s not otherwise obvious, that one might be in your midst.
-They think (right now, November 5th) that, “the vote is over. The fight must go on.” (Uhhh…the vote is far from over since all the ballots have not yet been counted and democracy means counting all the votes).
-They think a “socialist utopia” sounds like a depressing and terrible thing. (Hello? Do we know what the definition of “utopia” is?)
-They think affordable, better healthcare being made available to all is “unnecessary” and “won’t be good” and they “don’t want it.” (Several developed countries around the world have this and many people are quite happy with it so…yeah. Also, the countries that do this tend to have far better health outcomes than we do. Americans pay the most out of pocket for healthcare each year, and yet, we have the worst health outcomes, including the highest suicide rates, the highest chronic disease rates, and the highest rates of obesity).
-They don’t read much, other than stuff that just affirms what they already believe.
-They watch a lot of Fox news.
-They think “law and order” is always the best way (and often, an immediate method), to maintain peace. By bringing in armed forces, intimidating, and displaying aggression and “power.”
-They believe the rich and the poor “earn their way, whichever way that is” and that they “deserve what they get.”
-They buy into much, if not most, of what they read on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
-They get a lot of their news via the above sources too (and they certainly do not read any publications like The New Yorker or The Atlantic, two top-notch, superb, well-researched news sources- and likely, two of the better, more honest, legit ones in the country).
-They are racist, sexist, or have other views of intolerance and distaste towards people different from themselves in these ways (other races, sexual orientations, those with disabilities, people of different sex, etc).
-They think conservatives (and oftentimes, it’s men leading the pack on this) should rightly have the power to dictate what ALL women can or cannot do with THEIR bodies (which frankly, is not the public’s business or right to decide something of this magnitude for all women. Something like this is between the woman and her healthcare provider. That’s it. It isn’t your business if a woman has an abortion or not. It doesn’t affect you. It affects her and is thus her choice).
(Crucial side note: if aborting a fetus is “murder” simply because it’s alive, why isn’t masturbation considered mass murder? All those sperm are alive, the same way an early fetus is alive, and they are being dumped off and killed, millions of them, all of which were potential lives, every time a guy jerks off. Or, why isn’t it considered an equal moral crime by men when they get a girl pregnant and then ditch her? Interesting, that all the venom and a need for control are directed at women for their reproductive choices, with little to none towards men for theirs).
-They are all about QAnon and conspiracy thinking (such as the idea that COVID is a hoax made up to undermine the Trump presidency. Riiiiiight. All those refrigerated trucks lined up outside hospitals? Ventilators and beds taken over by sick people? Almost 250,000 deaths? But sure, it’s all fake).
-They think immigration is “bad for America.” (Which, of course, indicates they don’t read much, since tons of research shows that immigration is good for both the economy and the wages of all Americans).
-They are woe-is-me, heart-bruised white males who feel somehow cheated that women have gained greater inequality and are deeply threatened by and resentful of this.
-They live in rural America and think Trump is the man to “help them,” their savior, the one to “make America great,” when in reality, they are the very people whose lives he makes worse with his policies (wanting to get rid of the Affordable care act, Welfare, Medicaid, and putting more money into the pockets of the rich, to name a few).
-They are female themselves and speak positively about Trump. This is about as anti-feminist as you can get. These are the women who undermine female progress and hurt all women with their ignorance and cruelty.
-The right to own a gun is one of their hills to die on.
-They “like his policies.” (Granted, he has done, I absolutely hate to admit, some things that are not terrible. A few that are even…ok. But, to claim this as a reason for supporting him still shows a glaring ignorance and sense of denial. Better not to vote at all than to support him for this flimsy reason).
-They don’t understand that Trump was actually impeached.
-They think Trump is “good for the economy.” (Uhhh…look around. Our economy has tanked, and will continue to because Trump has favored the economy over public health. Notice where that has gotten us).
-They are anti-mask wearing during COVID, simply for the reason that it “takes away their rights.”
In conclusion and with all of this said, in the words of Tom Nichols (from his article, A Large Portion of the Electorate Chose a Sociopath in The Atlantic):
Nearly half of the voters have seen Trump in all of his splendor — his infantile tirades, his disastrous and lethal policies, his contempt for democracy in all its forms — and they decided that they wanted more of it.
Now, by picking him again, those voters are showing that they are just like him: angry, spoiled, racially resentful, aggrieved, and willing to die rather than ever admit that they were wrong.
His voters can no longer hide behind excuses about the corruption of Hillary Clinton or their willingness to take a chance on an unproven political novice.
They cannot feign ignorance about how Trump would rule.
They know, and they have embraced him.
