Friday, January 27, 2017
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
I Spoke with a Trumpette
I live in Utah, often described as America's reddest state. In 2012, Utahns supported Mitt Romney, the Mormon candidate --who somehow managed to sell himself as a conservative-- by 92%. But Utah did not like Trump. He won only twice as many votes as Hillary Clinton, a dismal showing for a Republican candidate in this state. Mormons are very conservative, but Trump's nasty, loud, bullying behavior didn't sit well with Mormons' sense of decency. But, still, Trump got about 2/3s of the vote here.
But I did not meet a self-declared Trump voter until last night. I was at a friend's birthday party. I was talking with my very liberal, very informed, very activist, totally blue-collar white male friend about Trump's revolting cabinet nominations when a woman approached us and announced she had voted for Trump because he shares her "American values." Now, of course, this kind of deployment of a hackneyed phrase in defense of an indefensible position raises my hackles. I bristled. I got agitated like I used to when I was a young brawler. I said "WHAT American values? Lying? Sexual assault? Fraud? Mocking the disabled?" To her credit, she stayed calm. She said, with a dismissive flutter of her costume-jeweled hand, "Oh, that stuff doesn't matter. All of us do that." I said, in a total huff, that I sure don't, and that nobody I know does, and that it's nasty and mean behaviour that disqualifies a candidate.
She took this as an opportunity to educate me. In a long Fox-inflected invective, she recommended that I open my mind and stop hiding behind liberal talking points; that I consider Trump's promise to give $100,000,000 to "the inner-city blacks"; and that I learn how to engage in "loving, open-minded, respectful dialogue with (my) conservative neighbours."
I was so flummoxed to hear someone who actually considered Trump the best candidate that I had trouble breathing. My whole life I've seen decency, rationality, and honesty as the underpinnings of democracy, and Trump is a blowhard bully, a science-denier, and a habitual liar. The best I could manage after her blinkered and offensive little lecture was "So I take it you voted against Hillary, not for Trump, because he does not embody the values of open heartedness and respect you just recommended."
Her response was another lecture in which I heard fragments of Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity, the apostols of hate: she said she hadn't voted against Hillary at all. She voted against Bill, the "proven rapist." She spun a right-wing fantasy in which Hillary took power behind the scenes in the Clinton White House, and, in exchange, allowed Bill Clinton to run a 'fuck dungeon' in the basement where he raped untold numbers of women and killed the ones he couldn't silence with a payoff. He ran the place with "pedophile Dennis Hastert." And on and on. I'll spare you the rest. At this point the birthday girl showed up and the Trump supporter gave her two packages of marijuana she'd just brought over from Colorado, and my buddy and I took the opportunity to leave.
Maybe she saw our retreat as a capitulation, but it wasn't. It was simply a realist reaction to facing insanity. You cannot have a rational discussion with crazy. Should I have asked her to cite sources? To explain how the press failed to learn of this story but, in her world, it's common knowledge? Should I have asked her to unpack the logic in voting against a non-candidate because of his ostensible sexual predation by supporting a sexual predator? Of course not. You can't talk sense to crazy.
Sure, I believe in respectful dialogue. But it can't exist when one party disdains the facts and acts irrationally. Who, in the new regime, can answer those of us who read the real news, who try to understand the science, who seek remedies for systemic injustice, who make personal sacrifices to act ethically and fairly, who subscribe to a code of decency and compassion, who see government as a bulwark against private interest, tribalism and arbitrariness? I've been combing through the published histories of Trump's new cabinet, and I see very little more noble than self interest, greed, contempt, even hatred.
It's already dull from repetition, but the rust-belt, blue-collar constituents of the Trump regime are facing another humiliation: on top of losing your good jobs, you're now going to lose the dignity of self-determination. You used to unionize and elect politicians who were committed to your safety and economic security. Now, inexplicably, you've elected a rich, arrogant, narcissistic buffoon who doesn't care one shit for you. He does not share your values.
My liberal and moderate friends have become very complacent and ironic in recent years. We felt stymied by the right, but we also felt that our generous egalitarian decency was ascendant. Some of us have become flabby and can't remember how to brawl. I look forward to the coming fight. I'm proud to stand in my corner with such democratic institutions as remain: science, the free press, the academy, art, free global trade. Hell, even the Brotherhood of Man is on my side, and the overwhelming majority of the world's women. It's good to be here. Let's fight crazy.
But I did not meet a self-declared Trump voter until last night. I was at a friend's birthday party. I was talking with my very liberal, very informed, very activist, totally blue-collar white male friend about Trump's revolting cabinet nominations when a woman approached us and announced she had voted for Trump because he shares her "American values." Now, of course, this kind of deployment of a hackneyed phrase in defense of an indefensible position raises my hackles. I bristled. I got agitated like I used to when I was a young brawler. I said "WHAT American values? Lying? Sexual assault? Fraud? Mocking the disabled?" To her credit, she stayed calm. She said, with a dismissive flutter of her costume-jeweled hand, "Oh, that stuff doesn't matter. All of us do that." I said, in a total huff, that I sure don't, and that nobody I know does, and that it's nasty and mean behaviour that disqualifies a candidate.
She took this as an opportunity to educate me. In a long Fox-inflected invective, she recommended that I open my mind and stop hiding behind liberal talking points; that I consider Trump's promise to give $100,000,000 to "the inner-city blacks"; and that I learn how to engage in "loving, open-minded, respectful dialogue with (my) conservative neighbours."
I was so flummoxed to hear someone who actually considered Trump the best candidate that I had trouble breathing. My whole life I've seen decency, rationality, and honesty as the underpinnings of democracy, and Trump is a blowhard bully, a science-denier, and a habitual liar. The best I could manage after her blinkered and offensive little lecture was "So I take it you voted against Hillary, not for Trump, because he does not embody the values of open heartedness and respect you just recommended."
Her response was another lecture in which I heard fragments of Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity, the apostols of hate: she said she hadn't voted against Hillary at all. She voted against Bill, the "proven rapist." She spun a right-wing fantasy in which Hillary took power behind the scenes in the Clinton White House, and, in exchange, allowed Bill Clinton to run a 'fuck dungeon' in the basement where he raped untold numbers of women and killed the ones he couldn't silence with a payoff. He ran the place with "pedophile Dennis Hastert." And on and on. I'll spare you the rest. At this point the birthday girl showed up and the Trump supporter gave her two packages of marijuana she'd just brought over from Colorado, and my buddy and I took the opportunity to leave.
Maybe she saw our retreat as a capitulation, but it wasn't. It was simply a realist reaction to facing insanity. You cannot have a rational discussion with crazy. Should I have asked her to cite sources? To explain how the press failed to learn of this story but, in her world, it's common knowledge? Should I have asked her to unpack the logic in voting against a non-candidate because of his ostensible sexual predation by supporting a sexual predator? Of course not. You can't talk sense to crazy.
Sure, I believe in respectful dialogue. But it can't exist when one party disdains the facts and acts irrationally. Who, in the new regime, can answer those of us who read the real news, who try to understand the science, who seek remedies for systemic injustice, who make personal sacrifices to act ethically and fairly, who subscribe to a code of decency and compassion, who see government as a bulwark against private interest, tribalism and arbitrariness? I've been combing through the published histories of Trump's new cabinet, and I see very little more noble than self interest, greed, contempt, even hatred.
It's already dull from repetition, but the rust-belt, blue-collar constituents of the Trump regime are facing another humiliation: on top of losing your good jobs, you're now going to lose the dignity of self-determination. You used to unionize and elect politicians who were committed to your safety and economic security. Now, inexplicably, you've elected a rich, arrogant, narcissistic buffoon who doesn't care one shit for you. He does not share your values.
My liberal and moderate friends have become very complacent and ironic in recent years. We felt stymied by the right, but we also felt that our generous egalitarian decency was ascendant. Some of us have become flabby and can't remember how to brawl. I look forward to the coming fight. I'm proud to stand in my corner with such democratic institutions as remain: science, the free press, the academy, art, free global trade. Hell, even the Brotherhood of Man is on my side, and the overwhelming majority of the world's women. It's good to be here. Let's fight crazy.
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