An Open Letter to Trump Voters
This is not an easy letter to write.
Expressing what I believe in letter form has always been my strong
suit but now, as I sit, ready to address these issues with you, I'm
nervous, apprehensive, afraid that you will not understand my heart,
that you will wrongly believe that my words are coming from a “left
wing perspective,” which they are not. Rather my sentiments come
from a sincere and pure place of caring and concern for the future of
the country we all love and wish only the best for. I am afraid that
you will misunderstand me, misinterpret my words, understand them to
mean things they do not mean. I fear that you will allow your biases
to confuse things I'm about to say, that you will simply regurgitate
the things you've heard from pundits and analysts on Fox News and
other so-called “conservative” media outlets. I am writing to you
not as a Liberal or a Conservative. I am writing to you as an
American.
More than 64,000,000 Americans
voted for Donald Trump – many of these disaffected voters had
previously elected Barack Obama. Why did so many Americans decide to
cast their lot with a man who had no experience as a political
leader, whose business accomplishments were sketchy and exaggerated,
a man whose personal story was filled with questionable moral and
ethical choices, a man who seemed to represent the very things most
of those 64,000,000 voters had spent their lives opposing?
What was behind the attraction of
Trump voters for Donald J. Trump? What one word could explain the
political detonation that launched a television personality to the
highest elected office on earth? That one word is “bullying.”
Bullying. Not the bullying that Trump daily inflicts on his enemies
and friends, alike. This had nothing to do with pampered, prosperous
Donald Trump. We're talking here of the bullying many Americans
believed they had been exposed to for fifty years and longer,
bullying at the hands of powerful, satisfied elites and entrenched
government bureaucrats who just didn't seem to understand the plight
of “ordinary” Americans.
Most of the 64,000,000 Americans
who voted for Donald Trump believed that the system of American
politics practiced by both political parties had deliberately
betrayed them. After decades of suffering in silence, they longed for
an opportunity to do something about it. Was there anyone in
Washington who understood what the daily struggle of Americans was
all about, what it really took to get a family out of bed each
morning? It became clear that these disaffected voters would have to
look outside the Washington Beltway for a politician who could
understand and act on their grievances.
The answer soon became clear. The
core of what would become known as “Trump voters”
wondered why the roads of their cities
and towns were crumbling while Washington increased spending year
after year on projects that didn't have anything to do with their
lives or well being. They wondered why – no matter how loud they
raised their voices, the people running government just didn't seem
to hear a word they said.
And then, along came Trump.
Trump was a businessman who
claimed to be a multi-billionaire real estate mogul. He wore fine
suits and played a flashy, brilliant businessman on a well-rated
reality TV show called “the Apprentice.” He seemed to understand
the problems of “the little guy,” the struggling middle class
that felt left behind by inattentive and greedy politicians of both
parties. He seemed to have achieved the American Dream and more, and,
at overflow arena rallies, he told anyone who would listen that he
wanted to share the spoils of that Dream with them, that he wanted to
give “the little guy” all the wonderful things America had given
him, the keys to a uniquely American brand of wealth and success.
With this new vision for America
Trump assembled millions of discontented voters, principally in the
heartland of the nation, assuring them that he knew exactly why
their lives were so difficult and that he intended to do something to
make their lives easier. He got their attention and trust by offering
an old, simple line that held immigrants responsible for many of
their woes. When you need to corral public sentiment quickly, it's
always convenient to gather it around partisanship and prejudice,
hatred for “others” perceived as “doing you wrong.” It was
“Mexican rapists,” Trump claimed, who were causing good middle
class Americans to stagnate in social, financial and private limbo.
Trump proved to me a master at conveying this message. He fired up
his crowds with a fire and fervor that had never before been seen at
American campaign rallies.
Assisted by a lackluster
Democratic nominee in Hilary Clinton, Trump rode to victory in the
Electoral College, without winning the popular vote. Middle America
had bought the potion Trump was peddling and a new, frightening era
in politics was ushered in on November 3, 2016.
So now, three years after the
election of Donald Trump, I pose a simple question and ask you, as a
Trump supporter, to put aside your biases, your attraction to Trump,
the Hollywood Star, and even your support for some of the policies he
has put forward over the past 36 months.
I ask you to take an honest,
unvarnished look at your life, and the lives of your family and
friends. Ask yourself this question and answer it as truthfully as
you possibly can: are you and your family and friends better off
three years after Donald Trump and the Republicans took control of
the government? Are you really making more money?
Are your kids really getting a better education? Are
their prospects for the future really brighter than
they were three years ago when Barack Obama was president? Are you
more at ease with the world? Are you children and your friends
convinced that America's best days are ahead, that President Trump
and the Republicans have achieved their stated goal of Making America
Great Again (did you really believe that three years ago America was
not great?) Are you confident that America is respected by our allies
and feared by our enemies? Think hard about that last one. Can you
say that, when you travel around the globe you feel the love and
admiration of the rest of the world for you, as an American citizen?
Or is the truth just a little more
complicated than the easy slogans passed off from the president's
lips at colorful, boisterous rallies of his thousands of fans?
I ask you, as a loyal and
dedicated Trump supporter to look at the totality of Trump's
behavior over the last three years and also to look at the behavior
of the Republican Party, which has stood silently as Trump
perpetrated one outrage after another. Are you really comfortable
with all of this? And more importantly, can you really say that he
has delivered for you, that you are actually better off now
that he has been in the White House for three-quarters of his term?
If you can't answer that question affirmatively, you need to ask
yourself the next logical question: are you comfortable with
continuing to support the activities of this president, this
administration, and this Republican Party?
