A vote cast for Trump is kind of like a murder; there may be context to consider — a disadvantaged background, extenuating circumstances, understandable motives — but the choice itself is binary and final, irrevocable. There's a case to be made that it's indefensible; that his supporters have forfeited any right to be respected or taken seriously. The conservatives of the heartland have lashed back against the coastal elites' condescending, classist prejudices by defiantly confirming them: that they're pathetically dumb and gullible, uncritical consumers of any disinformation that confirms their biases, easy dupes for any demagogue who promises to bring back the factories and keep the brown people down.How many conservatives does this author know? Or, to have a little more fun, does he know anyone who owns a pickup?
Ignorance and bigotry are actually the best possible motives for having voted for Trump — they are at least honest, if not honorable. But I don't believe all Trump voters are ignorant, or bigoted; most of them are just evil — evil being defined not as anything so glamorous as beheading journalists or gunning down grade schoolers, but simply as not much caring about other people's suffering. They're willing to consign someone else — someone Mexican, or Muslim, or trans, not anyone they know — to exile, arrest, or second-class status, in exchange for... what? A tax break? To send a message to Washington, or the mainstream media? Just out of spiteful, petulant rage?
Well, a little later in the column he "admits" to knowing 2 Trump voters. "One of them is from Texas and the other's a Marine, so they both have their excuses." Not reasons, not justifications, excuses. This guy is a gift that keeps on giving.
Go read the whole thing. He thinks he's being magnanimous in allowing 2 Trump supporters into his life. Marvel that anyone could be so lacking in introspection.
Let me guess-this guy's either from New York or California.
ReplyDeleteDC-NYC-Boston metros, quite possibly Seattle, Portland, a college town or one of the other little leftist bubbles in many states. Also quite likely the Socialist Republic of Vermont - a state unrecognizable from its pre-60s self. I remember visiting, in the 80-90s, and the Burlington area was still awash with the 60s-Woodstock look - my kids thought it was a great show.
ReplyDeleteEven Austin TX is getting so insufferable that I only visit under duress. The traffic is bad because the new Texas liberals don't want to impact the environment by widening the roads. So you sit in three hours of "rush" twice a day on I35. If you don't head north and reach Georgetown by three in the afternoon, you might as well pull off and grab some BBQ because you're not getting out of town until six regardless. Ditto the gentrification of inner city Austin neighborhoods. People buy old houses on the cheap and either knock them down or tart them up making housing too expensive for all those who lived there before on the east side of I35. Austin is rapidly becoming the San Francisco of the South with all the well intentioned liberal idiocy that entails.
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