Argentbear
Well-Known Member
Here’s What I Learned From Trump’s Victory: I’m the Problem. It’s Me
For the last years, my Twitter feed has been filled with MAGA trolls telling me that people like me “are the problem.” I never believed them. At least I didn’t until last night, when my nation confirmed it. Turns out, people like me really are the problem, and I must admit, as Donald Trump begins the process of assuming his second presidency, that I don’t know what to do about it.
The thing is, people like me don’t want to believe that half of my countrymen support the things Donald Trump supports. We thought four years of corruption, lies, ineptitude, graft, and cruelty cured our dalliance with our authoritarianism. Turns out the following four years of recovery only whetted their appetite.
People like me believed that the office of the presidency would humble even the most hardened heart, just as it has for each of its previous occupants (well, there might have been a couple exceptions before Trump). We thought that even if a humbug were to assume the office that the other two thirds of the government would keep him in line. We thought even the most cynical politicians would put the nation’s interests above their own. We were wrong.
I know Trump voters told pollsters that it was all about the economy, and maybe it was. Eggs and milk are higher. I’m not disputing that, but people like me thought our fellow Americans recognized that the cause of that inflation, and which the Trump administration initiated and the Biden administration continued, kept the economy afloat, and that President Biden steered the nation towards the soft recovery every economist believed was impossible. People like me were wrong.
In 2016, we thought Trump’s blatant misogyny would turn off enough white women voters to deny him a victory. In 2024, we thought overturning Roe would do the same. Both times we thought American misogyny would not deny a highly qualified female candidate a victory. We were wrong.
In 2016, we thought Trump’s blatant xenophobia and racism would turn off enough white people of good will to deny him a victory. In 2024, we thought enough Latinos would rebel against the same. We were wrong.
Time and again, people like me have been wrong about our fellow Americans. Those Americans have told me, time and again, that I live in a Hollywood bubble (despite the fact that I live in Savannah, GA) and that I don’t understand the problems of regular folks like them, despite the fact that I come from fairly modest circumstances, myself. Time and again, I have dismissed these people’s opinion of me because I didn’t want it to be true. Turns out it was true. If this is who “regular folk” want to lead them, then I really don’t understand at all.
Because I don’t understand how a nation founded in the highest aspirations of a people can choose to be led by somebody who only appeals to their basest desires. I don’t understand how a nation that has fought so hard to overcome the worst of its sins can be led so easily back into temptation.
