Word: Liberals have to stop treating Trump voters so badly

Erica Etelson, AlterNet - If you’re a liberal or progressive who’s been obsessively consuming Trumpocalypse post-mortems for the past nine months, you know that voters (fewer than half of them!) voted for Trump for a handful of reasons. Trump’s base included rich Republicans protecting their wealth, as they do in every election, and white “middle Americans” poisoned by an overdose of economic and cultural anxiety also known as xenophobia and racism. Republican wealth preservation is a time-honored tradition that there’s very little we can do about. But if we’re going to win back disaffected working-class swing voters—and win some of them back we must—we brokenhearted lefties have to learn how to talk to them, and about them, in ways that don’t come across as insufferably superior...

Liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote about the “chumps” and “losers” who “shot themselves in the face” and “basically destroyed their own lives” by voting for someone who would take away their health insurance. New York Times readers chimed in to a Nicholas Kristof op-ed about Trump voters with comments similar to many that graced my Facebook feed: “I’m just going to say it, I hate these people. They are stupid and selfish. Screw them. Lose your jobs, sit home and die.”

Kristof criticized such sentiment, pointing out that Trump voters he interviewed had many motivations for choosing Trump, including being derided as “ignorant bumpkins” by Democrats. “The vilification of these voters is a gift to Trump,” Kristof concludes, then goes on to remind us what should be obvious: Denigrating Trump supporters as “despicable, bigoted imbeciles” is not likely to win them over.  On the contrary, it’s what allows the right wing to mobilize resentment so effectively....

When Trump said, “I love the poorly educated,” some were flattered, not offended, and the feeling was mutual. Thirty-six percent of white working-class voters said, in an October 2016 survey, that they believed Trump understood the challenges they face compared to 22 percent for Clinton (stunningly low percentages for both candidates, which suggests a huge opening for a more down-to-earth candidate).

They’re willing to overlook the gold-plated spoon in the so-called populist billionaire’s mouth because the words coming out of that mouth do not judge, insult and shame them. They’ll take a billionaire kleptocrat who echoes their fears and grievances (some legitimate, others racist) and pretends to respect them over a millionaire corporatist (Clinton) who calls them deplorable and insists that “America is already great.”....

An effective multi-racial economic liberation movement threatens the capitalist order or, at the very least, would win every election by a landslide. I’ve written before about this opportunity/necessity (which Democratic leaders continue to shun), as have many others, including Thomas Frank, Gary Younge, Gary Younge again, Sarah Jaffe, John Nichols, Paul Street, Stephanie Coontz, Glenn Greenwald, and Michael Moore, the one person in the world who predicted Trump’s victory...

So who are These People anyway? Seven in 10 Trump voters don’t have college degrees, making them only somewhat less educated than the electorate as a whole (six in 10 Americans don’t have a college degree). They skew richer than average, but include middle- and low-income voters, though not very many of the poorest of the poor. Many live in counties experiencing sharp declines in health indicators such as diabetes and heavy drinking. Four out of five people who say their financial situation is "worse today" went for Trump. White working-class voters (defined as lacking a college degree or a salaried job) went two to one for Trump. Many, like Cramer’s subjects, have strong rural identities and mourn the decrepitude of their once vital small towns. (Sixty-two percent of rural voters backed Trump, though some are already souring on him.) And many are Christian evangelicals counting on Trump to appoint anti-abortion Supreme Court justices....

Our duty is not to inflict shame but to do whatever it takes to dismantle racist and patriarchal belief systems. And while lambasting and attacking bigots may feel right and good, it doesn’t work. If you were getting feedback from a co-worker, would you be more receptive if the feedback was served with or without a dash of condescension and annoyance? Trump supporters, racist or not, feel the same way (hurray, you finally agree on something)!