I’ve heard a lot of explanations of why Trump won, but I think the actual reason is that people vote with their gut – not their intellect.
On Nov 9th, I heard a lot of people saying that voters wanted change, and that’s what Trump offered. In fact, I think the exact opposite is true. A lot of voters have had it up to here with change. The majority, (and the last time I checked, that majority was still White) have been seeing the America they feel comfortable with slipping away. They saw Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again,” as a coded message saying intended to stop and/or reverse everything that had been going on lately.
Equal pay for women. Gay marriage. Black Lives Matter. All-inclusive healthcare. A path for immigrants to become citizens. Free reproductive advice and care for women, including a right to choose abortion. All proudly brought to you or proposed by the Obama administration. While many of us see these things as much needed advancement towards a more equitable society, the majority segment of the population (White people) don’t. And they don’t want more of that - they want less. A Hillary Clinton presidency, a continuation of the progressive agenda, is the LAST thing they want.
A woman president is not going to happen on their watch. Women are getting too “uppity,” anyway, they think. Women need to take a step back and let men be men again. We may not like to admit it, but a good share of the white male majority, especially those over 50, still see women as somehow less worthy, physically weaker, too moody, just “not as good” as men. Men have been in charge for 10,000 years and things have been fine, they think. Why change that now? Besides, boys like to be boys. They don’t want anyone telling them they can’t call a woman an ugly name or whistle at one on the street. Men need an outlet for their excess testosterone, and what’s the harm in a little fun?
Gays make them nervous. They are still not convinced that it is genetic. It might be catching, or learned behavior. Homosexuality is just weird. They don’t understand it, and they don’t see any reason why anyone would want to advance the rights of perverts. Because that kind of behavior is perverted, isn’t it?
They have no problem with Blacks. They just don’t want them taking over. They are fine with law abiding, middle-class Blacks, as long as there are just a few of them. Hey, the accountant at work is Black, and they’ve never seen anyone give him any shit. Their foursome has a Black guy on it. They are more than tolerant. But everyone knows that jobless young Blacks rove certain neighborhoods in packs, and they are all armed and dangerous. Fox News tells them that this kind of thing is on the rise and their lives are in danger anytime, anywhere. Best to have a gun for protection, because you never know. And no president should stand in the way of their right to protect themselves.
They think immigrants are fine, too, as long as they obey the law, and don’t try to sneak in. It’s commonly known that Mexicans are really good at lawn care and harvesting crops and stuff, because their country is so much less industrialized, and they all grew up close to the land. They make some damn fine food, too. But just because they can’t make as much money in their own country as they can here, doesn’t give them the right to cross the border without waiting their turn. They should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps the way Americans did. Mexicans have no right to come here and get free education and free healthcare and free other stuff – because Americans sure didn’t. Americans pay their own way.
Of course they have nothing against good Muslims, either. But how can you tell which one is a good Muslim and which one is plotting to blow us all up? Besides, if you get a whole bunch of them coming in, some terrorists are bound to slip through. Muslims are weird too. They keep their women all covered up like they don’t want anyone else to see their woman. It’s just too spooky.
And the issue at the heart of every White Christian man and woman, abortion, is really where they disagree with progressives. They truly feel that in this day and age, with all the birth control around, a woman should only get pregnant if she wants to. Otherwise, she’s a low life slut, and a baby is just what she gets for her lewd behavior. Birth defects? Their belief is that God gives you what you can handle. Besides, there are agencies to take care of things like that. Children are a gift from God, and you can’t convince them otherwise. The government, they feel, has no right to interfere in morality – and it’s immoral to kill a child. Period.
The above are examples of what many in the White majority feel deep, deep down in their heart of hearts. They are horrified at having those beliefs trampled on. They do not want “liberal progressives” telling them they are wrong. Being asked to open their minds and consider changes to their core belief system is a personal attack. And they will do anything to protect their right to believe as they choose. And they don’t want examples of other viewpoints thrown in their face, either – gays walking hand in hand – what’s this world coming to?
I believe the White Majority saw Donald Trump as the one who would not ask them to change. They saw him as the man who would get rid of many of the things they’ve been forced to put up with for the past eight years. They didn’t care if he had his flaws. Heck, no one’s perfect. But he had the balls to speak out openly against anyone who defied him, and he said what he thought. They trust him to give them back the America they want.
The America where you can’t get sued for patting your secretary on the ass; where you can say “Hey, look at the fag!” and others will laugh along with you. They want the America where people in line at the grocery store don’t look different and don’t speak languages you can’t understand. They want the America where dark-skinned people aren’t better educated than they are, or have better jobs than they do. What they don’t want is what the Democratic Party has been offering for the past eight years, and promising for the next four.
That’s what they voted for. And that’s why Hillary lost.
Unless we want to wait until 2030, or whenever Whites will become a minority, we’ve got a lot of work to do – and it involves changing people’s hearts and minds – not just painting the other guy as “unfit,” and asking them to trust us.