Over at Teen Vogue there is an article titled I'm a Woman Who Voted for Donald Trump, that contains what has to be the most frustrating, rage-inducing, yet informative quote I have seen regarding the election. It is from a 28-year old Republican named Rebecca Plaine who did not like Trump, not one bit, but voted for him very, very begrudgingly (as she tells it). OK, so she’s a Republican, but then there is this quote:
“I’m very socially liberal, but to me, those issues don’t matter until all the other bigger issues are solved,” Rebecca says. “It’s almost a hierarchy. If I have to pick the issue that’s most important, it’s the one that threatens me the most. I think that a lot of Republican women my age are socially liberal, but those aren’t the issues they vote on.”
Now if I was to run this through my interpreter it would be: “I am not socially liberal, at all.” That’s it. You cannot claim to be socially liberally, act as if you care about the disenfranchised, the LGBTQ, women, people of color, Latinos, Muslims, immigrants, the physically challenged, the poor if you think that those issues are secondary to your vague ideas of comfort and well-being from a a place of privilege. Believe me, I know, I am the definition of privilege, white, male, straight financially secure. But I vote Democratic because I know others are being denied the basic rights to live their lives that I take for granted and voting for Donald Trump is a straight repudiation of that.
I’m sorry Rebecca you are not socially liberal until you accept that to be so means you will not place your issues of convenience above the lives of those who are facing true struggles.