Did you vote for Trump? We need your help.
Update: since I posted this piece and it's started to blow up, I've started to hear from folks with some great perspectives.
If you voted for Trump: Read this top part. If you didn't vote for Trump and you're freaking out: Scroll to the bottom and read that part. If you're just generally curious about learning new perspectives and about other people: You're awesome. Read the whole thing!
Hey there, Trump Voter.
In the crazy and super intense last week that America has seen, it sure seems like the sky is falling to a lot of folks, on the left and the right, for totally different reasons.
As you might or might not have seen, there are a lot of folks writing pieces about the people who voted for Trump.
Mostly, they're saying that Trump voters aren't card-carrying fascists who want to go back to the days of slavery and kick off World War 3.
That in fact, Trump Voters are pretty normal people with families and kids and jobs who had a tough choice, swallowed hard, and voted Trump.
If that sounds like you, I need to ask you a favor - and not an easy one.
I need you to stand up, and say that.
To tell your fellow citizens that the racist, hateful stuff that we all heard Trump say isn't OK by you either.
To say that in your America, fairness and justice and all-men-are-created-equal are non-negotiable parts of this country, and that you're not going to let us turn into Nazi Germany either.
I know. That should be obvious.
But for a big number of your fellow Americans, it isn't right now.
These are mostly folks who didn't like either of our choices either. But the hateful stuff Trump said was too much for them, so they swallowed hard, just like you did, and voted Clinton.
When those folks look up, they're seeing the worst-case-scenario right now. They're terrified that, even with people writing and talking about this in the bigger perspective I like me and some of my fellow writers are, that they have in fact woken up in 1932 Germany, and things are about to get really, really scary.
Meanwhile, everyone's living in their Facebook echo chambers, and light and sanity are getting pretty hard to find.
Which is why we need you.
Nobody in this whole country is freaking out about the TPP or Trump's America-First economic plan. We're worried for the Republic, and we're worried for our kids, and our friends' kids. Some of them have brown skin, and some of them are girls and we're all really scared that we're going to be living in an era of World-War II style internment camps in a few short months.
Is it rational? No.
It is scary as all hell? Yes.
And thus my favor.
We need you to stand up and say that yes, you voted for Trump, and no, you're not letting any of that shit happen in your country either.
I'm not going to lie. I know it's not a small ask.
When you do it, you're probably going to get some intense reactions.
Your fellow countrymen and women with dark skin or a different orientation are hearing some terrible things right now too. It's a really intense time.
But it will be worth it. Because just behind the few intense reactions, there's going to be a lot of gratitude.
It might be hard to imagine, but just hearing from folks on your side that you believe in some super basic, taken-for-granted stuff like the constitution and bill of rights, and that you're against us becoming Nazi Germany would make a huge difference.
Maybe that's hard for you to imagine, but I ask you to trust me. It will really, truly help a lot of your fellow Americans sleep better at night.
So please, however you do it, whether you write or make a Facebook post or put up flyers, tell us that you're out there, that you believe in a fair and equal and just America, that you voted for Trump, and that you're committed to making sure this country stays ok.
Thank you.
And one other thing. If there's one thing we've all learned in this election, it's that there are some bad eggs in America. We need your help in calling them out.
Whether we like it or not, there are racists and bigots of all stripes, here in our country. They've always been here, and despite all our efforts and shunning glances, they haven't gone away.
And with the results of this election, what those folks think they just heard is that their views are now OK, and they're suddenly talking a lot louder.
In some ways, this is good, because they're out in the open where we can spot them, and take them on. But for a lot of folks, it's just made their personal lives into nightmares - and we're already seeing tragic things like suicides on the rise.
We need to stand up for the people that can't. To call out those bad eggs and their hateful bullshit and tell them what our country is really about, every time we see them.
To stand side-by-side, with our fellow decent, good-people Americans, and fight for what's right.
We don't agree on everything in this country.
But we are all in this together.
Thank you for reminding us.
-Steven
p.s. If you post something, or see a post that fits the bill, please email me at [email protected], and I'll add a link to it to this piece.
Some I Voted Trump Pieces and Comments:
"I'm a grad student at Berkeley and the echo cavern is huge, and people are FREAKING OUT. My parents live in Houston and while they're Gary fans, I'm sure some of their totally rational friends voted differently. My brother's health insurance went up 4x in the last 18 months.
My Grandmother and hero (she put my grandfather through college, raised 4 wonderful humans, and started an environmental remediation company at age 50) definitely voted for Trump. She's not a racist, chauvinist or white supremacist - but she watches FOX 24/7 and is acting on totally different information than I am. The last chain-email she sent me was eye-opening. These days she's so old that arguing with her is actually scary, like she stops breathing and we're afraid her pacemaker will fail so I don't. I just tell her that I love her.
My Grandmother is also the reason I was Catholic for a while. I think Mother Teresa said, "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." It's one of my favorite thoughts.
It makes me sad when my friends (or the guy at the Trader Joes, or my boss) go on about how Trump voters are terrible people. People come from so many different places! We all have such different experiences in life, and I have no idea looking at someone what they've gone through or been exposed to. So I don't blame them, like I don't blame Trump voters. But it still makes me sad."
I am a republican voter. I am a white, female, middle-class homemaker. I am an Army spouse, a Christian, a mother. And I voted for Donald Trump.
What I am NOT, is a bigot, a racist, a gay-hating bible thumping redneck, who can't think for myself. So why on earth would a sane person, a mother of 3 girls, vote for somebody as offensive and ignorant as Trump?
I could list 100 reasons why I couldn't vote Hilary. But that's not the subject here. It wasn't because she's a democrat or a woman, those are never disqualifiers for me. I would have voted Bernie over Trump, honestly.
My husband said something during a discussion about the election that really struck me. He said "sometimes you don't vote the person, you vote the party". Did I have faith in Donald Trump to turn this country around? Not really. But did I have faith in the larger party, and did I think that having a majority Republican ran government would be a good thing? Yes I did. It's like that line from a 90's movie where some wives are talking about how their husband thinks he's the "head of the family". The wife wisely says "the man may be the head. But the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head any way she wants." I am hoping that while Trump is the mouthpiece, a good "neck" of house and senate leaders can steer him in the right direction.
And I hear you democrat friends!! I understand your fears about sending your minority children to school, fearing the bullying and hate. I fear that too. It's not okay, and I will stand up with you against those who think otherwise. But please know that people who are racist after the election were racist BEFORE the election. It may be more on the surface right now, but those people were always there.
Today I am not different, I still stand by what's right. I support cops, military, family, freedom of religion, immigrants making a fresh start, and a better future for my kids. We are not so different, Hillary voters. Let's work together and not be divided by this election.