Why Never-Trumpers Can’t Abide Trump’s Supporters
When you vote for someone like Donald J. Trump, you endorse the whole package. Here’s what that means and why it matters.
It’s beginning to look a lot like, “Smell ya later, Donald.”
You might not consider yourself a racist, or a misogynist. It might never remotely occur to you to be buddies with someone like Jeffrey Epstein. You might find it disgusting to consider the idea of siccing riot-gear-wearing military-looking police on peaceful protesters.
But when you throw your support behind someone like Trump, you signal that these things are not deal-breakers for you. And that’s important.
Your non-white friends, your non-Christian friends, your queer friends and your women friends, they see you. And a lot of them don’t know if they can trust you. You’ve never said the N-word or any kind of similar hateful epithet. You’d never dream of assaulting someone or bragging about “grabbing [someone] by the pussy.”
But the company you keep says a lot about your character. Think about it like this: if you had a buddy expressing positive beliefs about white supremacists, wouldn’t that make you uncomfortable? It ought to. Hopefully, if it was safe to do so, you’d say something. You’d want to let them know you weren’t on board with supportive statements about racists. If they kept up with it, you’d be justified in walking away from them.
Think about it. Do you want to be associated with that kind of nonsense? I wouldn’t. When I’m out with somebody, when I’m being seen by other people in the company of a particular human being, I don’t want to be embarrassed to be seen with them.
And it isn’t about physical appearance. Agent Orange Spray-Tan looks ridiculous, but if I live to 70-plus, I probably will, too. I’m also not judging the man on his weight, because I feel like that’s a cheap shot. When someone insults your looks but can’t offer a substantive challenge to your character, that says a lot more about them than it does you.
So, I really need people to stop acting so surprised when their support of hateful nonsense — and the public figures who spout it — leads to being excommunicated by people in their lives who no longer feel safe around them.
And don’t act like it’s so hard to avoid this kind of pitfall. I’ve been anti-bigoted-nonsense since I was able to apply any kind of critical thinking skills or metacognition-related techniques in early childhood. I think you can handle it.
