If you were to ask a liberal who the average trump supporter is they may say Milo Yiannopoulus, or Tomi Lahren, or described what CNN shows at his rallies. Liberals might claim it's people who hate Muslims, love walls, or chant “lock her up” when Hilary’s name is mentioned but, I don’t believe that’s the average Trump supporter. As a liberal I know I'm supposed to demonize Trump supporters but, I refuse to do that. I believe the “real” average Trump supporter is someone in Middle America or rural Pennsylvania that doesn’t feel the system has worked for them and in some ways they’re right.
They’ve seen a middle-class shrink, health insurance prices go up, and jobs disappear; they did nothing wrong by voting for Trump.
Voting for Trump wasn't wrong
Trump went where Hilary wouldn’t go. A man from Manhattan went to the hills of West Virginia and rural Pennsylvania; the people there finally felt like someone was listening to them. He flew into these small towns and the middle-of-nowhere on his private plane and promised blue collar workers he could change the system all by himself. He said he could bring those health care prices down, revive the middle class, and create jobs. Rural America’s shouts weren’t falling on deaf ears anymore, they were gaining a mouthpiece to shout their concerns even louder.
Before you go calling these people low educated, racist, xenophobes, Nazis, or some other type of name to make them seem less than you, understand that they aren’t. Just because they have a different level of education doesn’t make them dumb, and just because they have a different opinion on some political issues doesn’t make them wrong.
They’re just as American as any Bernie supporter or Hilary supporter and they deserve to be heard just as much. They didn’t vote for Trump because of his hate filled speeches or because he bragged about sexual assault, they voted for him in spite of those things. It didn’t matter that he was a billionaire from New York City.
What mattered is he listened. Trump supports aren’t a basket of deplorables and they should never be called that. That’s the type of language that divides us. Most Trump voters are hard working Americans, that want to be included in the country they love.
The future
Sadly Trump probably won’t help the people who voted for him, in fact in his first hundred days he’s already hurting them and helping himself with his tax plan. When these people really start to hurt, liberals and democrats shouldn’t point the finger and say “I told you so.” We should be there to pick these people up and bring them into the party. Democrats shouldn’t bring these people in solely for the votes or as political pawns to help win elections.
They should bring them in because they’re Americans. They deserve to be part of a country that works for everyone, including the middle of America, coal country, and those places that have been left behind.
Democrats can’t talk down to Middle America or not talk to them at all - rather, they must show that the liberal agenda is the one that can work for all Americans. Don’t just tell West Virginia coal is bad or that there are more jobs in clean energy. Bing those jobs to them. Show those people that are suffering on Obamacare that a “free” market isn’t the system that can help, show them universal health care is the cost effective system. Most importantly stop skipping over them in elections.
Democrats won’t even go to some places or spend money in places they think they can't win in or see as a waste of time. But is talking to another American and really trying to understand their needs a waste of time? I don’t believe it is; what is a waste of time, is holding rallies and giving speeches in the same states over and over again without hearing anyone else. Stop fighting for swing states and start fighting for America.
Now isn’t the time for democrats to try to shout down the other side or stomp down the Americans that don’t see eye to eye with them. Now is the time to have real discussion: discussions that can unite us instead of dividing us. I don’t believe that the future rest on the shoulders of Donald Trump, I believe it hinges on open and honest discussion. American shouldn’t be defined by its division, it should be united as the country that works for all people.
