The Work We All Have to Do
So many of us hoped for a moral victory and a healthy start towards the redemption of America by way of an election where all of the bad actors of the past 4 to 8 years would be convincingly pushed out of power and left to face embarrassment and whatever consequences they’ve earned for their straight up evil behavior. That didn’t happen and as I’m writing this we still don’t know if we will have a 46th President or will be stuck with 4 more years of 45. The idea that so many people came out to vote for 4 more years of Donald Trump has left many of us wondering “what is wrong with America?” We can’t understand why people would vote for more racism, more ignorance, more defiance to norms, more ineptitude and more abuse of the political system.
The reality is that most of the people who voted for Trump for a second term weren’t voting for more racism, more ignorance, more defiance to norms, more ineptitude or more abuse of the political system. These people really have no idea who Donald Trump is or what he is really about. They only know the persona that Trump tries to sell to anyone who will believe him. They believe that things are going great because Donald Trump has told them that things are going great. They don’t see Donald Trump as racists because he has claimed to be “the least racist person in the room” while lying about what he has done for the black community. In the beginning of his presidency Donald Trump told the most important and effective lie he could’ve ever told which was that if he didn’t say it then the news is fake, nothing but lies, and an attempt to ruin him or make him look bad.
Trump successfully built an alternative world for his supporters to live in. They get to hear his version of reality, the Trump friendly conspiracy theories to fuel their fears, and constant reminders that only he is the cure for every ailment that they didn’t know they had until he told them about it. He convinced them that his enemies are their enemies and that if he fails then they fail.
Donald Trump has capitalized off of his persona of being a successful business man and the result is control over a large population of aggressive supporters who were primed to believe in Trump because they already believed the fallacy that rich people are automatically smart, capable and should be admired. His supporters aren’t ready to accept the truth about who and what Donald Trump is, and how much his term in office has crippled their lives, and since Donald Trump has presented himself as their savior and the only source of truthful information there is no one to break the Trump spell except for maybe Trump himself.
For 4 years I’ve had countless conversations with Trump supporters and there hasn’t been a single person who has been able to provide a factual reason or honest example as to why Trump was a good President or present a Trump accomplishment that actually happened and made America a better place. What they have been consistently able to do is recite the lies that Trump and his administration have told or repeat Trump friendly conspiracy theories. It’s as if they all read from the same script.
There are the racist extremist who support Trump because he is a racist. There are the people who are indifferent to Trump’s racism because their focus is solely reaping the financial benefits of having Trump in office. Then there are the millions of people who have succumb to the spell of Donald Trump. Their cult-like, aggressive and irrational support of him is honestly very scary. They are brain washed into serving a socio-path who would burn them and the world around them down in order to satisfy his wants and desires.
The last 4 years has been filled with disappointment and if you’re hoping that the disappointment is some how going to come to an immediate end if Trump is pushed out of office then I hate to be the one to tell you this but the truth is that regardless of the outcome of this election, the disappointment hits are going to keep on coming. Donald Trump will continue to have a voice that he will use until he can’t use it anymore, and he will keep feeding his supporters with the fuel they need to keep their fire going. Since we can’t vote Trump’s supporters off of the island the best thing that we can do for them and ourselves is to work hard to cancel out Trump’s toxic influence. That means having uncomfortable conversations that will often lead to more frustration, arguments, and potentially the loss of relationships. When these difficult conversations are happening It means knowing when to be patient, when to walk away for a little while, and knowing when it is necessary to walk away and not look back.
We are always better when we can work together. We can’t allow for Donald Trump to take anymore from us than he already has. I know that everyone can’t be rescued from the grip of Donald Trump’s influence but we have to be willing to do what it takes in order to break the Trump spell with as many people as possible, or we risk having the next sociopathic spell-castor come along and pick up where Trump left off.
