I have friends and even family who are in despair after this
election – sure that Donald Trump will ruin the country. On the one hand the despair
it is understandable – Trump certainly has some unpleasant and undesirable
traits. On the other hand, the despair is also a form of unwarranted intellectual
arrogance. Almost exactly half the
voters thought that Donald Trump, despite his flaws, was a better choice than
Hillary Clinton and her flaws.
Are we really willing to say out loud that we think half of
our American friends and neighbors are deluded, sexist, racist, politically
incorrect, Islamophobic, “deplorables”, who were dumb enough to be taken in by
Trump’s promises? Because, at root, that
is what we would be saying if we dismiss the fact that they all voted for
Trump. Oh, we wouldn’t admit to ourselves that we thought that way – it would
be politically incorrect – but that is in effect exactly what we would be thinking.
If we are a well-off, well-educated urban liberal with a
nice safe white-collar job and a comfortable office, we certainly might have
preferred Hillary. But put yourselves in
the shoes of a 50-year old worker in a Rust Belt mill or factory or a West
Virginia coal mine, with a wife, three kids and a mortgage, who faces losing
his job and having his town (and his equity in his house) disappear when the factory
or mill moves overseas or automates or the mine closes, and the picture looks a
lot different. Hillary is all about helping African-Americans, Hispanics, the
inner city poor, (and her wealthy corporate sponsors) etc, etc. But what is she offering to do for this desperate
50 year old, who sees his lifetime of building his skills become irrelevant,
and his savings and home disappear – with no effective help at all from Hillary’s
“trade agreements” government? I didn’t
vote for Trump, but I certainly understand why this 50 year old would have! And
I respect that.
American democracy is about the free and open competition of
ideas. We each of us certainly have our preferred views on these ideas, but
none of us has the Godlike wisdom to know which of these ideas is really best, or
which will be best suited to the unknown problems that will arise in the
future, so when our particular views happen to lose for the moment it is
childish petulance to despair. A adult response would be to wonder why others preferred
another view, and to think with an open mind about why they preferred that
view. We might learn something. We might grow in understanding. We might even
(gasp) begin to see their point of view.
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