Be careful which voters you hate (because you could end up being a self-loather)
Nov 6, 2024, 2:20 PM
In the days, weeks and months leading up to Election Day, many candidates claimed they would be unifiers: They talked about being a senator for “all Arizonans” or a president “for all Americans.”
But is it possible — now that Donald Trump will retake the White House — that the people who opposed him will work to unite with the most important Americans in their lives: neighbors, friends and family who voted for … ♫♪♪ dun-dun-duh ♫♪♪ … HIM?!?!
Based on what I saw after the 2016 election, unity is going to be a tough thing to achieve over the next four years.
Back when Trump won his first stint in the White House, tons of people I was Facebook friends with (some of whom were actual friends) insulted everybody and anybody who dared cast a vote for… ♫♪♪ dun-dun-duh ♫♪♪ … HIM!! and that included insulting people like my dad.
Now, in all fairness, Trump’s sycophants didn’t foster much unity after the 2020 election with their claims of “rigged” elections and other lunacy — although one could make the argument that storming the Capitol, calling for Vice President Mike Pence’s neck in a noose, did a lot to unify nut jobs.
There is a way Democrats, Independents and even Republicans who opposed Trump’s return to Washington can get along with their friends who voted for … ♫♪♪ dun-dun-duh ♫♪♪ … HIM!!
Start by remembering this: Many of those Trump voters voted for him with their fingers firmly holding their nose — because they couldn’t afford a clothes pin to hold their nose closed.
They voted for Trump because they are paying more for everything.
Whether or not Trump can fix our higher price problem remains to be seen — but that’s why many people voted for … ♫♪♪ dun-dun-duh ♫♪♪ … HIM!! (And, yes, the fiscal conservative angel on my shoulder just whispered to me, “Trump grew the national debt by nearly $7.8 trillion — faster than Biden or Obama!”)
Many others voted for Trump in protest of the Biden/Harris administration’s obscene lack of concern for border security. Effects that have been felt across the country — not just in Arizona.
But this might be the easiest path of logic to arrive at the conclusion that you don’t need to shun your neighbors/family members/co-workers who voted for Trump: Pollsters and political analysts galore have identified several thousand Trump-Gallego-YesOnProp139-YesOnProp314 voters in Arizona.
Many of your fellow Arizonans voted for a Republican(ish) president; voted for a Democrat for the U.S. Senate; voted to put abortion access in the Arizona Constitution; AND voted to create a state law that forbids crossing the border illegally. And that means you can’t call them complete idiots because they likely voted for some of the same things you did.
Most importantly, let’s try to remind ourselves that no matter who you voted for — or who you wanted to win — we all won when yesterday’s vote came off free of violence. That’s not been the case in some places I’ve been — like Iraq. Or in other places — where voting doesn’t even take place, because they’re Middle Eastern kingdoms.
If you take a little time to meditate on how loveable (and sturdy) our constitutional republic is, it’s much easier to arrive at a place where you can hate how some voters vote — and still love the voter.
