What the hell is wrong with Trump voters?

I've been seeing post-election discussions where some say that Democrats need to do a better job of understanding those who voted for Donald Trump, a group that currently stands at 47% of the electorate, about 73,100,000 voters.

OK. That's a laudable goal, so long as Republicans make an comparable effort to better understand those of us who voted for Joe Biden, 51% of the electorate, about 78,700,000 voters.

Since I voted for Biden, I'll help Republicans out by sharing my current state of mind about the election. I'm really happy that Biden won. What concerns me is that more than 73 million people in this country voted for Trump. 

What the hell is wrong with these people? That's what I want to know.

I can't grasp how Trump voters were able to overlook such glaring flaws in their favored candidate such as:

-- Lying incessantly about matters great and small.
-- A virtually complete lack of empathy 
-- Rampant narcissism
-- Strong authoritarian and autocratic tendencies
-- An inability to ever admit mistakes
-- Bungling of the Covid crisis that led to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths
-- Having an affair with a porn star while his wife was pregnant
-- Seeking to have a foreign power interfere in his re-election bid
-- Denying that Russia helped him win in 2016
-- Coddling dictators and criticizing American allies
-- Separating children from their parents at the border
-- Failing to control North Korea's and Iran's nuclear programs
-- Firing Inspectors General who provide government oversight
-- Refusal to admit he lost the 2020 election
-- False claims about fraud in our voting systems
-- Enriching himself and his businesses through his office

If a Democratic president had done these things, I can guarantee that their support would markedly diminish among members of their party. But Trump remains popular among Republicans.

So are Trump supporters as immoral as the soon-to-be ex-president they adore? Are they as prone to lying? Are they as accepting of governmental incompetence? Are they as disdainful of democracy and as OK with authoritarianism?

I don't want to believe that they are. Yet the evidence argues otherwise. It seems that 47% of voters are willing to trash American values in exchange for... what? Some Supreme Court seats. Tax cuts for corporations. Removal of environmental regulations. A few other things.

It sure seems like those who voted for Trump have given up caring about what makes our country great. Free and fair elections. Honesty. Transparency. Abiding by small "d" democratic norms. Facing problems squarely. Expanding equality. Leading the free world. Respecting science. 

In short, everything that Trump is incapable of. Trump hasn't made America great. He has deeply weakened our country. Fortunately, Biden's victory means that Trumpism has suffered what hopefully is a permanent setback, if not extinction. 

But it's really worrisome that 47% of the electorate was fine with re-electing a man who pretty clearly was the worst president in our nation's history and would have taken our country into a horrible dictatorial direction if Trump had been given another four years in office.

Those of us who voted for Biden saved our democracy. We have nothing to apologize for, or to answer for. It's up to Trump voters to do some introspecting and figure out why they were so willing to sacrifice American values at the feet of a wanna-be strongman. 

Here's a letter to the editor from a Virginia man that echoes my perspective.

What is wrong with Trump supporters?

Sometimes the brain fails to register what the eyes plainly see. I would put this question to the slightly less than half the voting population of this country that voted for Donald Trump:

 

This man has shown himself to be the most dishonest, self-serving and dangerous person ever to have inhabited the presidency. He has put our entire population at risk and caused many thousands of deaths by his incomprehensible refusal to accept the advice of the most prominent medical scientists in our country.

 

He has turned the White House into a super-spreader house of pestilence as even he and his supporters have become infected. He gracelessly refuses to accept the fact that he has lost the election. He has made our country the laughingstock of the rest of the world.

 

What is there about this disreputable grifter that appeals to so many good and honest Americans? I would ask them, would you want your child to grow up to be like this man? If the answer is yes, then I would suggest that you take a good look at yourself in the mirror.

 

Ronald Apter

Spotsylvania

Comments

[Jim Scheppke]

Great post Brian! So true. I posted it as a comment on the Marion County Republicans Facebook page. We'll see how long it stays up. :-)

[E.M.]

Great questions, Brian. I would love someone who does not agree with your point of view to answer a couple of your questions or at least explain why your queries are misdirected.

Check out the following as a potential explanation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_fusion