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How did this occur? That is the query each Democrat ought to be asking as we speak, following former President Donald Trump’s resounding defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris.
And to reply it, I’ve obtained a modest suggestion.
Do not examine the exit polls. Do not blame Harris, or President Biden, or the information media, or the Russian bots. And do not learn morning-after ruminations by demoralized liberals (besides possibly mine).
As a substitute, discuss to individuals who voted for Trump.
We’ve not performed practically sufficient of that. As a substitute, we have now too usually assumed that Trump voters are racist, sexist, transphobic or simply silly. I imply, what else may deliver somebody to vote for him?
That is what we have to discover out. But when our opening gambit is that they are morally or cognitively warped, we by no means will.
When Trump received the primary time, in 2016, I organized a dialog between college students on the College of Pennsylvania — the place I educate — and at Cairn College. Previously often known as Philadelphia Bible School, Cairn was largely Republican; Penn was closely Democratic.
We organized the room like a marriage, with round tables on the ground and a raised platform up entrance. We gave everybody desk numbers, which we staggered so that every desk had a mixture of Penn and Cairn college students.
Up on the platform, we seated a number of college students from every faculty. We started the occasion by asking them to clarify whom they’d voted for, and why.
That modeled the type of query we wished everybody to ask. If you happen to start with, “How may you presumably vote for that fool?” you are unlikely to get very far. However when you say, “I am curious to know the way you voted,” individuals will open up.
They usually did. As soon as the scholars on the tables had seen the dialogue on the platform, they had been wanting to stage their very own. They talked simply and albeit, for 2 straight hours.
A number of Penn college students informed me afterward that they’d by no means held a dialog with a Trump voter earlier than that night. They usually had been stunned that individuals who voted for Donald Trump had been so…regular.
“I did not agree with their politics, however they had been super-nice,” one Penn pupil remarked. “We talked concerning the election, after which we talked concerning the Eagles.” (That is the true faith round right here: professional soccer.)
Additionally they discovered that lots of the Cairn college students loathed Trump’s crude speech and conduct, particularly his infamous boast on “Entry Hollywood” about assaulting ladies. That was earlier than he was discovered responsible for sexually abusing a lady within the dressing room of a New York division retailer. And it was earlier than he was convicted of paying an grownup movie actress to maintain her quiet about their sexual liaison.
However the Cairn college students had been going to vote for him anyway, due to his said opposition to abortion (many of the college students had been pro-life) and since he had promised to decrease taxes.
These are precisely the sorts of discussions that we want, proper now. Trump voters are our neighbors and our co-workers. They’re the barista at your native espresso store, the mail provider in your block and the man sitting subsequent to you on the bus.
Most of all, they’re your fellow Individuals. You have to perceive them, even when — no, particularly if — you might be baffled or offended by their politics.
Like many Democrats, I wrestle to understand how anybody may assist a man who has mentioned so many terrible issues about ladies, immigrants and navy veterans. However on Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of those self same individuals voted for Trump. We’ll by no means know why until we ask them.
Meaning getting out of our political bubbles, wherever they’re. And mine is the college.
Since 2020, many schools — together with my very own — have made good-faith efforts to advertise “dialogue throughout distinction.” However on my campus, nearly everyone seems to be on the Democratic facet. You possibly can’t have a lot of a dialogue throughout distinction when so many people assume the identical manner.
I do know that a few of my fellow liberals will bridle on the thought of speaking to Trump voters. Why ought to I converse with somebody who hates me?
As a result of you do not know that, and the query assumes that you simply do. Come to think about it, that thought is fairly hateful in its personal proper.
And for individuals who are afraid that conversing with Trump supporters will “normalize” him, recover from it. He is the brand new regular. Interval.
I do not like that, any greater than you do. However we have to make sense of it. If you happen to assume you are able to do that by retreating into your echo chamber, assume once more.
The one approach to find out about what occurred on Tuesday is to speak to individuals on the opposite facet. And the one query is whether or not we will discover the grace — and the braveness — to do it.
Jonathan Zimmerman teaches historical past and training on the College of Pennsylvania. He’s the writer of “Whose America? Tradition Wars within the Public Faculties” and eight different books.
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