08-20-2017, 03:42 PM
(08-19-2017, 09:21 AM)hollodero Wrote: Then again, I still can't grasp that your country voted for that guy. I am biased.
It's actually not that hard to understand, which is exactly why I predicted it would happen. I had a long discussion with a friend at work about this after the news that Bannon had been shitcanned. Let me start off by saying I will be speaking in generalizations with the understanding from me, and hopefully everyone reading, that we are all aware of this and can process the argument as adults. there are several factors that, combined, explain Trump's election.
The past fifteen years have brought profound social change. Same sex marriage is legal, homosexuals can openly served in the military, etc. These steps were both logical and predictable, people saw them coming and, like them or not, were able to prepare themselves for the eventuality. Very recently there has been a huge push to acknowledge transgender people in the same way. People who might have been troubled by homosexual gains in the civil rights area are going to be more affected by this as it wasn't a long time coming, it happened very quickly. Still, I think if it had "stopped" there we wouldn't have seen a huge backlash. Then the idea of there being no gender gained steam. People were "non-binary", children were marked as "x" for gender on their birth certificate, children were given life altering treatments to make them a different gender. Coupled with this was an undertone of condescension, from a minority to be sure but it did exist, against "cis" genders, especially "cis" straight men. This was all a bridge too far for many who, in some ways justifiably, thought to themselves where this this end? How far are we going to go down this path? This pushed people directly towards the candidate who promised to take us back to a time when none of this was a consideration.
The racial make up of the United States is changing. Whites will no longer be the majority in the not so distant future. This, in itself, would not cause undue concern for most. However, there was again an undertone of condescension, and sometimes outright hostility, towards white people and "white society". Again, this was mainly directed at white men. You see it being expressed right now in the desire to destroy monuments to the founding fathers. It has been expressed in college campuses like Missouri and Evergreen state (google Evergreen state no white people day if you are unfamiliar with this). This kind of behavior and speech has led many to believe that the very fabric of the country they grew up in, and feel strongly about, is under attack by people who want to utterly destroy it. While the fear is overblown it does have some rationale. The groups that propagate this fear are small, but they are not insignificantly small. They are certainly larger than the nazis that have so recently dominated the news. Couple this with the fact that any criticism of this kind of extremism is branded as racist or an attempt to maintain the white male patriarchy. This also drove people to the candidate who had no time for any of the above and openly mocked it, again promising to return us to a time in which this kind of thing did not occur. I absolutely maintain that Obama being elected did not cause this concern at all, it is coincidental and easy for some to point to as a causal factor.
Lastly, you have the economic factor. This is easiest to explain. Clinton wanted more of the same and Trump professed an end to outsourcing, making American jobs for American citizens his priority. Whether he did it, was going to do it, or ever will the very fact that he professed it made him infinitely more preferable than Clinton to many.
Human nature being what it is Trump's election was not a surprise to me. The instant calls for his impeachment and mudslinging from the left (which I realize they are not alone in) merely reinforced everything above, justifying the decision they made as the right one. This is why I think removing Trump from office, without 100% ironclad proof, will cause irreparable damage to the United States, damage from which we may not recover. I hope this made some sense and clarified why so many made a choice you find inexplicable.
