The Loss of Hope In A Divided America

I gained a bit of insight yesterday that has left me questioning the country I love, and my place in it.

Up to now, my working theory about trump supporters has been twofold. Either they are ignorant racists like him, or they are willfully ignorant/apathetic to his affronts on our Democracy and fellow Americans. Their party is in power, and that’s all that matters. And none of the ugliness matters because it doesn’t affect them personally.

Admittedly, it was a simple assessment, gleaned from a fairly broad exposure to the republican POV I’ve seen and read about in various (and reputable) media outlets. But without any deeper level of input from republicans in my orbit, it lacked nuance.

However, one could say that nuance is not a factor these days with many republicans. Five minutes of Fox News will confirm that these aren’t like the republicans of the past who support ‘Trickle-Down’ economics or small government.

These are people who support a man who believed the best deterrent to immigration along the Mexican border was to separate the families, put them in detention centers, put the separated children in cages and then make them available for adoption.

These are people who support a politician who asked for and received help from a foreign government so that he could win an election, then withheld foreign aid from an ally in exchange for help to win the next election.

If anyone can support a man who does these things, and a host of others too long to mention, there’s only one conclusion to be made. There must be something wrong with them. They must be as broken and reprehensible as the man they support. Case closed, right?

Well… no. There’s a third option I hadn’t previously known or considered.

What if these people, many who I’d consider to be decent, support this man because his repugnant behavior and horrific policies aren’t the issues that matter to them? What if his indecency and destruction policies don’t register as such because they aren’t the important “kitchen table issues” they consider to be crucial for themselves and their families?

If that’s the measure for their support, then no amount of name-calling or demonizing will make a difference. It won’t change their support for him if they ultimately feel that – whether I agree or disagree – his policies will make their lives better.

So now I must sit with the knowledge that their candidate’s literal threats to my existence aren’t as important as their kitchen table issues. I can’t necessarily fault them for it, but it feels like a betrayal of our social contract to help one another and “promote the general welfare”. It’s a tough place to be, and one that feels very scary.

The Affordable Care Act is literally on the SCOTUS chopping block. Our paramilitary-equipped police forces, rife with white supremacists, are at the ready to murder more Blacks with impunity. And ‘religious freedom’ is poised to erode my civil rights as a member of the LGBTQ community.

There’s not much I can do except keep hope alive that there are more decent people who consider my life worthwhile than those who don’t, and that they will vote accordingly. Unfortunately, I’m reminded of something I wrote in an earlier piece about the 2016 election, The Silent Cowardice Of The Trump Voter:

This election will go down in history as a real-life version of ‘The Space Traders’. In this short story by Derrick Bell, aliens (in the form of Ronald Reagan) come to the US with a promise to relieve all of its’ woes in exchange for the country’s entire African-American population. Ultimately, the white majority votes to give the African-Americans to the aliens. They’re gathered up, and loaded onto the alien ships. The end.

I have no doubt how this would play out in 2020 America. I’d be gone. Come to think of it, maybe I should change the title from ‘The Loss of Hope in America’ to ‘My Loss of Hope in America’…