Interviews With Trump Supporters
Looking Forward to Next Week
This addendum posted on Friday, Jan 29th, 2021.
I plan to write up specific questions one might ask Trump supporters to get them rethinking their positions. These questions will be little nuggets to drop into into larger conversations. The rethinking will not happen while the questioner is waiting for an appropriate answer. But if you can manage that you will be doing your bit toward shrinking Trump’s base.
If you have suggestions for non-threatening, hard-to-answer questions please make them as a comment to this post. If you want to be sure to see next week’s post then consider subsribing (at least for one week) at the end of this post.
This Week’s Post
The following two interviews never happened. They are figments of my imagination as I try to explain why we cannot dismiss Trump voters as being stupid or immoral.
I did my homework before writing this. I looked at statistics from the census bureau and the Pew Research organization. I read interviews with Trump supporters and opinions by psychiatrists and psychologists.
I know that 60% of those who voted for Trump in this past election have incomes of less than $30,000 and that the more education one has, the less likely one is to have voted for Trump.
Two characteristics which Trump voters tend to have are, in my words:
A desire for clear answers and a discomfort with ambiguity.
Attraction to a leader who projects certainty and competence with simple explanations.
A narcissist like Trump can be such a leader. Some psychologists say that Trump’s followers exhibit “collective narcissism” which means that they consider their own issues to be more important than anyone else’s. Trump’s followers are hardly unique in that way.
This is pretty much my point: Trump's supporters are people like you and me. They love their families, are kind to stray puppies, and seldom tell lies. We do them a disservice when we project our feelings about Trump onto them.
These interviews take place after the Capital riots of Jan 6th, 2021 and before Biden took over the presidency. Both interviewees are two time voters for Trump.
First Interview
The first interviewee is a 38 year old tech professional.
When did you start supporting President Trump?
When the scandal of Hillary’s emails broke. The fact that an FBI official broke the news just before the election meant that it was serious. That got me to look past Trump’s bluster to check out his policies.
What policies did you find?
Having a businessman at the helm will produce a more efficient government and enable further tax cuts. The policies that interested most interested me were:
An end to economic stagnation caused by globalization and over regulation.
Putting a stop to China’s stealing of our technical know-how.
You haven’t mentioned the abortion issue.
I can see both sides of that issue.
Did the assertion that the Mexicans would pay for a wall between their country and ours bother you?
No, that was just political talk.
Did Trump seem presidential to you?
No, but neither did Barak Obama. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not prejudiced. Obama is intelligent and polite. He doesn't go around grabbing women by the you-know-what. If he had come to this country as a foreign dignitary on a state visit, we would have loved him. He just doesn't look right in a gallery of previous presidents.
Trump almost looks the part but he doesn't act it. But what should we care? Obama supporters didn’t care that Obama doesn't look the part. I don't care that Trump doesn't act it.
It is what a president does for the country that counts.
Has Trump gotten the job done?
He has made a good start. (Points made on the fingers of one hand.)
He is bringing industry home with tarifs.
It’s true the border wall didn’t work but he accomplished its goal by making the US an uncomfortable place to sneak into.
He has appointed lots of conservative judges who will help untangle our mess of business regulations.
He is making it difficult for China to steal our technical know-how.
Until the pandemic struck, the economy was much better.
You have given this some thought. Explain the economy.
I looked things up at www.census.gov. Of course we must ignore what happened in 2017 when Obama's influence was still very strong. We must also ignore 2020 because the Covid-19 virus unexpectedly messed things up.
Looking at 2018 and 2019, the median income for working age people between 18 and 64 rose 6.7% in real terms. The stock market rose over 14%. This is real growth and Trump is responsible for it.
How have the events since the November election affected your opinion of Trump?
Early on I had some friends who were disturbed by similarities between Trump's campaign style and Hitler's. I didn't listen then. I do now. We don't need to re-elect Trump but I would sure like to elect someone with his policies.
Second Interview
The second interviewee is a 25 year old who has taken a few college courses, has an income of less than $30,000, and is still living with both parents.
When did you start supporting President Trump?
As soon as I heard that he would make American great again and drain the swamp. I went out and bought a MAGA hat. We need a strong leader who can accomplish those things.
What particular policies attracted you?
As a successful businessman Trump understands how the economy works and knows how to make America great again.
Trump understands that globilization has to stop because it takes jobs away from people like me.
My family are evangelical Christians. Trump supports judges who would outlaw abortion. That is a big issue for us.
Also we fear another terrorist attack like 9/11. Trump will close the borders to terrorists.
By “terrorists” do you mean Moslems?
No. I’m not prejudiced, but it is better if Moslems and Mexicans stay in their own countries.
Did you consider that a businessman with several bankruptcies behind him might not be able to make America great again?
Those bankruptcies show that Trump knows how to make the laws work for him.
Does Trump seem presidential to you?
Yeh, people pay lots of money to stay in his properties. He was flying around in his own large jet before he became president. Also he knows how to get media attention.
Compare that with Obama who was a nothing before he was elected and never got the kind of media attention that Trump does.
Many people think the Obamas were the perfect first family.
Yeh, they would make a perfect royal family for an African country.
Has Trump accomplished what you expected him to?
He’s working on it. He’s closed the borders to terrorists, cut taxes, cut back on regulations, and appointed conservative judges.
Has Trump made things better for you personally?
Like I said, he’s working on it. If the Dems manage to steal the election, the progress will stop.
Are you sure that’s what is happening? That the voting has been fraudulent?
Sure. Look at all the mail in ballots from dead people and people’s pets.
Isn’t it strange that when I went to bed Trump was ahead but when I got up he wasn’t anymore?
Isn’t that the way vote counting works? Sometimes one candidate is ahead and sometimes the other.
Yeh, but when you put all this stuff together it adds up to fraud.
One last question about the election. Why didn’t the Supreme Court step in to set things right?
I dunno. Maybe they were afraid of starting a civil war. Or maybe they just didn’t have enough time to look into it.
Do you think Trump will run again for president?
Probably. I know the Dems are trying to impeach him again but that isn’t going to happen. So, yeh, he may get a second chance.
Discussion
One reason I wrote this little essay in interview format is to show how we can talk to Trump supporters. We can do it rather like an interviewer would:
By listening.
By asking questions that encourage thought.
By not contesting answers.
We cannot expect to turn a firmly held belief around with one conversation and especially not if that conversation devolves into an argument. We ask questions that require thought in the hope that there will be thought during and especially after the conversation. We avoid knee jerk reactions by not contesting answers.
The second interviewer came close to contesting the answers to questions about election fraud. It would be a shame if that interview had ended with the interviewee remembering the resistance that those election fraud questions generated. That is why the last softball question was asked—so the interviewee would not not leave with a closed mind about earlier questions.
I wove racial prejudice into both interviews to show how pervasive and unrecognized it can be. As with many biases we can examine our conscious minds and not see prejudice. This is because biases are unconscious. Other people can see them in our behavior. We don’t have that perspective about ourselves.
It takes practice to examine our own conversation and overt behavior to recognize our personal biases. These interviews were not a good place to initiate that kind of examination.
It is difficult for those of us who are living comfortable lives in a multicultural world to understand the power of the phrase “Make America Great Again”. A multicutural world is enriching after you get used to it. But at first the unconscious brain reacts with “this is not what I know” and “this is not how things should be”.
Many of us grew up in a monolithic world and few have left that world. So the accelerated multiculturalism of the past generation simply makes the unconscious mind uncomfortable. This is a major reason people yearn for the past but it may not be the most important reason.
The fact is that those on the lower 50% of the earnings ladder have been slowly losing their standard of living. We can see this by looking at how the median household income has changed since 1995. For households where the head of household is between the ages of 18 and 64, the median household income dropped from $81,571 to $61,911 (reported in 2019 dollars). Of course there is a strong desire to return to the days of yesteryear.
When you want something and don’t know how to get it, that is when you are susceptible to anyone who promises to do it for you.
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