“History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.” – Thomas Jefferson
Today is Thursday, November the 5th and this country is still waiting for an answer to the question who will be the next President of the United States. Sadly, one question has been answered for me, one that I had hoped for a much different outcome, that almost fifty percent of Americans that voted support the most disastrous, and most dangerous president in our history.
There are roughly 240 million American citizens eligible to vote. To date Joe Biden has received 72,187,249 votes and Trump has received 68,691,756 for a total of 140,879,000 votes, roughly sixty percent of those eligible. I would assume sixty percent participation is a pretty good benchmark to hit for a Presidential election. I won’t do the research to confirm but I have heard that more votes were cast in this election than any other which, given what is at stake, is not surprising.
But that there is such a large number of Americans that could possibly want another four years of the current idiot-in-chief not only surprised, but disappointed me. I have operated under the assumption that most Americans were smart enough to see through Trumps bullshit. That his hardcore base could not be more than 35 to 40%, hopefully even less. But I was wrong and honestly, I am sad for this country that I was wrong. I am sad for my children that I was wrong.
I made it too easy to profile a typical Trump voter, white, middle to lower income, middle age to older, thinks they are a good Christian because they go to church each Sunday, maybe racist, or just a race isolationist because they don’t know or want to know any brown or black people, certainly a flag waving nationalist. But that is not all the 69,000,000 million Trump voters. It can’t be. It might be the majority, but it cannot be all of them.
So, what that tells me is my Banker, my Doctor, my Lawyer and my Accountant probably voted for Trump. My neighbors to the left of me and across the street probably voted for Trump. My brother in-law, and my sister in-law probably voted for Trump. These people, many that I pay money too and trust that they will look at out for my best interest, support and want four more years of the train wreck that is the Trump Administration. I simply don’t know how to react to that.
So right now we don’t know who the next President of the United States will be but here is what we do know, if it is Joe Biden he will have his work cut out for him to try and heal this country. He may be able to make some inroads, but it will be a tough up hill climb. I know he is the right man to attempt it. I know he wants to do it and maybe he will be somewhat successful. The other thing I know is if Trump gets four more years, he will do everything within his power to make the divide wider, deeper, and more contentious. As Trump has demonstrated he is a vindictive, egoistical madman and for those people, states and institutions that are against him he will show charity to none, and malice to all. Reconciliation and renewal are neither in his vocabulary or spirt and 69,000,000 Americans know that and still voted for him because they wanted more. God help us.
Ends and Beginnings 
Some people care about others. Some people care about themselves and don’t give a shit about others.
Guess which ones voted for Trump.
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God help us, indeed.
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I also wonder what motivated some of the Trump voters—they aren’t so easy to put in a box.
My 18 year old son voted for Trump. I am completely baffled and didn’t see it coming. We live in a liberalish college town where most Republicans keep quiet. He laughs at both sides but I assumed he thought Trump was an idiot. He has started his first year of college—I don’t know if some of his new friends had an influence on him.
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Welcome to our new group. I haven’t figured out a name for us yet. We all seem to have had confidence in our society as being more open and tolerant than what you have just recounted. I have long been aware of my little area of red-neck a**holes, but I always had the hope and understanding that the rest of the nation was different. Four years of Trump and 60 years of right-wing Christian maneuvering and a complicit government have peeled all the layers of pretenses.
We are a white racist nation, led by a form of religion determined to be the leaders of a theocracy. Systemic racism is the plan and has been the plan since 1787. The framers of the constitution made a compromise with the slave-states. In order to expedite the completion of and ratification of the new governing document, they allowed the slave states to control legislation right up to the war for emancipation. The millions of slaves who were, by the grace of god, held as being subhuman, were counted as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of appointing representation.
Now those saviors of the ‘lost cause’ see the ratio between white christians and black, brown, and poor white minorities moving toward equilibrium, are terrified that we would be so low as to treat them as they treat us. It is obvious that the White Supremacist militias and Christian Nationalists are prepared to shed blood to destroy that democratic article. Christians, GOP politicians, and their capitalist masters have worked hard and purposefully to finally have control of a conservative activist Supreme Court.
We will soon see how their efforts have paid off.
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So true. Excellent post. Yes, Biden has quite the shit-hole to dig out of, left by this horrific and disgraceful man. And it appears we will once again have divided government with the racist turtle from KY blocking everything in sight. UGHHHH. I do feel that Biden will win. If anyone can heal a nation it’s him. But the true Cult45’s? These people are beyond a cure. They all need help…mental help.
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This is a perfect post for me. I had two good friends over today for an outside distancing lunch. We get together to discuss politics…we are on the same page. We all were so surprised that trump had so many votes, so much support after 4 years of lying, destruction of the rule of law, environment and all his BS, nastiness and racism. We could not believe, that many people actually still…..support him.
This I will never understand. I know we know the typical stereotypes, but obviously, there are others. And we know the influence of Fox and other right wing sources. But those people at some point in their past, made a decision to watch Fox, over other choices and were sucked into it.
Is this simply what most Americans are? And why in the US, but not most of European or Asian countries? Why more trump support in rural and small towns?
I truly think Christian religion plays a bigger role than we may think. Every trump supporter I know of, is quite religious. The only exceptions to this support, that I have found, are Unitarians, liberal Episcopalians and other religions like Hindu or Buddhist (and I’m sort of guessing here) and people who believe in god, but not all the dogma..not church goers…the more just spiritual types.
And also poorer education and less examples of fairness and inclusion set by parents maybe in the home. Seems Europe and Asian countries are much more family oriented and community oriented..smaller countries with more democratic socialism support for everyone.
We are so much about individualism and wanting stuff and feeling we’re owed stuff, a general selfishness, whereas many other countries are about community with less emphasis on material things and acquiring tons of money.
It’s a big mystery and a very sad one to me..it defines what kind of people and what kind of culture we have and desire…really disappointing.
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