Chris Marschner tackled the difficult issue of how we should regard the supporters of Donald Trump, in light of so much abuse and blame being heaped on them by pundits, the news media, and, yes, me. He chose a post to do so that discussed the cynical attitude of former  Obama speechwriters regarding how easy it was to manipulate the public and the press. Chris has done as good a job at this as can be done,  and thus earned his Comment of the Day distinction. I believe, however, that explaining the various factors activating Trump supporters, such as the arrogance of power-brokers like the Obama speechwriters, does not in any way excuse Trump voters, justify them, or relieve them from accusations of recklessness and ignorance.

I suppose I should be grateful to Trump and his supporters, because they have clinched two long-standing arguments in my favor. The first is one that has often surfaced on Ethics Alarms: does a responsible voter vote for the character of a leader, or the positions the candidate espouses? Trump proves my point in spectacular fashion. If the candidate doesn’t have a trustworthy character, it doesn’t matter what he or she says.

The second argument the Trumpites win for me is my opposition to those who decry the low rate of voting in the U.S. and want to “fix it.” My reaction to their complaint has always been: the low rate of voting is GOOD. If you are apathetic, lazy,badly informed, ignorant, hateful, stupid, gullible and naive, your vote interferes with democracy, it doesn’t advance it. The Founders believed that civic literacy was essential to a functioning republic. They were right. The Republican primaries illustrated what can happen when a large bloc of voters who are unfit to exercise the franchise suddenly decide they care, but lack the basic cognitive skills and abilities to translate their concern into intelligent and responsible civic participation. They become sitting ducks for con artists, liars and frauds to manipulate and exploit.

Here is Chris Marschner’s Comment of the Day on the post, “Rueful Observations On Obama’s Speechwriters Laughing About Writing Lies To Pass Obamacare“:

[Quoting another commenter]

“Pundits don’t understand why saying dumb things about women or minorities doesn’t skewer him. I do: His voters don’t care. His voters don’t care where people pee, they don’t care how many abortions the lady down the street gets, they don’t care about racism, sexism or whatever-phobias. They care about taking care of their families. They care about jobs. This is the demographic Bernie and Trump tapped into. People not like us. Uneducated people. People living day to day. Bills to pay and mouths to feed, when nothing in the world is free.”

First let me say that I find Trump’s rhetoric distasteful and I did not vote for him in the MD primary.

Labeling all Trump supporters as “uneducated and unlike us” may be too simplistic. Actually many do care where people pee or how many abortions take place. You might want to consider that it is just a matter of priorities when faced with the possibility that a progressive candidate like Hillary Clinton might get elected leading to further stagnation of their upward mobility while forcing them to succumb to even more government intrusion into their lives.

Perhaps there is also a group of educated voting taxpayers who are tired of being labeled as social misanthropes when engaging in reasonable debate over a variety of issues. Many well educated people who earn more than the median income but less than that which is necessary to be absolutely financially independent understand the economic repercussions of challenging some progressive ideas that are at odds with their own reasoned thinking. How exactly does a conservative faculty member debate a topic when he/she runs the risk of being labeled a racist, Uncle Tom, misogynist or other type of person in what could be called the “Hater” segment of society for not towing the employer’s or the group’s normative thinking. How many business owners publicly regurgitate the progressive ideology or opt for a low profile to avoid the onslaught of protesters that can threaten that which they may have spent a lifetime working long hours to build

I could also argue that many private corporate cultures are an outgrowth of weighing the economic pros and cons of taking an ideological stand and often opt for the culture that prevents further costly governmental intrusion into their operating policies. Only a few have challenged the government’s desire to dictate corporate culture and policy.

If we examine some of the well publicized political issues that have emerged over the last eight years progressives have not proffered any solutions that might actually solve the real or perceived issue. Instead, they resort to calling any opposition to their government prescribed spending/control solution as proof of systemic and rampant discrimination against some protected group.

Take for example the issues of affirmative action, voter ID, or the massive increase in food stamp participation. Those who debate the merits of ending affirmative action, requiring photo ID for voting or questioning the wisdom of expanding the use of, and allowing food stamps to be used for items full of empty calories are immediately labeled as racists who are trying to deny a protected group some inherent right.

Why should we not discuss whether or not certain minorities should receive special consideration in hiring? Latinos or Hispanics, for example cannot claim the same historical economic suppression that African Americans faced. The Chinese and the Irish may have a better claim on historical economic discrimination than Latinos. How exactly does past economic oppression of African Americans justify special protected class status among second and third generation Sub- Saharan Africans who emigrated to the U.S.? Should African Americans and other members of protected classes who have done very well for themselves and their families also get special protected status over some poor non-protected class kid that is struggling for upward mobility? Technically, President Obama and his family have unnecessary protection under this indiscriminate protected class policy.

Why do progressive activists spend valuable time and resources insisting that requiring photo ID to vote is to promote voter suppression rather than using the same resources to help the relative few that have difficulty obtaining such documentation get the required documents. I would bet a week’s wage that most conservatives would contribute funds for such efforts.

As for the growth of SNAP, the majority of the growth has been among poor whites. So labeling opposition to government pushing expanding food stamps as evidence of racial animus is a deflection of the opposing view that too much government help creates dependency. In one example:

“The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has an award called the Hunger Champions Awards. One of the winners of 2011’s award was the Social Services department in Ashe County, North Carolina. Their accomplishment: an outreach worker found a new way to convince people to take government handouts, even though those people had decided earlier that they wouldn’t request the handouts:

Hearing from the outreach worker that benefits could be used to purchase seeds and plants for their gardens turned out to be a very important strategy in counteracting what they described as “mountain pride[.]”

The cited article goes on to show how once self-reliant communities that eschewed government handouts is now dependent on them.

It is equally possible that Trump’s ascendency simply represents a backlash against the hyperbolic growth of progressive power that routinely uses ad hominem attacks to bolster their arguments. In short, many may think turnabout is fair play, or at least turning a blind eye toward the behavior of a candidate who is willing and economically able to weather the slings and arrows of the very far left is better than the alternative. Perhaps to them, he is their champion.

So when we think Trump is a vulgar man and devoid of policy prescriptions we must ask ourselves is what he says any more vulgar than the progressive’s use of demonizing rhetoric against those who are diametrically opposed to increasing governmental coercion of thought and behavior. Furthermore, with respect to articulated policy positions I know of no candidates whose plans yielded the desired results, or anywhere close for that matter. Moreover, asking a candidate to take a uniform position on every issue requires them to establish a one size fits all policy prescription. Policies are not goals. Our goal should be to make America strong economically and socially. How we achieve that goal is debatable. If we want thoughtful candidates then we have to allow them the opportunity to change direction when the desired outcomes are not materializing even if it means that they have to abandon a policy position without calling them a hypocrite.

As for transgendered bathrooms… This affects so few and is taking too much attention away from issues that affect the majority of the population. Solution: Just take all the signs off the doors and let the public use whichever one they want. Better yet just change the building codes to require only one bathroom with an appropriate number of stalls and urinals to meet the expected demand load for the building. How the hell would I know if a man with female genitalia is in the next stall. If women want, or do not care if, women with male genitalia are in their bathroom why should I care? Why should they? Gay men use the men’s room and lesbian women use the ladies room and I have not heard of a rise in sexual assaults as a result. The likelihood of a sexual predator in the bathroom is equally likely in either – unless you have a sub-conscious belief that all hetero-sexual males cannot control themselves sexually in such places. Who exactly are we trying to protect? However, if we go this route we should not delineate anything by anatomy anywhere; otherwise it would be a double standard.

If I had to choose between Trumpsters. and the Occupier’s behaviors to stimulate dialogue I would prefer the Trumpsters. Despite Trump’s rhetoric, one must admit the actual violence that has occurred during the campaigns has been primarily initiated by the left. Not once have I seen Trump, Cruz, Rubio or other supporters attempting to shut down a Hillary or Bernie rally nor have any of Trump’s supporters damaged private and public property as they strive to obtain political power.