Saturday, January 21, 2017

How to stop Trump

Yesterday the world watched Donald Trump take the oath of office and become the 45th President of the United States. Today we saw millions of people join together in marches all over the country to let the new President know that they will not sit idly by as he attempts to take away the rights of women, racial minorities, religious minorities, or anyone else in America. More people showed up in Washington DC to protest against Donald Trumps policies than showed up yesterday to see his inauguration. This has obviously not made President Trump happy as he sent out his press secretary to wrongfully accuse the media of misrepresenting the numbers but every one of his statements was demonstrably untrue. There is no reason to sugar coat this, he lied through his teeth.

Obviously America, as a whole, isn't falling in line behind Trump. Sadly it may not matter that the majority of Americans don't support Trump (it didn't matter in the election after all) because he has the Oval Office, he has support in the Senate and the House, he may not have most of us, but he may have the people he needs the most.

So what do we do? Demonstrations such as the Women's March we saw today are very important. They show that Trump has a serious lack of support in a way that can't be denied even though many Trump supporters live so deep in their bubbles they will find it hard to accept. It will be very difficult to have regular demonstrations on this scale though, so there must be more that we can do.

We can write and call and email our elected representatives on the federal level, ESPECIALLY the ones who are supporting Trump. They need to see that the voters they rely on to get elected do not support Trump. We can also write our state and local representatives so they can be urged to use more local legislation to fight against Trump's initiatives. Most importantly we can talk to Trump supporters.

Too many people are expressing anger at anyone who voted for Trump. They are calling them all racists and all sexists and all xenophobes. Some of them are. Many of them, however, didn't vote for Trump out of hate. Some just wanted change and didn't care where the change came from. Some are frustrated by hearing how much better the country is doing since President Obama took office since they don't feel it themselves. Some were looking for someone who they believe will uphold the social and cultural norms of America and enforce our laws as strictly as possible. Trump doesn't really offer these people what they are looking for, but he at least validated their concerns and desires for these things. That's why they voted for him. If we can stop hating these people, if we can stop looking down on these people, if we can listen to them and hear their concerns, if we can stop treating them like our enemies and start treating them like fellow Americans, we can help many of them see that Trump is not the answer to any valid question and together we can stop Trump.

Trump supporters turning away from Trump will be one of the most effective ways to reduce the amount of support he has in the federal government. If the House and the Senate turn against him, he will have to throw in the towel (and as big of a narcissist as he is, I believe he will probably resign as soon as he stops getting his way). We can tell Trump supporters that we will push for effective economic development policies that will help rural areas and urban areas that have lost their manufacturing jobs. We can talk to these people about the exact kind of change they were hoping for and get into a conversation with them about the possibility of Trump providing it. We can discuss the fact that Trump will not uphold our social and cultural norms as he doesn't believe in them himself and how his ideas about law and order are at odds with the Constitution which is the set of laws the entire country operates under. The truth and the facts are on our side and if we are willing to try we can bring the Trump supporters out of their bubbles. Of course to do this we have to be willing to step outside of our own bubbles and that can be hard to do. We have to realize that some of their concerns are actually quite valid. We have to recognize that many of us are in latte sipping, stark white, highly educated, comparatively well off economically bubbles ourselves and that we may not understand the state of our nation over all as well as we think we do. We have to realize that the best solution to an issue can vary from one place to the next. We have to realize that people always vote for what the believe is in their best interests and stop telling people we know what is in their best interest. Normally what we are telling them is what is actually in our best interest.

Some may resist doing this because they say the other side wouldn't do it for us. This is probably true, but somebody has to start it. We believe that we have our country's best interests at heart, and I believe we do. If that is really true though shouldn't we be willing to take the first step and make the first move? The conversation isn't going to happen if no one starts it.

We can stop Trump and help unify our nation all at the same time. But we can only do this if we are willing to give up our own biases and bigotry. So, are we willing to try?

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