Common Ground: a liberal perspective on Trump supporters

It has been over a year since the 2016 election, and still, liberal bastions of higher thought continue to label Trump’s voting coalition as ignorant, racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic … the list goes on. In some cases, it isn’t hard to find evidence to support such claims, and Trump himself mounts a weak defense. The months preceding his presidency were marred by missteps and scandals. Most thought that Trump would temper his coarse dialect and outlandish actions, but it seems he has ramped up his divisive behavior after winning the election.

During the first 100 days of his presidency, I kept on asking myself, “How did we elect Trump as our president?” The standard explanation at Tufts was essentially that voters were either too stupid to realize Trump was dangerous, or that they were just terrible people. My friends and I found this crude view, drawn clearly from partisan lines, to be woefully unsatisfactory. So we decided to embark on a 15,000-mile long journey around the U.S. to find out exactly why people voted for Trump, speaking with over 50 supporters from a diverse set of backgrounds.

After interviewing lawyers, business owners, farmers, government workers, and so many others, we noticed a few recurring themes. The first was a strong focus on the media and corruption. Additionally, we found that his supporters would often gloss over his many scandals, not attempting to defend or support his actions. Most importantly, there was a mutual distaste for Secretary Clinton; even among those that voted for Hillary in the election, few were enthusiastic over the prospect of her presidency.

Most of the Trump supporters we spoke to, ardent or apprehensive, expressed distrust in standard media outlets. Many felt that the news unfairly characterized Trump, his actions and his proponents. We’ve all heard of fake news and its unmeasurable effects on the election, but we ran into an additional, lesser-known consequence of the media when visiting Ohio. After speaking with a painter from Cleveland, a man who voted for Hillary but sympathized with Trump supporters, I could certainly see how partisan media outlets, both right and left wing, created silent Trump supporters. The painter complained that the blanket term “non-college educated whites” was thrown around endlessly about Trump supporters, without regard for nuance. He stated that the phrase implied “stupid white people,” and despite his support for Hillary, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat alienated from her platform. The effect was not strong enough to flip this particular voter, but he did state that it affected some within his community. This resident, along with many others that we spoke with, thought that the media began with a narrative they wanted to tell, and found bits of information along the way to support their already cemented positions.

Before I left on the trip, I was confused how people could support some of Trump’s more outlandish statements and actions, such as bragging about sexual assault, defaming Mexican immigrants or attempting to ban Muslims from the country. In reality, the message received by many supporters was milder when processed, and his more controversial statements were often pushed aside.

Many times, supporters stated that Trump just makes bold claims to get media attention, but that they can see through all of the theatrics to get to his actual positions. For instance, many did not see Mexican immigration as an immediate threat of violence and rape, but many did support the notion of a wall for more logistical reasons, such as hoping to ease the burden on infrastructure, and their belief of a lower rate of taxpayers among undocumented immigrants. In a similar vein, many did not see a ban on Muslims as appropriate, but agreed it was a step in the right direction to ban travel from high-risk countries.

This train of thought was consistent throughout the majority of supporters we spoke with; the voters were able to explain away Trump’s more extreme positions by replacing them with their own interpretation, rather than taking his statements at face value. There were some that responded to Trump’s actual message, but we found that supporters usually took milder stances on issues, adapting Trump’s speaking points to fit their views. The mental work required to reach their final position also solidified their own opinion, as they felt that most Hillary supporters could not think about Trump’s actions as critically as they could. Those that went through this thought process were usually disappointed with the Trump presidency as he intensified his controversial positions and efforts.

People don’t like Hillary. This seems obvious, as evidenced by Trump being our current president, but I cannot overstate the universal disdain for the former Secretary. To many of those that we spoke with, she represented all that was wrong with politics. Every Trump supporter we spoke to mentioned her corruption and lying during our conversation. She was often described as cold, uncaring and only focused on power. The conversations regarding Trump and Hillary were especially interesting because they were similar to ones I have heard many times at Tufts, just reversed. Instead of focusing on how they supported their candidate, they often spoke mainly about how bad the other was. During many conversations, very little was said about Trump’s positions on policies, while the majority of the interview was spent on the wrongdoings and poor character of Hillary.

To many, Trump was not their candidate. He wasn’t the man they wanted representing them, and most were disappointed with his performance as president. A combination of distrust of the media, contortion of Trump’s message, and contempt for Hillary Clinton led to a choice many deemed as the “lesser of two evils.” I found that his supporters are not the awful or ignorant people that they are sometimes painted as, and even found myself constantly re-evaluating where I stood on policies. Though I feel firm about my liberal political positions, I understood and found common ground with every conservative Trump supporter I met.