Op-Ed: Why people want America to be 'great again'

Last Tuesday, this year's bizarre election season drew to a close. With a slew of controversy and drama emanating from both major parties, the election resembled more of a reality TV show than a political event, ushering in a wide array of name-calling and stereotyping.

I'm from Evington, Va., a small rural locality located in the state's South Central region. A read through the Wikipedia page for Evington will reveal that it exists and not much else. And while my house is roughly 635 miles away from where I live on campus — about halfway from Massachusetts to Florida -- it is the opposite end of the spectrum from Tufts, politically and ideologically.

Evington is located just outside of Lynchburg, Va., a medium-sized city near the center of the state. Odds are if you've heard of Lynchburg, then you've heard of Liberty University, the world's largest Christian University, known for its more than 110,000 students (between on-campus and online enrollment). Liberty is an extremely large university, and with this massive size comes massive influence. The university was founded in 1971 by Pastor Jerry Falwell Sr., who is well known for his founding of the Moral Majority, a prominent Christian political organization, in 1979. The Moral Majority played a key role in establishing evangelical conservative Christians as a major political force in this country and endorsed presidential candidates Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. While the organization officially dissolved in 1989, the ideas it supported are still extremely strong where I live.

The administration and leaders of Liberty University were — and continue to be — avid supporters of Donald Trump, even well before he entered the campaign spotlight. Throughout the campaign, both Trump and Pence made frequent visits to the university and associated themselves with its mega-church. Much like Liberty University, the surrounding localities feature mostly working-class whites struggling to makes ends meet, who strongly supported Donald Trump in his bid for the presidency. Their support of Donald Trump has associated them with the negative stereotypes that the man himself has come to represent. Throughout the election, people from the regions that strongly supported him were cast as uneducated simpletons who hate women, minorities and social progress of any kind. While I won't deny that there are elements of the Trump political base that hate women, despise non-white Americans and oppose social equality, such a faction does not represent the whole.

Back home, I know hardworking people who, since even before the Great Recession, worked hard just to make ends meet. And with the economic upheaval, they've had to work even harder just to get by. Many people where I'm from supported Barack Obama in his 2008 campaign. However, when the economy faltered, so did southern Virginia. With jobs in manufacturing and construction disappearing since 2008, many more people have become disillusioned with the economic growth plans of the Democratic Party, leading to Hillary Clinton's receiving less than 25 percent of the vote in my county. Where I live, Liberty University became the economic mainstay that kept people employed and the economy running. People came to view Liberty, its ideals and Donald Trump as what this country needs to get back on track.

But for the people of Evington and Lynchburg — as in many other parts of the country -- despite living in the shadow of Liberty University, college isn't always viewed as an attainable or important end goal of secondary education. Because of this, many people there feel as if a Democratic government, which focused on technical jobs and college education and routinely shunned them in their time of need, was attacking their way of life. People who work lower wage jobs in manufacturing, construction and other industries that are becoming increasingly dominated by large firms (oftentimes foreign or multinational ones), feel as if their lives are threatened by globalization, international politics and distant politicians who know nothing of their daily lives. With Donald Trump promising to combat these very things by “draining the swamp” in Washington and renegotiating trade deals to benefit the working class, he is effectively promising to combat their fears and worries. This is exactly why these people have flocked to Trump and why they have ignored his many discriminatory remarks. It is not necessarily because they are racist or sexist themselves, but because, in an increasingly complex global world, they feel as if their way of life and all they know is being threatened.

I'm not writing this because I voted for Trump -- I personally voted for Hillary -- or because I believe that his victory is ideal. I'm writing this because I feel as if many great, hardworking people are being generalized when in reality they are simply trying to defend their livelihoods. Having been fortunate enough to attend Tufts, I have seen so much more of the world than I ever would have if I stayed in Virginia. I have met people from around the country and the globe who have an array of diverse political ideologies and thoughts, and through this I have opened my eyes to many things I never would have even thought of before. For this, I am eternally grateful. One of the most important things I have learned here at Tufts is the value of another's perspective. So, before you judge people who support Donald Trump as racist or sexist, try to remember their perspective.

 

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