Yesterday was a day of struggle.
From battling reluctance and fear in believing that Trump is now our president to facing vastly conflicting rationalizations of election results, yesterday was one of the toughest days that I have had in a very long time.
I woke up unable to wipe the image of a dominantly red map off my mind. I couldn’t comprehend why, or how anyone can support a man who sets a precedent for casual pussy-grabbing sexism and taco-making racism.
In order to prevent myself from falling down an unconstructive rabbit hole of fear and resentment, I spent that morning reading into who poured their support into Trump, who Trump thanked, who the “silent majority” and “forgotten man” was.
It’s embarrassing to admit, but this was the first time I actively did research into who Trump supporters are.
Trump supporters aren’t racist-bigot-redneck-ethnic-Irish-Italian-Pole-Hunkie-Yahoo whom even my extended network vehemently disapproved of. They aren’t people we shake our heads at while watching AJ+ videos and refuse to get in Facebook comment arguments with. Trump supporters are people who turned the map eerily red. These humans are the “forgotten man” — the “silent majority.”
The “forgotten man” encompassed the industrial worker and struggling farmer and Keynesian consumer — ordinary citizens without whom a modern economy would falter.
Our media doesn’t highlight the everyday toils that all of us go through. Our media highlights innovation, high-virality conflicts, and other things that provides high ratings and exposure. It becomes such a natural phenomenon that we don’t really think about this supposed “bubble” we live in. The existence of majority working class fades into the background — forgotten.
And it sucks that it took Trump winning the election for me to finally put effort into empathizing with Trump supporters — a task I dreaded to do, and refused to do.
Edit: I ended up going on a roadtrip through the deep south. See that journey here: Project Humanize US
The future has been, and will always be, in our hands.