#WTH Hating on America isn't the answer

Trump voters are striving for a better life. There's no sin in that.

Cardi B reacts to the election on her instagram.

“Today is a day of despair for America. We are plunged into an anticipatory grief,” moaned The Guardian’s Moira Donegal.

And the editor of Scientific American:

And here are a couple of randos capturing a widely held sentiment:

Here’s another:

It wasn’t the quirks of the Electoral College. It wasn’t white people. It wasn’t men. It wasn’t even only Republicans. Americans of all stripes voted for Donald Trump, and he won fair and square. For many people, as

Nate Silver

wrote immediately following the election, Wednesday was a normal day, not the end of the world as we know it. But for a certain sector of the loud left, the sanctimonious opinion-o-cracy, and the well-heeled media elite, America has sinned, and Americans cannot be forgiven. The crowd that embraced the “not my president” mantra in 2016 have now decided it’s “not my country.”

Hating other people is not a pathway to victory, to one’s own success, or to resuscitating the Democratic brand. Calling the other side’s voters Nazis, racists, bigots, misogynists, and fascists is lazy, false, and profoundly offensive. Are there bad people in the Trump coalition? You bet there are. There are bad people in every political coalition in every country. But who voted for Trump? 72.6 million people. What was their number one issue? For most, the economy.

The willful blindness that suggests Trump voters are the “meanest, dumbest, most bigoted” people is elevating political disagreement to warfare. But that’s not the vilest thing about it. Rather, it’s a failure to recognize what constitutes a real democracy, what the word “diversity” actually means, betraying a fundamental lack of respect for actual voters. It’s a failure to recognize the agency of Trump voters and the culpability of the Biden-Harris team in their loss. The notion that most Americans wake up and worry not about the price of milk, or the failures of our schools, but rather about trans policy or the failings of Elon Musk is elitism run amok.

America’s late night comics — why are they still called comedians — decided in ideological lockstep to share that they are “not ok” in a country where Donald Trump is president elect. How are they not ok? Are they rich beyond most people’s wildest dreams? Are they among the nation’s most visible and successful people? Do they consort with presidents and rock stars and live in mansions with servants? Of course they do. How in hell are they not ok? They’re great. But their self-indulgence and cringe-worthy lack of self awareness is almost stunning. Do they realize there are people choosing between gas and food?

The luxury beliefs of the nation’s elites and their endless willingness to preach at others, now culminating in a widespread condemnation of “America,” is not simply wrong, it is antidemocratic in the most simple and basic sense. We had an election. One guy won. One lady lost. In four years, there will be another. Instead of condemning the coalition of voters who brought Donald Trump back to the White House, turn around and ask why the Democratic Party and Kamala Harris lost. Over at The New York Times and The Washington Post and the Atlantic, ask yourselves whether you have become part of an elite that stopped caring about the problems of real people as you indulged your self-congratultory preening?

Americans don’t yearn for a “strongman,” as the New York Times suggested. Americans yearn for someone who pays attention to what ails them. Trump talked immigration, he talked inflation, he talked crime. Even more importantly Americans rejected the woke insanity of recent years that pitted your daughters against men pretending to be women, that saw teachers forced to pander to the mental frailties of parents and students alike, that allowed employees to search constantly for “safe spaces” instead of working, that elevated grievances above comity and community. This is not surprising.

Hating America and Americans may feel great to people who surround themselves with an echo chamber of narcissistic leftist elites. But it won’t rebuild a Democratic Party eviscerated by Biden and Harris, it won’t restore faith in the Left’s leadership, and it won’t fix the problems that Donald Trump and his voters saw. The country needs good politicians and good parties. Trump won’t be perfect, and if the Democrats want to offer a solid alternative, they’re going to need to take a long hard look in the mirror. The problem isn’t America. The problem is them.