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Andy Gill

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The Election is Over: Here’s The Single Trait Both Trump and Hillary Voters have in Common

The Election is Over: Here’s The Single Trait Both Trump and Hillary Voters have in Common

Last updated on: February 19, 2017 at 1:12 pm by Andy Gill

The Election is Over: Here’s The Single Trait Both Trump and Hillary Voters have in Common 2017-02-19T13:12:14-05:00 Andy Gill

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Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out how or why all of this happened; I’m still in that “denial” stage of grief, and am officially unsure of everything. I mean, literally, my brain can’t process this shit. I’m left wondering what billionaire or corporation Hillary might’ve upset; how the DNC could’ve mishandled the primaries; if Bernie would’ve been the better opponent; shit, is the Illuminati real (jokes)? But, like you never know, maybe Elon Musk is right, and we actually are living in a computer simulation…

“Conspiracy Theories: science fiction for people who don’t realize they’re watching science fiction.”

But, more rationally speaking, in attempt to move forward and accept Trump as our inevitable future U.S. president, I’ve been questioning how bad exactly will it actually be? I mean, have our comparisons been fair? Is Trump actually going to become our worlds next Hitler? Does he really want to nuke our enemies? Could he truly be the start of WWIII? Will he actually have the ability to build a wall? How will this effect our international relations with China, Japan, Russia, and any other economic/militaristic first-world powerhouse?

(‘mind you, he is the first U.S. president to have never held any electorate office or have served in any branch of the military.)

I mean, it’s all coming down to a question I thought I’d never have to ask: How scared should we be as a nation, now that Donald Trump is our future US President? Framing this question another way, I’m simply asking whether or not our liberal rhetoric was overtly hyperbolic, a point blank lie, and/or whether or not there was any legitimate reason to our Hitler comparisons…?

Ironically, if it was the latter, and this was our overtly hyperbolic rhetoric used as a desperate means to smear Trump and his possibility of any future presidency, then, is this not one of main reasons in which a large enough percentage of voters opted for Trump?

What I’ve heard consistently echoed from various Trump supporters is that they loved his blunt force honesty, despite it’s level of brutality (e.g. making fun of the disabled, shaming McCain for bring a POW, etc.); all because they’ve grown so sick and tired of how politicicians lying has been normalized, so they’d rather risk Trump, than stick with guaranteed bullshit.

“…we must remember that when Trump says, “I’m going to bomb the shit out of them!” that he’s just openly saying, what we, as a nation, have already been doing.”

All this to say to us “liberals,” err, anti-Trump supporters: I agree, theres 150% zero justification for Trumps statements we’ve all heard, but, we must remember that when Trump says, “I’m going to bomb the shit out of them!” that he’s just openly saying, what we, as a nation, have already been doing. Not to mention that when Trump said such outlandish bigoted, xenophobic, sexist and/or outwardly racist comments, many, instead of feeling shock and horror, were instead left with a sense of relief that a politician is finally just being honest (i.e. maybe a large portion of them weren’t supporting the bigotry as much as they were supporting his honesty).

Because, from the perspective of evangelical Trump voters, didn’t Bill Clinton [from their perspective] cheat, lie, and commit adultery, alongside every other president of the United States? So, then (again, from their perspective) why should we disqualify Trump for “grabbing _____.” And, what about Nixon, LBJ, and the slew of other past U.S. presidents spouting white supremic bigotry?

It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again, Donald Trump becoming our president-elect merely reflects a nation’s tired, yet, very visceral, reaction.

Both Democrats and Republicans [including Paul Ryan himself] understand that Trump is not a republican; in our two-party system I think he, similar to Bernie, was simply offering a seemingly raw and authentic truth-to-power political type of courage, while merely using this party as his host, in order that he effectively infiltrate a system. I guess you could call it “revolutionary.”

What I’m saying is that I don’t think his “supporters” were voting for him so much as they were voting against all the bullshit they’ve previously been fed. Similar to those who voted for Hillary, many weren’t voting for her, so much as they were voting against the threat Trump brings.

Stick with me here…

What if the issue wasn’t trump? What if the issue was our political system; a system dictated mostly by lobbyist, corporations and billionaires, reflecting more of oligarchy than a democracy, all the while, perpetuating a culture within that mandates a candidate lying in order of having any chance of winning?

I’ve noticed, since Trump has won, a single common trait among both Trump and Hillary voters…

They’re both driven by fear. Because, fear, it’s a very powerful tool.

This should come as no surprise for many of us; considering the aforementioned continuous abdictication of filtrating toxic-fear-driving-bullshit into our homes on a, literal, hourly basis. Similar to the fastfood industry our media has managed to instantaneously gratify our palate while subversively poisoning the rest of our body.

Liberals we fear an unrepentant authoritarian bigot, while conservatives fear a war mongering secularist that is one step closer to stealing their country away from them; neither of which are based on reality.

Please know and realize, I’m really not trying to calm anyones nerves in saying or writing this post, but, I will say, I don’t think we have anything so drastically new in which we the people should worry about [anymore than we already should have been worrying]. I think the portrayed worry has mostly to do with 1) the media continuing to play off their viewerships anxiety, and, 2) the people in power having an uncontrollable and very unpredictable man working against certain aspects of their agenda, and, they’d rather us be consumed with worry than know democracy somehow beat their [supposedly] impenetrable oligarchy.

So, again, the way I see this is that democracy won. And, putting it simply, it was incredibly weird; considering most reading this have been taught and made to think and believe the people’ve zero to, at best, very little power if any sway at all. As a result, we were understandably left in shock/disarray, and the media jumped at the opportunity to leverage our felt anxiety.

Don’t get played by becoming paralyzed by a falsified sense of fear and worry.

I’m not so sure that the 99% of us are any more supported by their party than the people who voted for Trump are supported by theirs (again, Trump, ideologically speaking, isn’t even a republican himself who’s party [similarly to his voters] only support him out of pure desperation).

Acknowledging this desperation, we easily realize that we still live in a country that wants change. Nobodies alone in having this feeling. Obama, and his campaign, tapped into this outcry appropriately leveraging it to our benefit. Bernie, simply looking at the numbers, most likely, would’ve won against a Trump (but, then again, didn’t the numbers also say Hillary was going to win? So, maybe never mind… next election, let’s just do what we want, and vote Jon Stewart into the house… joking, kind of.).

This “us vs. them” narrative is nothing but an illusion, the same reason in which millennials in the primaries voted for Sanders, is a similar reason Baby Boomers voted for Trump (I’ll unpack this a bit more in another post).

Should we the people be afraid?

I don’t think so. I do feel we should always be, to an extent, on our toes, staying well-informed, educated and always active creating and building the good we want to see. As any fallible man should be kept in check when given or handed too much power.

Change and transition, despite the situation, it always brings a level of anxiety. I believe the anxiety and all the outcry is greatly derived from the inward realization that now we the people have to take responsibility, vote and engage locally, and have seen the inner workings of true democracy. As said above, I think the medias leveraged our anxieties and explained our feelings by pointing towards and blaming white supremacy. White supremacy is real, but our ability to change the world for both black, white, and everything in between, it’s there.

Is Trump the modern day version of Hitler? Not yet. But, Hitler did happen greatly because of fear, ignorance, and misinformation that resulted in division, silence, and a baseless type of bigotry leading to the unfortunate eventuality of the people handing over too much power to one fucking dude (i.e. Hitler). S0, we can either allow him to become Hitler, or, we can painstakingly leverage him for our benefit by 1) educating ourselves, 2) hitting the streets, 3) uniting, and 4) lovingly, fairly, and equitably engaging in local politics and business.

You in?

[1] photo is a screenshot from Vox video

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