Dear Trump Voters
tell me why you are voting for him
I’m curious what you think, and why you are voting for Trump — feel free to message me if you are uncomfortable with a public convo.
I think I get it. I wish I didn’t. But I get it. When I look at the USA, it feels diminished from how it felt when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s. It feels like the system is rigged against people. Home and land prices have gone up a lot, while wages have stayed still or even gone down in terms of buying power.
How do we get back? Trump (if you can see through all the rhetoric) seems to be saying that we can “take our jobs back.” He suggests that we could raise wages by limiting the size of the workforce and by giving advantages to American-made products through tariffs.
He would limit the size of the workforce by pushing for mass deportations. He would give advantages to American-made goods by instituting high tariffs on imports.
In a larger sense, he is also suggesting we minimize the workforce by encouraging women to have children and stay at home.
He is also suggesting that Federal spending and high taxes on rich people cause inflation. If we could lower taxes on the wealthy, they would have more money to create jobs, and the products they sell would be cheaper without the extra expenses imposed by regulation and taxes. And if we could shrink the government, then private businesses would be free to create jobs without unfair competition from the public sector and without unnecessary regulation.
He is saying that the best government would be the one that empowers rich people to build businesses that create wealth for them and thereby boost an economy that creates jobs. And if we can limit the pool of employable people by deporting millions, then those jobs will naturally rise in wages and create a new America where a working person can support a family and buy a home and retire.
He is saying that the Harris world is what got us here. We allowed too many cheap foreign goods in. We regulated our own businesses too much. We expanded our workforce with excessive immigration and childless women. We took taxes from hard-working people and used them to prop up our failing cities and schools.
I get it. It is a simple story. It has good guys and bad guys. The good guys are the business people like Trump and Musk. The bad guys: (1) Immigrants who take jobs (2) Women’s rights people who push for abortion rights which allow women to participate in the workforce (3) Environmentalists who want to cripple business with regulation (4) Unions who want businesses to pay wages that would make them non-competitive (5) China, which produces better quality cheaper goods (6) LGBTQ+ for undermining the patriarchy (also see Women’s rights)
Underneath all the clowning and rhetoric his message gets through to many people in rural America, where I live. Something is clearly wrong with America and he can fix it by being pro-business.
I suppose I should throw in his support of the idea of “Law and Order,” which seems to mean that law enforcement, prisons, and the military should have an enhanced role in making America great and that we as a country need someone to blame for all the violence and shootings. We can blame immigrants and Black people who are emboldened by weak Democrats and fix it with militarized police to enforce the laws.
If you are planning to vote for Trump and have made it this far, let me know if I missed anything. And if you made it this far, maybe you will stick around to see what I think.
I think he is wrong. His policies have never been designed to be good for working people. The policies have only ever benefited the wealthy.
I think he is wrong about the causes of America’s problems and dramatically wrong about the solutions. He might believe his own rhetoric, but I think the people around him are just looking for a big money grab — like in his first term.
1. Donald Trump does not want high wages for American workers. If he did, he would pay his own workers overtime. He would pay his own bills. He would not make his hats in China. He would support Unions.
2. His tariffs would raise prices on everyday products. Not only would the prices go up for the imports, but we have seen that American companies take advantage of inflation to raise their own prices. His tariffs would be a massive tax on the working and middle class.
3. Tax breaks and deregulation do not necessarily mean more jobs. During every Republican tax cut, they always say “trickle down” works. But it never does. It just enriches wealthy people who would create jobs if it suited them or not if it didn’t suit them. Tax breaks inevitably lead to huge government deficits. When the government has to borrow money, it enriches bankers and (often) foreign entities that loan us money.
4. A thing that reliably produces jobs is government investment at the local level. This bottom-up investment is the real job creator, because it has a multiplier effect.
5. House prices are (at least partly) high because of the first Trump presidency. When he was elected, many people “self-deported.” It put a labor crunch on home builders which drove up building costs. Once house prices started to go up, they spiraled up as investments flowed in, which drove up land values too. In theory, this should be exactly what Trump wants. But the inflationary pressure was way higher than any wage growth. A thing that reliably makes housing affordable is government investment in affordable housing.
6. A thing that reliably raises wages is supporting unions and collective bargaining, along with enacting minimum wages set at livable levels. This is where the lie comes into clear focus. Trump wants to make America great again, but when America was great, it had strong unions, livable minimum wages, and high taxes on the rich. It had a strong anti-trust legal system, which prevented monopolies from gouging working people. It had a well-funded public education system.
7. I don’t think immigrants are a negative for this country. We are at low unemployment now. Without immigrants, we would not have enough people to fill the existing jobs, let alone the ones in a growing economy. Businesses seem to benefit from the current situation. It allows some businesses to pay lower wages to undocumented people because they have no rights. It also allows other businesses to keep wages low because undocumented people pull down wages. But actually, if everyone who is here already were made legal, then businesses would have to pay them higher wages, which would drive wages up for everybody else. I think businesses would benefit from having a legal workforce that is paid a livable wage. This would boost the economy which would boost wages and profits.
8. Environmental deregulation does not create jobs. When I was born in Cleveland in 1969, the river caught fire from all the pollution. Run away climate change will end up costing our country Trillions of dollars and undermining prosperity. Environmental degradation is a drag on the economy — it might make short-term profits for a few industry tycoons, but long-term unlivable spaces are economy killers.
9. Women and LGBTQ+ people deserve rights and should not be scapegoated. By persecuting people, we undermine a healthy economy.
In each case, Trump’s supposed solutions make the problems worse. His world is remarkably like the fascist world of Mussolini or Hitler, in which the government funneled money to private industry, while scapegoating Jews and communists for the ongoing problems.
Scapegoating women, LGBTQ+ people, environmentalists, Black people, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, and immigrants, just obscures the fact that his economic plans are a retread of the same old trickle-down that has never worked.
Yes. There are problems. But giving more money to rich people is not the way to fix those problems.
