Dear Trump Voters (Part 2)

Thank you to those who took the time to respond to my previous post (here and on social media). I would love to hear reasons from more folks who are voting for or leaning Trump.

What I have gleaned so far is what I suspected: your reasons for voting for Trump are much like my reasons for voting for Harris — they are borne out of a love for people and care for the direction America is going. The nature of elections in a two-party system is to divide people and make us think the worst of the “other side.” I can’t do that to so many people I know and love.

What I heard from folks who responded as Trump voters is concern about the direction America is moving. There is concern about fentanyl. Concern about violent crime and civil unrest. Concern about economic policies. Concern about war and specifically nuclear war. Concern about abortion. Concern about the electoral process (Harris being substituted for Biden and Trump being charged with crimes). Concern about sexual abuse of children. Concern that the Progressive Agenda will bankrupt America. That is a lot!

I think we are led to believe that the “other side” is voting out of hatred and I don’t see hatred either from the the folks who responded as Trump voters or from the Harris voters.

When I vote, I do not vote out of hatred for people. I vote out of love. In the spirit of love and concern for people I love, here are some of my own reasons for voting for Harris and Democrats in general.

I am concerned about war and specifically nuclear war. I think that Trump and Musk’s coziness with Putin is a signal that they would abandon Ukraine and our NATO allies. This could tip us into a disastrous wider conflict. Likewise, Trump would probably make the war in Palestine worse (if that is possible) because he shows very little restraint in the matter.

I am also concerned about immigration and fentanyl. We need rational immigration policies. Harris helped craft bipartisan border legislation that Trump killed. Trump thinks he benefits from blocking work on functional immigration policies because then he can blame democrats for a fentanyl crisis and other things. I don’t agree with this idea of sabotaging consensus building and compromise in order to play politics.

I’m concerned about access to health care and specifically women’s reproductive health care. Trump and Mike Johnson have said they would repeal the Affordable Care Act. When people don’t have access to health care, they are more likely to have untreated illness and death. When women are denied care it can lead to their death, as in the three women who were recently denied care in Texas.

I am concerned about the economy. Inflation is real, especially in housing. Wage growth has not kept up. But more tax cuts for the wealthy that Trump proposes, along with high tariffs on imported goods, along with Musk’s proposed 2 Trillion dollar cuts to the Federal Government — these policies could drive the economy off a cliff. Biden and Harris have guided the economy during a difficult time. The stock market is at historic highs. Wages are growing. Unemployment is low. Gas prices are down. It is not perfect, but I’m not ready for us to try out Musk’s austerity.

I am concerned about crime and law and order. Trump is signaling that he will put political opponents in jail, he is signaling extra-judicial deportations, he is suggesting that he himself is above the law. He has pardoned people who were loyal to him. He sanctions police violence and violence by his supporters. That all seems like the actions of an authoritarian dictator. Throughout history, crime rises and falls in relation to the poverty levels of the people. When people are desperate, more of them resort to crime. The best anti-crime policies are anti-poverty policies like livable wages, affordable housing, public education, support for unions, and access to health care. I think Harris is the anti-crime candidate on this basis. A side note about crime is that immigrants as a group commit crimes at a lower rate than US citizens.

I am concerned about the planet and all of the life on it. Trump is a climate change denier. He treats environmental regulations as impediments to business. The fact that he will make climate change worse should be the end of the discussion.

I am concerned about my trans friends. For various reasons, the Republicans are attacking and scapegoating trans people. It seems to be an election strategy to get voters to think that Democrats who support trans people are radical extremists. They are saying that Harris would use your tax dollars to allow prisoners to have expensive gender surgery and Harris would force children to share bathrooms with people not of their biological gender. And that Harris would let full-grown men compete in womens sports. Whoa! Do you know any trans people? This group of people is NOT trying to hurt you. Every trans person I know is just trying to live their lives. They are human and deserve to be treated as such.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Please vote out of love, no matter who you vote for.