Usually I don’t get too upset about the political scene. To paraphrase Solomon, what has been will be again. In these times, it just takes on a little different look.
But what really gets tiring is the attitude of those who believe they are better than those of us who, in the words of one politician, “. . . get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” Barack Obama’s quip on the campaign trail seems to have infected those who, in this election cycle, spew vitriol on President Trump’s supporters. Hillary Clinton called citizens who did not vote for her a “basket of deplorables” and “irredeemable”, among other epithets.
Trump supporters have been subjected to rants about the President from Hollywood celebrities, sports figures, intellectual “elites” and anyone who has a platform from which to spout his or her hatred. Called racist, sexist, xenophobic, bigoted and homophobic, the people who helped elect the 45th President have been verbally berated and sometimes physically assaulted since November 8.
All Americans have a right to their political opinions, but most who vilify those who voted for Trump have no idea who the people they despise really are. So let me describe, with no names given in order to protect individuals from personal abuse, some of those in “flyover country” who are put down by the coastal alt-leftists.
In our county, we have people who have traveled the world who voted for Trump. Farmers, whose families have tilled the land for over a hundred years, supported the new President. In spite the NEA’s support of Mrs. Clinton, many teachers in the public schools were Trump voters. A doctor who despises Obamacare cast his vote for the Republican candidate. Nurses, who care for patients everyday also voted for Trump. Those who go to church were overwhelmingly Trump supporters. Since many here are hunters, they clung to their guns and pulled the lever for the now President.
Those who rejected Mrs. Clinton were often derided as ignorant and uneducated, but many in our Illinois county with college degrees and several with advanced degrees cast their support behind Mr. Trump. In one Minnesota school system, to the chagrin of most of the NEA affiliated staff, a student poll had Trump winning by a landslide.
Ministers, some who have toiled in the pulpit for decades in our county, were mostly Trump voters. I know small business people who were adamant in their support for the Republican candidate. From the poor to the wealthy, our county was deep red in the last election. Not surprisingly, some former Democrats are now backing Mr. Trump after abandoning their former party in the election.
Many more examples could be given to show the kind of people that are berated because they voted for Donald Trump. Sometimes those close to the soil are called “the salt of the earth”, and having lived here for more than fifty years, I would subscribe to that description.
It is really aggravating to have those who have become celebrities spout their hate filled diatribes at award shows, on television talk shows, on the sports fields, diatribes toward people they have no knowledge of. One 68-year old actress, who has been applauded and feted for decades, has the temerity to rant against those whom she had never met nor understand how they live. If she, and others like her, were to live among those who are the “deplorables” for a year, would her words be softened?