Trump Supporters Are Humans Too

As the possibility of Donald Trump becoming the presidential candidate for the Republican Party has become terrifyingly more likely, many in the media have turned their attention to his supporters. In a similar fashion to nineteenth century colonialists, many news sources such as the Washington Post and CNN have attempted to understand ‘the Trump supporter’ and have even used psychologists to do so. They have included that supporters of Trump are racist, stupid, bigoted, and motivated by xenophobic and economic fears.

This arrogant and condescending approach by the media to portray Trump’s supporters as backwards, bigoted, and generally sub-human is nothing new. It is part of a trend amongst the elite in the United States to look down on those who do not agree with current liberal consensus. For example, back in 2008 when Barack Obama was on the campaign trail, he dismissed them as those who cling to their guns and Bibles. More recently, gay marriage campaigners branded them as knuckle-draggers and bigots. They stand accused of blocking progress in society.

You may not agree with Trump— I certainly don’t— but to simply write off his supporters as bigoted and backwards is completely unacceptable. They are not an homogenous group of uneducated, slack jawed troglodytes who oppose change and progress in society because they are unintelligent or prejudiced, as the media portrays them. They are people who have legitimate concerns about a wide variety of issues such as constitutional issues, immigration, and a changing society. These concerns cannot be simply dismissed as the bigoted ramblings of the great unwashed.

Instead of simply dismissing the concerns of Trump’s supporters, those who oppose Trump need to understand them and either challenge them with credible counter-arguments or offer solutions to the supporters’ problems. It is this simple dismissal, and the accusations of bigotry which have made these people support Trump. They find that they have no voice amongst the politicians or the mainstream media and begin to feel increasingly disenfranchised. As a consequence, when a candidate comes along who is not from the Washington elite and who articulates their concerns, they are naturally going to be drawn to him. In many ways a vote for Trump is born out of the frustration they feel at repeatedly being dismissed and looked down upon. In voting for Trump they feel as though they might actually have a candidate who thinks the same way they do and who presents an opportunity to stick two fingers up to the sneering, liberal elite who have looked down upon them for so long.

If Trump becomes the Republican candidate— and it looks increasingly likely that he will— then the politicians and the media will only have themselves to blame. Politicians and the media need to stop treating Trump’s supporters like aliens from another planet. They need to recognise that they are human beings with real dreams, ambitions, and concerns. Perhaps if they do this, they might actually be able to stop Trump.