“Why do they vote against their own best interests?”
You have probably said this many times over the last few years when it came to some (or many) Conservative voters. They said no to improvements in education, health care and the economy, voting for politicians who seem determined to keep them in their current position, no matter how bad it may be.
It has been frustrating to say the least, on a nation-wide and state level, to see the policies that would help the average American be ignored or dismissed by the average American.
Over President Trump’s first nine months in office, we have seen this play out over and over again. From a tariff rollout that wrecked the stock market, to immigration enforcement that has destroyed families and left hundreds missing, to layoffs of his own voters, to threatened cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, it could be said that President Trump does not have the best interests of his voters in mind.
Despite this bleak political atmosphere, his core support has barely faltered, according to poll numbers. I believe that the reason for this is that Trump voters are totally fine with it personally hurting them, as long as other people are hurting more.
There is a saying that “the cruelty is the point,” coined by Adam Serwer of The Atlantic to describe the feelings of Trump voters who seem to celebrate the suffering of others. This feeling extends to the willingness of MAGA supporters to suffer themselves as long as it means others have it worse. They may not love the fact that due process is being ignored by the Department of Justice, but it’s affecting immigrants and non-white Americans so it’s all fine, because it’s affecting somebody who they don’t see as an equal.
The assault on DEI and affirmative action was backed by white Americans, while ignoring the fact that legacy admissions practices that adversely affect poor white students remain in place — MAGA continues to cut off their own noses to spite their face.
The point remains the same. It seems to me that no matter how bad MAGA voters suffer under the Trump administration, they are fine with others being worse off – the racism, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia runs so deep that they are willing to sacrifice their own freedoms in order to strip other Americans of their legal rights and general well-being.
It comes down to identity politics, an idea that groups join together because they believe in a common interest. This has only fueled the fire of the “us vs. them” mentality that is only contributing to the political inferno that America has become. I think that if we continue down this path, we are sure to fail as a country even more rapidly than we already are.
That is not to say that the average American is to blame for all of the problems that we all suffer under the ruthless hands of the current administration – at this point, it should no longer be about pointing the finger at those who are in the same situation as you, whether they realize it yet or not.
It is important to hold people accountable for their vote, never stop reminding them that they voted for this. But I think we should be putting more of our energy into uplifting communities such as transgender Americans, people of color, immigrants and countless others who are under attack right now.
