Trump voters

David Brooks yesterday wrote about “The Failures of Anti-Trumpism.”  He pointed out that after a year of columns, letters, books, and reporting exposing the harm Trump is doing, his support holds steady at approximately 40%.

Brooks questions our strategy.  He notes that many Republicans refuse to criticize the President.  Many of them proudly tout their support.  He notes that the anti-Trumpers make fun of Trump supporters, calling them closed-minded, bigoted, the kind of people who think professional wrestling is real.  

Brooks says we need to focus not on Trump, but on the issues that gave rise to him.  Focus on the social problems that agitated the voters and caused them to vote for Trump.

My own take is that this works both ways.  I am supposed to treat Trump voters with respect and find out what bothers them.  They should also be asking me why I dislike the man so much.  What issues are important to me?  

I’m really willing to listen to a reasonable Trump supporter explain what kind of health care he wants, why tariffs are good, why we don’t need to worry about global warming, why it is good to remove environmental protections, why it isn’t important to set an example for the rest of the world.  

Instead I get “Build the Wall!”  “You want to take away my guns!”  “Obama was a Muslim.”  I simply don’t find many Trump supporters with whom I can have a calm and reasonable discussion.