Don’t be alarmed, folks! I’m not here to say who I’m endorsing for president or anything silly like that (as if it mattered what I thought, anyway). However, I am here to analyze this strange predilection towards the most unhelpful kinds of political debate on social media. I’ll give you a few examples:
- Donald Trump is a racist. No, he’s not, and his history of comments makes that clear enough. Labeling a person something doesn’t make it so. At least from public appearances, he does things people don’t do in polite company, that’s for sure.
- Bernie Sanders is a socialist. Well, yeah, as far as “socialist” means “self-declared as such”. Sanders clearly enjoys the benefits of capitalism more than you’d think (remember that time he was drinking Voss water?).
- Ted Cruz is crazy. Well, this one might actually be true. Anyone who hangs out with John Hagee (remember the Blood Moons prophecy) clearly thinks that moving the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv (the actual capital) to Jerusalem (the spiritual capital) intends to start the End Times by one means or another.
- Marco Rubio is inexperienced. As true of Rubio as it was of Barack Obama in 2008 (note: also applies to Ted Cruz, but Cruz at least sounds like a smart person).
- John Kasich probably has exactly zero shot of winning the presidential race, because he’s actually running for vice president, despite protestations to the contrary (why politicians do this baffles me, but nobody would give them money if they admitted they had no shot).
- Hilary Clinton is a robot. Well, mostly true. I can’t really dispute this one. Also, she gives really shrill-sounding speeches for some reason.
Unfortunately, instead of admitting that, “sure, my candidates has faults and they are something I’ve taken into consideration”, everybody likes to take potshots at the supporters of said candidates instead. I suppose we could say they, personally, sit at fault for disagreeing with us, but that sounds rather dumb. Every person who votes in a general elections emerges at their decisions through an entirely different thought process than you might expect, and to begrudge them for their personal choices seems a little bit silly.
I’ll just cite my example: I live in New Hampshire. As you might know, both Trump and Sanders won their respective primaries in our state. These seem like opposite ends of the political spectrum, to be sure, but I think most people misjudge both candidates in that regard. Sanders appeals to the increasingly Democratic base in the state, who moved from Massachusetts to avoid the utterly crippling state taxes; the fact that we’re next door neighbors with Vermont probably didn’t hurt, either!
Trump, on the other hand, is much more a centrist than you expect; read his campaign platforms on the website, and you’ll see he goes against traditional “Republican” ideology (free trade, just for example, and the support of Planned Parenthood does make conservatives cringe). It’s not a surprise that either man won, if you actually take a look at their policy position. Further, a lot of well-educated people voted for both, depending on their particular side of the political aisle, as they assumed either would be the best for political change in this country.
Bernie, of course, will end up with the short end of the stick (super-delegates in the Democrat party will ensure that, no matter what, Hilary Clinton will win the nomination). But Trump, it seems, will (or is on track to) win the nomination from a party that doesn’t seem to want him. Or, at least, the elites who call people “racist” don’t like him. The Republican electorate slowly changed, and the party leadership in Washington D.C. failed to keep up with the times, most certainly!
So, what exactly does all of this mean? I would like to take the high road, and say that people with whom I disagree, have a reason for that disagreement. Starting with that, rather than “Bernie Sanders incites class warfare!” or “Trump is a dumb idiot” isn’t serving your position any favors. Rather, it makes you look like an idiot to the other person, and further reinforces their belief that they should vote for that candidate. Psychologists call this “The Backfire Effect“, and it is exactly why political (and religious) debates, for the most part, end up with two people very angry at each other who believe what they believed more strongly than if the conversation had never taken place!
If you tell a Trump supporter that he’s a dumb buffoon, not a Christian (good luck with that one), or doesn’t represent your best interest, you are not correcting their behavior or making a plea to make them change your mind; you’re just getting the waves of self-righteousness that feel so, so good in the moment. If you tell a Sanders supporter that, no, Scrooge McDuck does not actually exist, and the top 1% don’t actually make enough to pay for everything (let alone Wall Street speculation taxes), they’ll double down on those beliefs regardless of evidence to the contrary. In sum: these techniques do not work, especially on the Internet.
So, be nice to each other. We are all suffering from a collective delusion that we know the end result of our voting choices several years down the line, so cut each other some slack. Nobody’s perfect, and saying their voting habits don’t match up with their ideology (or what you think their beliefs are, anyway) certainly isn’t bringing anybody to mutual understanding of both sides. Good luck with that this year!
