David is a 20-something professional who, like many GenXers, supported Bernie Sanders in 2016. He was bitterly disappointed when President Trump (“Orange Man” in his GenX parlance) was elected.
To prepare for the 2020 election, David decided to research both major parties in order to get a more comprehensive understanding of their political goals and policies. He sought out news and information from conflicting points of view - Morning Joe, CNN, Fox, and other media sources that represented a broad spectrum of political opinions. He studied republican-backed policies for economic growth, the advancement of low-income areas, and the financial assistance offered to HBCU’s during the Trump presidency. He searched for videos of President Trump’s speeches and compared his actual words with the fragmented clips media outlets chose to comment on. His conclusion was that some information sources were promoting “a carefully crafted narrative for the public that had nothing to do with the real message behind it all.” He also identified media messaging that glossed over the anti-Trump side. For example, “You look at CNN and you see the headline - fiery but mostly peaceful protest. You look in the background and there is looting and they are setting cars on fire.”
But David’s willingness to give fair hearing to all sides drew harsh criticism from his friends. Why, after all, would someone who was ostensibly “woke” watch Fox News? How could he think there was anything positive about Orange Man’s administration? He came to realize that his peers could not carry on a conversation about politics with people who questioned their views. “Instead of having everyone meet at the table and agree to disagree [their attitude is] we are not even going to agree or disagree - we are just going to call them out as evil…It is emotionally charged, and that is the problem - we throw logic out the window…facts no longer matter, when that should never be the case.” His one conservative friend told him he doesn’t even bring up politics, “not because I disagree with them but because they can’t handle the conversation.“
David lost some close friends because he didn’t follow what he calls the “woke mob mentality.” But he stands by his advice, “Don’t agree with the majority because there is a majority. We live in the freest country in the world - where your opinion matters. And so, no matter what your point of view is, do your own research. And if your point of view changes, so be it. But don’t let it be because it’s what other people think that point of view should be.”
Who did David vote for in the end? He claims, “I have become more woke in the right sense, where I am questioning the beliefs from both sides…I started recognizing that I will more than likely vote for republicans because I believe in school choice, because I believe that abortion is murder, because I believe in a smaller government…where we can set tariffs for foreign countries so we can start exporting again.”
“It’s not that I am voting for Trump - it’s that the Democrats lost my vote…because of what had happened with the riots, with the looting, with the fact that in the first stimulus bill they tried to pass Nancy Pelosi tried to put in airline carbon emissions laws. What does that have to do with it?… and where democrats were mostly liberals - well, democrats are mostly leftists. Socialist. This whole term progressive - I despise it. There is nothing progressive about it. Call it what it is - socialism.”
But he is not likely to broadcast his decision to vote red. Not after a friend’s emotional outburst: “anyone who votes for Trump is a f-ing idiot, a f-ing asshole and shouldn’t be voting in the first place.” Not exactly reasoned political discourse…
