> unified Republican elite, along with > 35% of the electorate, is fundamentally lawless and anti-democratic, and will do anything it can to cheat its way into power.
This is unnecessary. I am of course relieved that Biden won. I am also appalled by Trump and his enablers in the Republican party. I'm also extremely disappointed that more people did not clearly repudiate Trumpism.
But that 35% of the electorate, which is closer to 48% per Trump vote share, are people and neighbors. This kind of rhetoric only serves to continue the bitter fighting. There may very well be a core of unredeemable, white supremacists behind Trump. But I'd like to believe that most are misled, misinformed, yet good people. I know my neighbor is one in fact.
> But I'd like to believe that most are misled, misinformed, yet good people. I know my neighbor is one in fact.
Something I have found increasingly frustrating is this childish attitude that saying “so-and-so is a bad person” means “so-and-so will always be a bad person and can do nothing to change for the better.” Simplistically separating people by “inherent nature” leads to us not calling a spade a spade when someone is being a bad person, and means bad people can’t ever actually appreciate the scope and impact of their misdeeds.
People who voted for Trump did so for reasons that were, by and large, morally outrageous. We don’t need to treat them like lost sheep who were incapable of understanding what Trump represents. There were a shocking number of horrendously terrible people in Germany and Rwanda, and most didn’t go to jail when the genocide ended. After WW2 it was really hard to find a German who would say they voted for the Nazis, and I am sure many or those millions of people led upstanding lives. That doesn’t make their decision to vote for the racist strongman retrospectively defensible.
(There’s also the related problem of “he can’t be a bad person, he’s nice to me!”)
The sentiment underlying your comment is an important one. While it's essential to see the goodness in people, it's also essential that we are honest about bad behavior. Regardless of their goodness, or them being misled or misinformed, > 35% of the electorate has been unwavering in supporting/advocating/justifying behaviors that are
> fundamentally lawless and anti-democratic
If my neighbor, who I believe is a good person, is abusing their spouse, it is absolutely necessary to call the abuse for what it is.
This is unnecessary. I am of course relieved that Biden won. I am also appalled by Trump and his enablers in the Republican party. I'm also extremely disappointed that more people did not clearly repudiate Trumpism.
But that 35% of the electorate, which is closer to 48% per Trump vote share, are people and neighbors. This kind of rhetoric only serves to continue the bitter fighting. There may very well be a core of unredeemable, white supremacists behind Trump. But I'd like to believe that most are misled, misinformed, yet good people. I know my neighbor is one in fact.