November 2024

Six weeks ago, 91% of those in my panel of 500 American voters told me that they knew who they were going to vote for and that the chances of them changing their minds were zero. Their candidate could have robbed someone on Commonwealth Avenue, and voters would still have been resolute about their decisions. Thus, most people who walked into the voting booth on Election Day weren’t agonizing over their choice, nor were they affected by any last-minute fighting about which party owned the word “garbage” more. In particular, Trump supporters were geared up to speak out.

Tina was one. A real estate broker from New Jersey, with a degree from Villanova University, she enthusiastically supported Donald Trump. These days, she has a home, 4 children in their 20s, and a good job. But it wasn’t always easy. “At the age of 50 when my husband lost his job as 4 kids were going to college, we rolled up our sleeves and reinvented ourselves. We are now on firm ground again, but we had to work our butts off and struggle with multiple jobs, and it was so scary.” Tina has enormous sympathy for people who are trying to make ends meet – who worry about the price of housing and food and utilities and gasoline – and she remembers exactly how much gasoline cost her at the end of Donald Trump’s last term: $2.32. She has many friends who have also had challenges with inflation, and she resents being lectured to by the Democrats.

Although she has seen the articles about how the US economy is doing better than the economy of most countries, Tina is focused on how inflation increased 20% under Biden. “Here we are in 2022 with 9% inflation and a few months later, we are told Bidenomics is awesome and delivering for the American people and that we just don’t understand the economy, and everything is great.” When Democrats tell her that a vote for her pocketbook is in her own narrow self-interest, it makes her feel sick, because she refuses to let them condescend to her. “They fly across the country in their jets, eat out at fancy restaurants with $50 entrees and fly over to each other’s Hamptons homes and Martha’s Vineyard homes, and then they tell me I don’t care about democracy.” The lack of empathy, to her, is staggering.

Her vote for Trump was not just about the economy, however. Although she supports legal immigration, she resents the fact that 20 million migrants have walked into the U.S. illegally and are getting more perks and handouts than hard-working Americans.

But Tina’s biggest issue is that she sees the Democratic party as overly woke, overly focused on race and gender, and unwilling to listen to other points of view. She is pro-choice, but she believes Trump when he says he will veto a national abortion ban, and she believes that “drag queen readings to first graders, trans women in sports, and obsession with pronouns are also women’s issues because they affect our children.” Tina’s daughter, who attends the University of Wisconsin, is afraid to express conservative views for fear of losing her friends. Her son was called a misogynist for suggesting that cutting off abortion rights at 24 weeks was a good compromise. “A lot of Trump people have just decided to shut up and sit down. We don’t talk to pollsters – or we lie to them. I have found that Democrats are all for freedom of speech as long as you agree with them,” she adds.

Ironically, Tina doesn’t see herself as a MAGA Republican, but just someone who resists what she feels are the extreme policies of the left. When I asked her to describe Donald Trump, she said, “chaotic, narcissistic, and a bully.” But he is better than the alternative.

I have had conversations with voters like Tina for 8 years, but especially in the last 6 months. While Democrats described their feelings about our future as “bright”, “exciting”, and “full of hope”, most Trump supporters are very concerned about the state of our country: the cost of living, the multiple wars, the out-of-control immigration, and the more out-of-control obsession with a woke agenda rather than the ABCs of education. And yet, at a time when those issues were front and center for tens of millions of voters, the rallying cry from the Democrats was largely about abortion and how awful Trump is. Nothing about their message resonated with people who are worried about the direction of the country.

Democrats have a lot of soul-searching to do, and it starts with an arrogance check. When Democrats tell people they are voting against their own self-interest, it sounds demeaning to a group of people who also read and balance budgets and who are very clear about what matters to them. When people experience inflation, it’s insulting to hear Democrats say that the economic indicators are all excellent. When Democrats think that Beyonce and Taylor Swift and George Clooney will sway voters, many Americans say they can’t relate to them. Says Tina, “I have to laugh that I am supposed to care about how Jennifer Aniston will vote when she lives in a $25 million mansion and reads books to her dogs.”

If Tina’s story sounds familiar, it’s because it is. The story of everyday Americans was supposed to be seared into our brains in the aftermath of the 2016 election. This time, although many of the characters – and some of the issues – are different from 8 years ago, the narrative is the same. Those who have decided that Trump supporters are idiots might have amnesia.

Those who are mad at their fellow Americans for supporting Trump need to have conversations with them again. We can be mad at the Democratic Party for a platform that didn’t resonate with enough voters, or a candidate that was unable to spell out how she would be different from Biden -- but when we decide to hate our neighbors because we think they don’t know what’s good for them, we sound just like what they call us, The Elites.