Why They Voted for Trump

MARCH 2, 2016 [New York Times]

In today’s New York Times, an article appeared; some of Trump’s voters were interviewed and explained why they voted for Donald Trump. It was telling, and I thought I’d share the article with you¾with my responses     to them. I could think of no other way to respond to these people, but I felt the need to respond because their reasons for their vote seemed to me to reek of a lack of thoughtful basic research.

Voters in the Super Tuesday states explain, in their own words, why they supported the day’s big Republican winner.

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“I got six kids. It’s difficult. To have them grow up and be respectable and decent members of society is important. His kids aren’t running around like Paris Hilton and dragging their bodies through the mud.”  And Hillary Clinton’s daughter, a graduate of Stanford, is not a decent member of society?  

Albert Banda, 59

Somerville, Mass.

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“He has such a big ego — that actually works in our favor, I think. He doesn’t just want to be a president. He wants to be the greatest president. He doesn’t want to be a laughingstock.” He already is a laughingstock in much of the world. Worse, we are a laughingstock for letting him get this far. People are shaking their heads and wondering whether we’ve been drinking Kool-Aid. He must be the most unqualified candidate for high office since … gee, maybe George W?

Elizabeth Burns, 55

Leesburg, Va.

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“He’s not afraid to get in the trenches and fight for you. He’s going to be a bully, and he’s going to tell them what he thinks, and he’s going to push to get it done. He don’t care who he makes mad in the process.”  And the truth about bullies is that they are really cowards, and they bellow to keep people from seeing their fear. They expect everyone will just let them get their his way. And Trump  pushes so hard because he is for himself. He has always been for himself, so why change now?

Mark Harris, 48

Canton, Ga.

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“The same with Muslims getting on airplanes: I think we should spend 25 times as much time searching a Muslim young man than a white middle-aged woman. It’s just common sense, even though it sounds like prejudice.”  But they do security checks and that’s how they caught the guy with the bomb in his shoe and the car bomb at Times Square before any damage was done. You may not have noticed all the security that’s going on because, usually, no one notices if nothing happens. We surely notice when something happens and in this large country, yes, things have happened, but a small percentage of what was planned. Could we do it better? Always. But don’t think nothing is being done¾and it is within the law (and that’s important because if we decided not to have laws about this, then we could be the next to be picked up if someone decided, hey, I can get back at my neighbor for whatever by reporting this person¾ and without rule of law, well …).

John Rupert, 75

Mahtomedi, Minn.

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“More or less, it’s the statement: Listen, we’re sick and tired of what you people do. And we’re going to put somebody in there — now that it’s our choice, we’re going to put somebody in there that basically you don’t like.”  I would respond to this if I understood what this guy was talking about.  Who are “you people”?  Isn’t he one of the people? Aren’t we all one of the people? Is this Ken one of the people who identifies with the Trump slogan, “I’m going to make this country white (oops, great) again.”“

Ken Magno, 69

Everett, Mass.

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“You’re letting refugees in, after what we’ve been through with 9/11? Are you kidding me? No! No, no, no. Now we have a bunch of people being killed, we’ve got ISIS cutting people’s heads off.” Please, Pam, don’t panic. So far, heads are not rolling in this country although it is true that in some of these Middle Eastern countries, terrorists are acting like terrorists and murdering people. But we do have a strong country and much as you probably won’t believe me, George W maybe slept on the job, but Obama seems to have kept awake. Hey, he caught bin Laden, didn’t he? As well as a bunch of other terrorist leaders. Yeah, we’re not finished, but he’s got people on it, and it seems with good success.

Pam Fisher, 52

Edina, Minn.