Don't Believe What They Say

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” - Maya Angelou

“When someone tells you who they are, doubt them every time.” - Me

I still hear talk that Trump supporters are decent people who voted for him because of economic anxiety, not racial prejudice. Ask them and that’s what they’ll say. But there’s a world of difference between what someone tells you and what they show you. Believe actions, not words.

Trump’s economic policy was all over the place during his campaign. Americans can’t compete because our wages are too high, but we should raise the minimum wage. We need to cut taxes for everyone but also decrease the deficit. Wall Street is corrupt but don’t take policy advice from poor people. Incoherence, ignorance, and incompetence. So to suggest that people supported his economic vision was to insult their intelligence: he offered no vision and his gilded words were transparently false. To think people bought his schtick is to think very little of them.

And since his administration has started it’s been worse. Tax plans that favor the wealthy and increase the burden on single, middle-class parents. A cabinet full of Goldman Sachs executives and billionaires. A healthcare plan whose only consistency is a huge tax cut for the rich. Still no details on infrastructure, no real increase in job growth, and a steady decline in growth forecasts. But his base is still with him. They’ll tell you he’s improved our economy and they are optimistic. None of that is true or rational.

What has been consistent is his bigotry. His attacking and denigrating those with dark skin and different religious beliefs. He started his political career by slandering a black President, launched his campaign by denigrating Mexicans, and received loud cheers bashing Muslims. In fact, bigotry-based actions like the Muslim Ban and increased immigration enforcement are the only areas of success his administration has had.

Does it make more sense to believe Trump supporters are stupid rubes who don’t understand much of anything about our economy and support tax breaks for the wealthy, or to believe they (being mostly white) have racial anxiety and rationally support the man who is taking concrete steps to help secure the supremacy of white Christians in this country. I don’t have to ask them to know what their reasons are - they’ve shown me plenty.