The 2016 presidential election was one of the most controversial in recent history. Inflammatory statements from both sides, such as President-elect Donald Trump threatening to have Hillary Clinton arrested and Clinton calling Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables” only served to increase the tension between the parties. This is not the way Americans should interact with people who have different political beliefs.
Nov. 8 left much of the country disappointed and fearful for the future. However, I was more disappointed with the reactions of some of my fellow Democrats following the election. Comments from Democrats, such as former President Bill Clinton’s labeling of Trump supporters as “angry white men” and memes that ridiculed Trump supporters as racist and ignorant spread across social media.
Trump and some of his supporters were rightfully criticized for their divisive rhetoric, and Democrats cannot make the same mistakes. Blaming the election results on Republicans being racist and uneducated is an oversimplification of the concerns expressed by Republican voters, and it will simply alienate key demographics from the Democratic Party.
If Democrats are going to recover from the losses of the last election and gain support in other areas, we have to change the way we speak about Republicans. One of the most popular criticisms of Republicans was their stances on social issues, such as abortion and LGBTQ rights, but a 2016 poll conducted by Gallup showed that those issues were not their main priority. The most important concerns for Republicans were the economy, healthcare and national security. Criticizing Republicans for their beliefs on issues that aren’t the main focus for most of their voters will only cause frustration, not make them more open to the message of the Democratic Party.
The importance placed on the economy is especially noteworthy when one considers the surprising switch by some of the Rust Belt states to red states in the last election — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Those states have been hard hit by the decline in factory jobs, and Trump campaigned heavily to convince voters in those areas that he would bring those jobs back. He succeeded, and the switch of those states cost Clinton the election.
All of the aforementioned states went to President Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections. The accusation that Trump’s victory was mainly due to racism falls apart because many of those voters supported Obama. The insults and failure to acknowledge the mistakes made in these states may permanently alienate many of these key demographics in future elections.
Polls conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2016 also showed that many of Trump’s infamous comments, such as his remarks about undocumented immigrants, are not a fair representation of most Republicans. The majority of Republicans believe undocumented immigrants are as honest and hard-working as U.S. citizens and support a path to citizenship for the ones currently living in the country.
During the coming years, Democrats must make sure that their criticism of Trump and his policies doesn’t turn into personally attacking fellow voters. We should focus on reiterating why we support the Democratic Party and how its policies can help the American people. All of America’s citizens deserve to have their viewpoints respected and considered by both political parties.
Trump won 194 swing state counties that supported Barack Obama in the past. These are
voters who have voted Democrat in the past and can vote Democrat in the future, but only if we can prove we have solutions to the problems they face.
Osie Evans is a 20-year-old English junior from Natchitoches, Louisiana.