ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Why Democrats Must Stop Demonizing Trump Supporters and Embrace a Common Core of Common Sense.
In a time of extreme polarization, we must unite around shared American ideals—securing a brighter, more inclusive future for all.
Nearly half of American voters are not thrilled by last night’s election results. In this highly partisan era, when most people cherry-pick “evidence“ that buttresses their preexisting point of view, breaking through with reason and fact is hard. Still, true to my middle child Midwestern nature, I will continue to strive to show Americans the Middle Way.
Throughout most of my writing, publishing, and political career, I’ve been merciless in my critiques of Republicans. I intensely disliked Reagan's forays in Central America and beyond and his slow response to the AIDS crisis. I was a harsh critic of Bush and Cheney’s NeoCon adventurism that left working-class men and women wounded and traumatized for life from a deceitfully sold and unnecessary war. I voted for Democrat Bill Clinton twice, campaigned for Democrats Jerry Brown and John Kerry, and helped elect Democrat Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor.
Most of my closest friends are Democrats. I deeply respect their views on areas of shared consensus: conservation of natural resources, planting a trillion trees, protecting the legal rights of LBGT Americans, my body, my choice within reason, and creating educational opportunities for those less fortunate than oneself. At the depths of my being, I am all about second chances, celebrating the authentic amateur, and fostering a wide array of cultural expression.
While I have remained true to my principles, the Democratic Party has not remained true to its own. It left me fifteen years ago and has not returned. It needs to, lest it disappear into the righteous Whig abyss.
That starts with a post-mortem examination of how you went so far off the rails in obsessively demonizing one man that you forgot that you used to be the party of peace, protecting free speech, pushing back against state censorship, lawfare, and surveillance, and celebrating diversity in all its forms. The true tyrant always says that the other guy is so horrible, the national emergency so great, that it justifies silencing him and his supporters––downranking them, blocking them, arresting them, disappearing them online and off. That is today’s Democratic Party, so viciously and hatefully determined to “Get Trump” and his supporters that it has missed the forest for the trees twice in the last three presidential elections. You guys cried one wolf one too many times. Working-class Americans were watching. They have memories. And they remember that none of the horrors you projected actually happened during Trump’s first term. He is not Hitler. He is not a fascist. He is not a racist.
Last night, the voters said STOP. Stop with your lies about his first administration, which achieved remarkable things for America and the world (read my breakdown here). STOP with your caricatures of Trump voters as “deplorables,” “Nazis,” and “garbage.” STOP, STOP, STOP. The black and Hispanic men and women I saw celebrating with me last night in New York City’s Times Square shared none of those attributes. Watch the video below again. Are these young male Trump voters deplorable? Are they garbage? Are they Nazis?
You are losing them fast. In New York City alone, Democrat majorities in the minority-dominated Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens are shrinking. Donald Trump was carried to victory by black and Hispanic men who’ve long been taken for granted by the Democratic Party, even as that party demonizes them, infantilizes them, and prioritizes a woman’s unfettered “right” to an abortion up to and including birth over healthy male ambition to be proud, to provide, to protect, and to get ahead.
In today’s Democratic Party, there is no room for most men, who are tired of playing the Peter Griffin doofus cuckold or the perp or victim in Democratic entertainment and media stereotypes. Last night, men across America said, “ENOUGH!” We are there for women, but not if we have to relegate manhood to some absurd agenda that allows biological boys in girls’ bathrooms, biological boys in girls’ sports, and a ruthless DEI agenda that prioritizes cosplay dudes over real ones and “equity” over equal opportunity.
My dear Democratic friends, please stop with the caricatures of good, decent, loving, patriotic people who merely want a better life for their family, friends, and country. Instead, let’s come together on what Trump calls a “common core of common-sense” priorities: a secure border, full employment with low inflation, reducing the intrusive role of government in our lives, depoliticizing our justice system, speaking softly while carrying a big stick in foreign affairs, and swift, sure, and short punishment for criminal wrongdoing,
When we come from a love of country, each other, and our shared imperfect American story––chased with our relentless drive for excellence without excuses––we can achieve miracles as a people. As Democrat Bill Clinton said at his First Inaugural: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
I invite you to join the new Rainbow Coalition of centrist, sensible Americans in our shared quest to Make America Great Again.