Wenatchee Rising: Love Trumps Hate
Wenatchee Rising's intention is to facilitate discussion about racism, sexism, and classism. As well as non-violent direct action to raise awareness about the sexist, racist president-elect. We intend to fight forward for a just transition, peoples basic human rights must be respected.
Here is a local organizers comment on the issue:
"The issue isn't that all Trump supporters are active racists, bigots and sexists. They are still very frightening but I think we need a more nuanced understanding of why.
Some of his supporters obviously are bigots. He was endorsed by David Duke and the KKK, and his campaign engaged in abhorrent and hateful rhetoric and proposed overtly discriminatory policies. I feel completely fine labeling Donald Trump himself a bigot, a racist, a sexist and generally a hateful and dangerous candidate.
However many of his supporters at least attempt to distance themselves from the most distasteful aspects of his campaign and emerging platform. In many of the interviews with Trump supporters during and after the campaign they expressed discomfort and concern for his statements and behavior. But while they may disagree with these stances and opinions, while they may find many of Donald Trump's statements or actions repugnant, they don't think they are beyond the pale of American politics. Millions of people think while it might be distasteful to be endorsed by the KKK, call for a ban on an entire religious group, threaten to use nuclear weapons, jail your political opponent and muzzle the media and brag about sexually assaulting women, in the end they don't see it as that big of a deal. It's not that they voted for Trump because he said these things, but that they weren't enough to make them NOT vote for him.
It's a subtle distinction, but understanding exactly what troubles us is important, especially if we hope to bring some segment of this base back into a progressive fold.
The wording isn't quite right yet but it's something like the difference in how this plays:
"I'm upset because your vote for Trump shows you support bigotry and hate"
Versus how this plays:
"It upsets me that you don't think Trump's hateful and bigoted comments and policies are important enough to worry about"
I would love to hear from folks who are talking to old friends, relatives, classmates, co-workers etc. about this distinction and hear any feedback on field-tests of this kind of language and discussion framing."
"We need to keep a few things in mind.
1. There was no Trump wave. He was not a hugely popular candidate. Trump actually received fewer votes than Mitt Romney did in 2012. The Republican voting base is continuing to shrink! The problem in this election is that Obama's base didn't vote or didn't vote in the Presidential election - 90,000 people in Michigan voted in local races but not in the Presidency. Given that people 18-25 OVERWHELMINGLY voted for Hilary Clinton the promise of Demographic change destroying Republican and right wing power still holds out.
2. Trump did not ride into office on a White Working Class vote. In fact if you are a white person, the more money you made the more likely you were to vote for Trump (Unless you are a college educated woman). White working class people matter a ton because those are the folks we can organize and give another path too - not because they are Trump's core base."
Let's rise together!