Dear Editor,
As an independent who voted for Trump, I am writing to express my thesis on why Trump won the election by such a wide margin. With an onslaught of celebrities protesting the election, practically all of whom have never had to struggle with their grocery bill, the cost of gas, or the price of housing, and many people saying they “don’t understand how Americans elected Trump again,” I feel that this needs to be said.
The average working-class person can consider themselves lucky to make $600-$700 a week, unfortunately $500 is more common. This is something that Cardi B, Ariana Grande, and Bruce Springsteen could never relate to as they stand on stage preaching empty words. With the cost of simple foods such as eggs having nearly tripled in price, many Americans, even ones who have never been fond of Trump, are struggling to keep up with the groceries, mortgage, and general cost of living, all with the hopes of one day sending their children to college. The average young married couple has to both work full-time jobs just to pay the rent.
If you’re a Hollywood elite, these are things you have never even had to imagine struggling with, but for the average citizen, it throws their entire world into uncertainty. This has caused a dramatic shift in the general mindset of voters compared to four years ago.
The general rhetoric of those fearing another Trump presidency seems to be mainly regarding LGBT rights, racial justice, and abortion, with many people once again throwing around the word “fascism” without knowing what it really means, let alone ever having experienced actual fascism. Regardless of what your opinion may be on these subjects, they do not correlate to the survival of the average citizen.
I remember this same rhetoric being used against him after he won in 2016, and pretty much none of those fears ever came to fruition, and certainly not in the context used by alarmists. LGBT citizens did not have their rights taken away, legal citizens with different skin colors were upheld to the same laws as white folks, and Trump ultimately just made abortion access a state legislation. If anything, there were simply less DEI initiatives, and a person had to wait until they were 18 to obtain gender reassignment surgery. If this sounds like fascism to you, think about concentration camps during WWII, and compare the two. It’s not something that justifies the American population living in near-poverty.
That said, the average American is struggling to survive with a roof over their head, they simply can’t sustain the current cost of living. It’s unfortunate that many people cannot understand that, but it’s not our problem. People are sick of being pressured by political narratives that do not help them, and they simply want to live with financial sustainability again.
We’re not obligated to starve in order to preserve the feelings of those who are more privileged.
Matt B.
