To all the defenders of democracy in America who desperately don’t want to see Trump be reelected because he disregards the Constitution, it’s time to recognize that telling voters that Trump is a threat to democracy isn’t effective. We need to recognize that anyone still considering a vote for Trump has already seen all they are willing to see regarding his actions on January 6th or any of his other actions that undermine our constitutional order and have concluded he still might be the best available choice.
Our challenge now and going forward—beyond November, regardless of the outcome—is to offer them a better path forward. That will require that we understand what they want and need and offer real solutions.
There will be the Steve Bannon’s, Josh Hawley’s, Jim Jordan’s, Tucker Carlson’s etc. (it’s a long list) who absolutely don’t care about maintaining democracy in America but the vast majority of people would be happy to keep democracy so long as they feel that they are actually being heard. It’s important that we recognize that as much danger to democracy as another Trump term poses, there is a larger danger (exacerbated by the Trump term we already endured) and that is the danger of voters who see democracy as a system that ignores their very real needs or even undermines their efforts to live happy and productive lives.
No matter how much we fear what Trump could do we need to greet voters by showing them hope for how we can use our system to address their needs and make life better.
