In Their Own Words: A Nation’s Divided Voice Against the Democracy

Understanding America's Political Heartbeat

Photo by Alexander Mils on Unsplash

Democrats face a fundamental challenge: if they aim to reclaim and sustain political power, they must stop dismissing or demeaning Trump supporters. Insults toward the millions who voted for Donald Trump risk not only alienating a broad section of the American electorate but also deepening the political divides that already fragment the nation. For Democrats to achieve durable gains, they need to connect with Trump voters, understand their concerns, and engage them respectfully.

The term "The Democracy" was historically used in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a way to refer to the Democratic Party founded by Andrew Jackson and, by extension, its supporters, cultural groups, and associated political philosophy. This usage is now largely out of date; heck, probably only historians and political scientists even know of it these days, but at the time, it was common in political discourse, especially in newspapers, speeches, and public commentary. For example, the 1884 Democratic Party platform refers to the party agenda with the term in this way:

The Democracy pledges itself to purify the Administration from corruption to restore economy, to revive respect for law, and to reduce taxation to the lowest limit consistent with due regard to the preservation of the faith of the Nation to its creditors and pensioners.

I like the term because it can be used for more than just the Democratic Party officeholders and can refer to the networked galaxy of connected Democratic Party-aligned institutions and cultural centers. (OKAY, I like the term because I like a lot of old terms, but this is not about me; stick with me here). As I was saying, that galaxy of elites, their behavior, and their attitude have generated a lot of animosities. To me surprising amount of blowback has really come to the fore this year. There is a general and rising feeling that The Democracy has become a caricature of smug, self-assured meanness.

If Democrats want to reclaim and hold political power, they need to stop dismissing Trump supporters or those who stayed home and did not vote. Insulting millions of Americans only deepens divides and alienates a crucial voting bloc. To build a durable coalition, Democrats must connect with Trump voters, listen to their concerns, and engage with respect. And if they want to “save democracy” treating your neighbors and colleagues with a bit more charity would help. It is bad when some on the right call everyone they disagree with “communists.” Don’t be like those folks. Be like the ones who this year took time to listen to groups outside their normal circles. We can all do this. It’s a choice to care enough to listen.

Trump’s appeal tapped into a sense of disenfranchisement—voters who feel ignored by the political establishment. It keeps being said because it is true. Mocking these concerns as ignorance or bigotry ignores real anxieties about jobs, identity, and social insecurity. For many, it's less about ideology and more about respect and straight economics, about being about to see a stable future. Writing off Trump supporters as wicked conspirators with a would-be tyrant only drives them further away. Many of them are immigrants who know what tyranny looks like. They are not impressed with your rhetoric.

In a democracy, change requires dialogue, not shame. Empathy, not condemnation, for voting for the other side. Democrats don’t need to abandon all their ideals; they do need to make space for honest conversations. If they want to lead, they need to offer a hand, not a lecture. That’s the only path to real unity and lasting progress. They are not entitled to rule. Only the people are entitled to rule and they choose to vote for or against you. That’s our republic.

The Democratic Party coalition also needs to police their intellectual boundaries and rhetoric better. It really has alienated a lot of people from surprising backgrounds. I have sought out conversations with people from diverse backgrounds to get a feel of how they saw Trump verus Biden and later Trump versus Harris. And how they were responding to the Democratic Party's anti-Trump talking points. What follows is a composite narrative from conversations with immigrants, students, professionals, uber drivers, auto mechanics, friends, family, etc. No names are used and some changes were made for clarity and to protect their privacy. And let’s get this out the way: don’t assume these are my opinions.

Jan 6th was a coup attempt.

No, I have seen coups with soldiers on the street. Parliament shut down and arrested. Trump is a loudmouth, and his supporters were rowdy fools, probably drunk too. Like white college students or something. I didn’t see anyone there that looked like my people. They fought with the police and got punished. Good for them. Don’t mess with the security services. They need to go to jail for that riot…. It was a riot, not a coup. Trump is a big talker, but he did not call the army to send tanks to Capitol Hill, he did not send in the Marines you know. That’s a coup where I come from. What you had here was an idiot mob…What kind of coup has the leader taken back to the White House by his bodyguards, by the Secret Service when he wants to go to the Capitol? Crazy, that’s no coup I ever heard of right? They took him back home and no one sent in the Army to take over. Not even a clown coup.

Trump is racist

Well, you know I hear about racism all the time. This is racist, that is racist, I guess that is American then, so is Trump unusual? Seems ordinary to me. But I don’t remember him kicking minorities out of the country when he was president. He didn’t attack Latin countries, he didn’t invade Black countries, like Haiti or something. So I guess he was okay. I didn’t have this inflation now, you see. Is Biden not being racist the reason I am paying more for gas and milk because I don’t need pay more for my needs… I keep hearing the whole American power structure is racist, okay then I guess Biden is too, didn’t he and Bill Clinton do the Crime Bill that locked up all the brothers? Yeah, they did? If that is systemic racism, then they are more racist than Trump. How many brothers did he lock up? Huh? How many? You gonna tell me I’m not a Black man if I don’t vote your way. Send Obama to lecture us? He’s not like us too, like Drake. What gives you the right to talk to me like that? My people built this, and you are putting everybody ahead of me, everybody. Sending money to Ukraine when my kids’ school is underfunded. Ukraine problems are my problem? If a white country gets shot up by another white country that’s my problem? But inflation killing my savings, crime in my hood, my community, that’s not the UN problem, that’s not Ukraine’s problem, that’s not Biden’s problem. Okay then how I vote is not your problem either.

The Border

I’m sick of this border mess. Why do you think I came here? Immigrated the right way? I came here to get away from the problems in my home country. I love my family who are still there but the country has problems, our culture has problems and no wants to fix it. The rich take everything for themselves and everyone else gets used to fighting for scraps and beating on each other. The smart ones, we leave, I’m sorry it’s true. We left and came to America. To get away. And we get here and work hard for our visa and citizenship. Not like whites, cocky Democrats strutting around who don’t know anything about it…. I left to get away from the people they are letting come in illegally. If you want to come here do it the right way, millions of us have done it the right way. You think its too hard, stop crying about it. If millions of people already did it how hard do you think it is? You just don’t want to do, and you see that’s the culture I want to get away from. But you want to bring that here, stupid. Illegal border people, not my people, not my family. You born Americans try to make everything something you have to fix. It is not your job to fix that broken culture, fix yourselves…. My country doesn’t border the USA, we are not even in the hemisphere. Why should I identify - you guys really like word identify - why should I identify with border crossers? My children study more than the whites and work harder, but the whites are always trying to use diversity to lower standards or use sports to help someone achieve academic credit. What is that? They think they are clever and we are stupid, they are not doing that for the Blacks and Hispanics, they are doing because their children are spoiled and cannot keep up. They fear the tiger moms so they want to say they need to make things easier in the name of fairness. Lies, and the border is the same thing, they won’t be honest about the cost. There is a cost to bringing in large numbers of adults before the economy can absorb them. We do not have the housing stock, we do not have the facilities to have unmanaged immigration, and they want me to identify with it because my family immigrated. The false equivalence is insulting. I do not have to put up with it, and to call me racist? Sir, I am darker than them.… Why is it racist for me a Black man to want to live in a country with a secure border? Man, if white people want to feel guilty because they illegally crossed the Native Americans border and killed their people fine, they did that. But we came here in the bottom of the ships. Their ships! Not our ships. You feel me. So if I want a secure border in MY country after hundreds of years of white people enslaving and beating on us, our women and children, then I do not care if white people feel like deporting people is racist. I deserve a safe community and safe borders and to know who is coming here to live in my area and use our resources. Y’all got freedom because we fought for it, you only got the right the vote because we did it. You only get to come here and be citizens of color because we Black people made that happen. So don’t you call me racist because I want the border closed. You locked us up for dope but you can’t send them back home. That’s racism; calling me a racist cause I want the laws enforced. The lefty whites, those are the ones with some nerve.

The Culture

I want to do well in grad school, but it’s so suffocating. You constantly have to show you are vibing with this aggressive white secularism. It's like a new evangelical religion they are constantly trying to convert the natives. I’m a person of faith; all my people are. I just don’t feel like I am allowed to be myself. It is like the whites, when they were religious, were so sure they were right they tried to force everything on you while claiming to be for freedom and tolerance. If you disagreed, you were heathen. And now that they are not religious, they are still doing the same thing, forcing their beliefs on you while claiming to be tolerant, and if you hesitate a bit to agree, you are a heathen again. What new thing will they come up with next, and then the rest of us have to believe it or be damned. What’s my faith got to do with my research? I need academic support, not your dogma. Going to these white schools is hard. I am sick of it. I may not vote for Trump, but someone needs to put these people in their place and get them to chill out. If they just chill out and accept I am different, not just a Black clone of them, we will be straight and cool. I accept them, but they just “accept” me with their words; they don’t mean it.… They are literally insulting us as ignorant and uncaring.

These conversations let me know there was anger in the country and that the Democratic Party was going to lose unless it really began to talk to a growing number of non-White and religious voters who were not feeling included and were, in fact, feeling actively attacked and excluded for considering the Trump alternative. It reminds me of a lesson I try to impart to my students: if you show people you don’t care about their issues, that’s fine, but remember, they can return the favor, and that, you might not like.

But I remain an optimistic contrarian who thinks my people, the American people, are fully capable of reforming ourselves into a better democracy for everyone. Everyone.