DEMONISING TRUMP VOTERS COULD LEAD TO A SECOND TERM – LABOUR YOUTH
Labour Youth has warned that demonising Trump voters may lead to a second term.
Chair of Labour Youth Kevin Donoghue said “Firstly, we need to recognise the difference between Trump voters and Trump supporters. We should be asking ourselves why was it that after everything he said and everything he did enough people still went out and voted for him.
“This man represents the worst qualities in all of us and throughout his campaign made it quite clear that only the top 1% would benefit from a Trump Presidency. Worse still it was obvious, either by direct indication or by inference, that this man’s term in office would make the lives of many Americans even more difficult. Despite this, people still voted for him and he won states he should never have featured in.
Donoghue identified the conversation on social media about Trump’s election as particularly problematic: “We have a lot of valid critique online about Trump because he is terrible on so many levels. But there is a huge amount of ‘virtue signalling’ going on too.
“The fact of the matter is if we spent as much time asking why people were voting for him and tackling those issues as we did calling them deplorable for doing so, the U.S.A. would be inaugurating its first female President this week.
“Trump now provides a main stream alternative for people. If we continue to alienate and demonise people who don’t agree with us they now have somewhere else to go. If we are not careful we could be looking at two terms and multiple far right administrations.
“Millions of ordinary Americans have been betrayed by a system that is more interested in protecting corporate interests than its own citizens. When all of your politicians are bought and paid for you can’t help but feel frustrated. Of course, the irony is that it will now be so much worse.”
“The job in front of those fighting Trump and his administration is to show that there is an alternative out there. One that has, at its core, the American citizen. One that tackles social inequality, provides opportunity and respects all colours and creeds. The alt-right needs to be removed from main-stream – politics but we won’t do it by demonising Trump voters.”