Life On A B-I7

Day #364

Who votes for Donald Trump? Insecure white men for sure. (That includes Christian Nationalists from Idaho.) The election of 2024 has become a referendum on race, gender, and all manner of life choices. (It was in fact even prior to Vice-President Kamala Harris entering the race.) The country has been leaning towards toxic masculinity for the last decade or so, and the trend continues. This is not just a United States phenomenon but is being echoed around the globe.

A fireman in Greece asked me who I was going to vote for in November. I like to keep face-to-face, political, discussions, lighthearted, so I told him Harris because “Trump is crazier than I am.” he replied to me, in all seriousness, saying Trump was the better choice of the two. I probably should’ve pursued the conversation a bit further, but frankly, I wasn’t interested. It’s probably rash of me to assume that all firemen are the same everywhere in the world (I’m sure that’s not true) but I found his answer reflective, if not at least typical of his profession. What did surprise me is that this was coming from someone living in a country whose economy could be seriously harmed by the election of Trump.

I find it difficult to fight back against such absurd views.

I consider myself a liberal, not in the sense of whom I should vote for, but in the sense espoused by the post enlightenment philosopher John Stewart Mill. That is, someone who believes in standing for the rights of individuals, consent of the governed, political equality, private-property rights, and equality before the law. nowhere in Mills political thought did the role of race or gender come into consideration.