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In this episode, the columnist Nicholas Kristof argues that Democrats should focus their criticism on Donald Trump instead of the people who are voting for him.
Below is a lightly edited transcript of the audio piece. To listen to this piece, click the play button below.
Nicholas Kristof: Usually column writing is a one-way street, and we pontificate and tell the world what we think. Instead, today I’ve invited some people who really disagreed with a column to speak up and set me right.
I want to persuade readers. I want to win them over on issues that I care deeply about. That’s why I am a columnist. And I think I’m more likely to win people over if I treat their criticism seriously and engage with them. And that’s what I’m trying to do right now.
Let me tell you about my column first. Bill Clinton gave me the idea, actually. I thought he gave a terrific speech at the Democratic National Convention, saying that Democrats should engage people whom they disagree with.
Audio clip of Bill Clinton: I urge you to meet people where they are. I urge you not to demean them, but not to pretend you don’t disagree with them if you do. Treat them with respect, just the way you’d like them to treat you.
Kristof: So I wrote a piece arguing that Clinton is exactly right and that Democrats in particular should go after Donald Trump himself, but should really try to avoid the impulse to demean all Trump voters. We have enough dehumanization in American politics, enough anger, that we don’t need to add to it.
Maybe not surprisingly, a lot of my fellow liberals disagreed with the column. There were thousands of comments on it, and some of them made some very fair points in disagreeing with me.
I thought I would try to address some of those concerns.
Clip of Jordan: I’m Jordan, from Kansas City, Mo. Back in 2016, I reserved some judgment for folks who were swept up in Trump’s lies about taking on corrupt institutions and uplifting the forgotten reaches of the country. Instead, he did what the G.O.P. always does: cater to the rich and powerful at the expense of the working class. He has the very image of corruption in politics, and after Jan. 6, every American should have been repulsed by the idea of him returning to power. I’m sorry, but I’m fresh out of sympathy for these deluded souls. They can cry victim all they want, but if they seriously believe Trump is the answer to their problems, they’re either lying to themselves or lying about their true intentions. Enough is enough.
Kristof: Jordan, I think you’re absolutely right that Trump and, more broadly, the G.O.P. has been of zero help to those working-class voters. But why wouldn’t you have sympathy for people who’ve been left behind and in their desperation turn to a false prophet? These are folks whose life expectancy has fallen, who are struggling with early death.
Yesterday I was talking to a friend whose car had broken down, and he needed two dollars for a bolt to fix his car and he couldn’t afford two dollars. He didn’t have two dollars.
I think it’s easy from a position of privilege to wag fingers and say: “Why don’t these folks understand?” But one of the reasons the U.S. historically has not had better, more socially conscious policies is a complete lack of empathy among conservatives for those who are struggling. I don’t want to see liberals now follow along and likewise give up on empathy and blame the victims.
Clip of Robert: I’m Robert, from Woodland, Calif. I take exception to Mr. Kristof patronizing Democrats and instructing them how to address Donald Trump’s supporters. Yes, there are those supporters who have suffered addiction and hardship, but that this might logically lead them to support a criminal and potential dictator — it is simply a bridge too far. Besides, many Trump supporters can’t even plead hardship as an excuse. They include the wealthy, the angry and the just plain ignorant.
Kristof: Robert, I think you make a very valid point that plenty of Trump supporters are affluent and don’t have a good excuse. But there are a lot of working-class voters who are drawn to Trump precisely because they have been left behind. I’m much more sympathetic to them.
One of the things that I think complicates this is there has been this big educational shift in the electorate. In 1992, Bill Clinton got about two-thirds of white working-class votes, but now, Trump has been getting about 60 percent of those voters. So Democrats, I think, pioneered empathy toward working-class voters. I think of Franklin Roosevelt in particular:
Clip of Franklin Roosevelt: These unhappy times call for the building up of plans that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
Kristof: That was a time when there were many working-class white Americans who were profoundly bigoted and antisemitic and racist and sexist. Yet F.D.R. didn’t catalog their shortcomings and say, “Oh, well, you don’t really deserve empathy.” Rather, he reached out. He acknowledged their pain. And he won elections and created this democratic majority for decades to come. So I’d like to see us recover some of that empathy and some of that ethos.
I also think that American politics could desperately use a certain amount of humility. One of the things that I think my generation maybe was fortunate about was that liberals like myself, who grew up in the 1960s and ’70s, we saw firsthand how dumb our own side could be. One of the great political misjudgments was that of the left in the 1960s and ’70s and the tendency to embrace communism or Maoism. And maybe that inoculated us to some degree from this sense that we’re always going to be the virtuous ones who get it right.
From my point of view, conservatives have been unusually wrong over the last few decades: wrong on civil rights, wrong on gay rights, wrong on women’s rights, et cetera. And I think that has resulted in a certain amount of hubris on the left. I think that it’s worth pushing back at that.
We all have a tendency to screw up, and I think that perspective, perhaps, can give us a little more sense of respect and civility for those who disagree with us.
The post Nicholas Kristof: Readers Respond to My Column on Trump Voters appeared first on New York Times.