Living Behind Enemy Lines, Tale #13: "Trump Voters Are Evil"

Childish Emotion Overtakes Reason

The heartbroken 40-something woman bawled on and off throughout much of the meeting: “My parents are immigrants and they are wonderful grandparents to my daughter. How could they vote for Trump?” When someone asked if she had asked her parents why they voted for him, she replied “No, I don’t want to understand that evil. That is like trying to understand the Holocaust. Trump voters are not normal.”

TRUMP VOTERS ARE NOT AMERICANS

On January 26, 2017 I spent an evening with eleven other female attorneys^ in a law office in a burb outside Portland. The hostess leading the discussion controlled what could be said. The evening was billed as a "round table discussion" about the election, but it turned out to be a sobfest and a hatefest. Early on, it was obvious the hostess did not want to hear any thoughts that did not conform to Liberal orthodoxy. Well-reasoned, rational remarks were not allowed. It was all about emotion: the sorrow they felt because Hillary Clinton lost and the hatred they felt because Donald Trump won.

Each attendee was asked to introduce herself and explain her feelings. Each talked about her agony and hopelessness since the election, and her scorn for Trump & Trump voters. The hostess talked about visiting a therapist 3X a week because the election and inauguration made her physically ill. She had post-traumatic stress disorder, or so she claimed.

To a woman, these attendees were acting like toddlers who were mad that they did not get their way in the election. Apparently, they had been having temper tantrums ever since. By the time it was my turn to introduce myself, I knew I had best not let on that I had voted for Trump. Would I be safe? Would they kick me out of the room? I was outnumbered by these bizarre women. I merely gave them my name, where I practiced and the type of cases I handled.

Repeatedly throughout the evening, various ladies claimed Trump voters were not Americans. I sat there gobsmacked at their childishness.

WHERE DO TRUMP VOTERS LIVE?

Every lady claimed she did not know a single Trump voter: Not a neighbor, not a co-worker, not a relative. That is hard to believe given that 41.7% of voters in our county, Clackamas County, Oregon, gave their vote to Trump. (Clinton received 47.6%.) The 2016 election was not exactly a landslide for Clinton in our county. If we are to believe that these arrogant jackasses do not know a single Trump voter, there are several possible explanations:

1. Since the 1990s, Conservatives living in the Portland area have learned the fastest way to get your car or house vandalized was to display a GOP sign, or any sign or sticker expressing an idea contrary to the politically correct orthodoxy of the day. Thus, as one was driving around in 2016, one saw few Trump signs.

2. These ladies suffer from a superiority complex that prevents them from seeing/hearing what the rest of us see/hear, and keeps them at arms length from those they view as inferior. To these eleven attorneys, Trump voters were inferior. I wondered how they treat their clients once they learn they support Trump’s policies.

3. Fear. As with fear of sporting a GOP sign, many Oregonians have learned to keep their conservative ideas to themselves, especially in the workplace, for fear of social isolation, fear they won’t be promoted (this is especially true of government employees) and/or fear of being screamed at, called names, or worse.

The youngest woman at this sobfest, about age 35, told the group she grew up in Nebraska, and that she had returned home just a month earlier to celebrate Christmas with her parents. She couldn’t stand it there and left early to return to Oregon because the town was full of Trump supporters who gave her the creeps. She was “traumatized” by the many Trump signs and US flags she saw. Say what?

“NO WOMAN WILL EVER BECOME PRESIDENT!”

When Clinton's concession speech was shown, these women acted like groupies at a rock concert. "If Hillary, with all her experience, cannot get elected, no woman will ever become president!" I am assuming these braindead women will be voting for Kamala Harris in 2024 because they revealed themselves as both sexists and racists during that evening. I carefully suggested it was Clinton’s baggage, not her experience, that voters didn't like. That idea was immediately shut down. Indeed, the three or four times I carefully made a remark, the hostess with PTSD cut me off or told me that she only wanted to hear my feelings. In other words, she did not want facts or reason. I was not about to discuss my “feelings,” especially my joy at Trump’s win and Clinton’s defeat in a room that contained rioters (see below) and “Karens” who are easily triggered by “wrong speak.”

Toward the end, the only logical woman there remarked that the election was more about change than it was about the candidates.  She was allowed to finish her remarks because she was obviously a Liberal.  I tried to continue her train of thought by reminding them that voters were tired of Obama's policies, especially the poor economy, and HRC promised to continue Obama's policies.  The hostess tried to stop me from talking, but I stood up to her & hurriedly finished my thought.

Several weeks after this event I received a number of nastigrams from, not the hostess, but the head of the “women lawyers” organization who put on this sobfest/hatefest, claiming that she had received a number of complaints about me, and threatening to “turn me into the Bar.” Eventually, they did. See below.^ 

THESE LADIES WERE LIVING IN THE 1950s

What has happened to women? Reasoning and common sense have taken a backseat to selfishness and disdain for people holding their own, different ideas. Each election race has one winner, several losers. Some voters are happy and some are not. That is part of living in America, under the US Constitution.  Demanding that one always gets her way suggests arrested development. Forcing others to think as we do, suggests sociopathy.

These ladies acted like women have made no progress since the 60's, as though women are still disadvantaged under the law, still mistreated in the workplace, still denied access to professional schools, still treated like second class citizens . . . .  I felt like I was in a consciousness raising group for frustrated housewives.  The last 50 years, attitudes of both men & women had changed SO much, yet these ladies didn't seem to notice.  Sad and disgusting.

A generation ago, feminists like myself fought so hard to give women more control and more choices over their own lives. We accomplished so much! Yet, these ladies would deny half of Trump's voters, women, the right to make their own decisions! American women must only vote for Hillary Clinton! Really?

ANOTHER USE FOR MAALOX

Two 70-something women sitting near me discussed the pride they felt by participating in the on again, off again riots in downtown Portland by people full of hate toward Trump. There are a lot of haters in the Portland area. One woman advised us, if we smear Maalox on our faces, our skin will be protected from police tear gas. I thought she was kidding, but she assured me that Maalox works for that purpose.

I left both disappointed and dumbfounded, because no one wanted to discuss the many issues facing the country. They just wanted to wallow in their own misery and trash talk their fellow Americans. But, I did learn another use for Maalox.

I WANT YOUR TALE ABOUT LIVING BEHIND ENEMY LINES

My readers love my "Living Behind Enemy Lines" articles. I need more! Could you provide me with an experience or two you have had?  If you live in a Blue area, you have many stories. I will not use your name.  It can be a short story about one aspect of living in a Blue area, or a longer essay. It could be a story about an abuse you have suffered because you are a Trump supporter, or because you are Conservative, or .   .   .   .  It can be a light-hearted story or a serious story. For more info: DianeLGruber@Gmail.com.

^I wrote an Op-Ed for the Sunday Oregonian, Oregon’s largest newspaper, about this sorry event. It was published March 5, 2017 and Lars Larson read it on his radio show on March 7th, calling it a “brilliant essay.” Various versions of the article were also published in a number of smaller newspapers throughout northern Oregon. Although I did not name names, some of these “ladies” spewed threats at me. Indeed, two of them filed complaints against me with the Oregon State Bar, hoping to get me disbarred or at least cost me time, money and headaches defending against their complaints. The Bar investigated and dismissed about six months later.