Trump Supporters, You Own This. Be Honest and Claim it.

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

I do not condemn everyone that voted for Trump in the same way. When it comes to white workers and white workers whose lives and material conditions have been savaged the past few decades by Democratic and Republican administrations alike, I approach them differently to other white workers like my former co-workers who were fortunate enough have landed in one of the best jobs for blue collar workers that exist in this country. Yes, we are under attack like all workers here in the US. But a job like the one I had and retired from was one in a million. In fact, it is not a US job, it is a job more akin to what we would find in the social democracies like Germany or Norway. It is, as I say to some of my friends, a "socialist" job. It's a public sector job, and the public sector is under fierce assault now. In the US I have been told that a national health plan is socialism or even communism by the way.

For my former co-workers, the white ones, that proudly applaud Trump, I have no time at all for your hypocrisy and, to be honest, your motives are always suspect. It is either racial prejudice, xenophobia or a combination of the two that motives you to support a president who also wants to put an end to jobs like the one you have now and the one that gave me a living and a retirement that is the envy of millions of people. I am not ashamed of it. I don't feel guilty, I just feel lucky and grateful I came to the US at the time I did and found the employment where I did. We are a fortunate group and I want all workers to receive a decent living and retirement. Perhaps, I will add in reflection, that a third reason for being gung ho on Trump is you are simply not the brightest bulb in the pack. But it's hard for me to be forgiving given Trump's own words that are hard to misinterpret.

I also approach a small business person differently and I'm talking here about the plumber, the locksmith, the coffee shop or liquor store owner, not a 250 employee tech firm in Sunnyvale. This section of society, or individuals in this group I have talked to voted for the Predator in Chief in many cases for financial reasons only. This is a section of our class society that is sandwiched between two powerful class forces, the working class on one side and big business on the other. I met many of these individuals who were very envious and wished they had a job like mine. Their existence is precarious and they have to finance their own retirements and health care for example. Those that weren't already racially unsound or anti immigrant, closed their eyes and ears to Trump's racism and misogyny and voted for some financial relief. I get it.

I understand that because it's what people do if they don't see a way out or a means of advancing their material existence through a united class conscious movement. It's not unlike the workplace. There are only two sources of power in the workplace, the bosses and the organized workers. If the workers are not organized then the bosses' office is the only source of power and it is there that workers will turn in what is now an every man or woman for themselves atmosphere. Security is relating to the employer in an organized collective way.  And we can all do this, ignore the plight of others and hope we're not next.

As I have mentioned many times, a major blame for the rise of Trump falls on the shoulders of the heads of organized labor in the US, the leaders of the national trade union movement with some 14 millions members. Their failure to defend the interests of all workers, including their own members, has contributed to the present situation. Their refusal to use the resources they have at their command to build an alternative political party that workers can join, build and use in our interests has allowed the degenerate Trump to fill the vacuum that they have helped create. I accept that Democrats are in the main no different. Not on the basics. But Trump is particularly odious. A fortunate son that has never worked in his life.

But I will end with this. Those co-workers of mine and workers throughout the country who mistakenly thought Trump was different have the opportunity to reflect on this and retreat from this position. I have more respect for the 100 million that abstained from the election they are so disgusted with the choices. What you see in the video above is a direct result of Trump's racist and xenophobic assault on Latino's in particular. The increased attacks on Jews, blacks, and all immigrants is the result of Trump's behavior, he's given the most backward elements of society confidence, the confidence to come in to the open a bit more. In a sense this is a good thing as they have always been there and it's best we deal with it, but he has given them the green light and will have given answers, albeit false ones, to those whose ignorance about how the system in which they live functions has them searching for why their lives offer little hope for a future and immigrants and the poor are an easy target. This is another area where the heads of organized labor has failed dismally.

A guy from my workplace said in answer to my question as to why he supported Trump that he promised to "Make America Great Again." Well that tells me nothing, Hitler said that. But  you can't get away with meaningless statements like that, I will call you out. And I will call you out in this way. What you see in the video above, you own it, you must defend the action above by this white racist or retreat from your position; you have a responsibility to defend your ideas and not shirk that responsibility. Trump was endorsed by the Nazi's and the KKK, you must proudly and openly proclaim your support for these fascists; this is  not a game. You support the rape and sexual abuse of women. You support the shifting of resources form the rich and taking them from the poor and working class; yet you have had the luxury of the one of the best jobs the US can offer the American worker. You support opening up all our precious lands and giving energy companies free rein to exploit them. You support the massacre of 100,000 people in Yemen (and Obama is responsible for that too). You are defending racism. Be honest with your co-workers who are Latinos, black folks, women, be honest with the world and yourself, and say you are defending these values.

I'm not arguing from a Democratic Party position. I realize this political party has participated in the assault on the material conditions of the US worker and is in some ways worse as it plays the "good cop" in the good cop bad cop game the two capitalist parties play in order to extract as much as they can from the US working class. But Trump is particularly odious and the present Republican Party has ingested right wing religious fanatics and white nationalists, that many old time genuine conservatives find  repulsive. The world is changing and the oldest capitalist party in the world, the British Tories is at the end of its days. We need our own party in the US that's for sure.

But that argument is for another time.