The Opinions - Nicholas Kristof: Readers Respond to My Column on Trump Voters

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

In this episode, the columnist Nicholas Kristof argues that Democrats should focus their criticism on Donald Trump instead of Trump voters.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is The Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times opinion. You've heard the news. Here's what to make of it. I'm Nicholas Christoph. I'm a columnist at the New York Times. Usually column writing is a one-way street and we pontificate and tell the world what we think. And instead, today, I've invited some people who really disagreed with a column to speak up and set me right. Now, 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. In it, I quoted Bill Clinton in his speech to the Democratic National Convention in which he said, it's important to try to persuade voters we disagree with, and we do that by listening to them rather than by demeaning them. 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. 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 as racist, as bigots, as idiots. I argue that that is counterproductive at a practical level because it's really hard to win votes from people that you're calling idiots.

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, you know, in the interest of having a thoughtful discussion about this. I'm Jordan from Kansas City, Missouri. 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 GOP always does, cater to the rich and powerful at the expense of the working class.

He is the very image of corruption in politics, and after January 6th, 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 a 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. So, Jordan, I think you're absolutely right that Trump and more broadly the GOP has been a 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 profit? These are folks whose life expectancy has fallen, who are struggling with early death. Yesterday I was talking to a friend who's car had broken down, and he needed $2 for a bolt to fix his car, and he couldn't afford $2. He didn't have $2. 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 why the U.S. historically has not had better, more socially conscious policies is a complete lack of empathy among you.

conservatives for those who are struggling. And I don't want to see liberals now follow along and likewise give up on empathy and blame the victims. I'm Robert Millsap from Woodland, California. I take exception to Mr. Christoff, 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 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.

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 and Leppine. I'm much more sympathetic to them. And 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, like FDR, I think pioneered empathy toward working-class voters. These unhappy times call for plans that build from the bottom up and not from the top down

that put their face once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Now, that was a time when there were many working class white Americans who were profoundly bigoted and anti-Semitic and racist and sexist, yet FDR 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. So I'd like to see us to 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, you know, grew up in the 1960s and 70s, we saw firsthand how dumb our own side could be.

You know, one of the great political misjudgments was that of the left in the 60s and 70s and the tendency to embrace communism or Maoism. And maybe that inoculated us to some degree from the sense that we're always going to be the virtuous ones who get it. right. You know, 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, etc. And I think that has resulted in a certain amount of hubris on the left. I think it's worth pushing back at that. We all have a tendency to screw up. And I think that that perspective perhaps can give us a little more sense of respect and civility for those who disagree with us. If you like this show, follow it on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This show is produced by Derek Arthur, Sophia Alvarez Boyd, Veshaka, Fiby Lett, Christina Samuoski, and Jillian Weinberger. It's edited by Kari Pitkin, Alison Bruzek, and Annie Rose Strasser. Engineering, Mixing, and Original Music by Isaac Jones, Sonia Herrero, Pat McCusker, Carol Sabarro, and Afim Shapiro. Additional music by Amin Sahota. The fact check team is Kate Sinclair, Mary Marge Locker, and Michelle Harris. Audience Strategy by Shannon Busta,

Christina Samueluski, and Adrian Rivera. The executive producer of Times Opinion Audio is Annie Rose Dresser.