Ahead of Election Day 2024, the Fulcrum launched We the People, a series elevating the voices and visibility of the persons most affected by the decisions of elected officials.
Now, we continue the series to learn if the Donald Trump administration is meeting the voters' motivations for voting in the 2024 presidential election.
Not everyone was comfortable sharing their picture and full name. We respected their wishes.
Gabriel Cardona-Fox, 53, educator, New Jersey
I've never felt more depressed or hopeless about the fate of the world and my country since Trump took office. He is rapidly dismantling our democratic institutions, wrecking our economy, and soiling our international reputation in a way I never thought possible. The tariffs are essentially a tax on the rest of us to pay for a tax break for the very wealthy. This chaotic and misguided policy is sinking our entire economy and setting the stage for a system of crony capitalism, something akin to Putin’s Russia.
What I'm least satisfied with is the weak opposition from the Democrats and the failure of some institutions (i.e. Columbia University, law firms, and media companies) to show resistance. The only glimmer of hope I see is the courageous actions of a few isolated individuals and institutions. I think the ACLU, some judges, communities, Harvard, and other universities are beginning to stand up to Trump's dictatorial ambitions, but they don't yet resemble like an organized movement.
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His party and the economic establishment are behaving like a herd of pusillanimous sycophants, and the Democrats seem powerless to stop him. The president is doing just what he promised to do. The framers of Project 2025 could not be happier. I just did not expect it to happen so quickly and with so little organized resistance. The damage Trump has done in the past 100 days will take generations to repair. We may very well be looking at the downfall of the American empire.
It's worse than I expected, even though we all knew what he said he was going to do. Nothing specific to the anti-gay and anti-trans movements. The rhetoric around trans women and trans people in general has been blown out of proportion over the last eight years. I am so happy I'm living in Colorado. It's one of the few states where I feel safe enough not to be freaked out all the time. But yes, in the trans community, we're all worried about what Trump is going to do.
We are worried about going to states like Texas, where there is a legislative proposal that if the gender markers on your driver's license or passport do not match your birth certificate, you can be arrested for fraud. I can't go to Texas. Those are the kinds of laws I'm afraid of. I'm only going to give my business to Colorado and to states where I feel like I'm accepted and welcomed, and that number is getting smaller and smaller, unfortunately. I am also afraid for young trans people now. I fear young kids will have to stay in the closet, and I’m afraid they might commit suicide. You know that the transgender community has the highest suicide rate in the country? My message to them is that there are resources available. Find out which states are good for transgender people, like Illinois, Colorado, and others. There is even a national transgender hotline that you can call for help. Do that.
I am aghast at how well-organized these nefarious activities have unfurled. I didn't believe project 2025 was literally their game plan, but evidently it is. They are so assiduously dismantling truly important institutions in the federal government. We could talk about USAID, about the Justice Department, the Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, and the nominations for cabinet-level positions. They are a joke. They've populated the cabinet with intentionally inept, unqualified people.
When it comes to tariffs, they are objectively moronic. The GOP has surrendered tariff control to the executive. They are cowardly and unpatriotic. I believe that Trump is a Russian asset, ever since the 80s in New York, and his connections with Russia. I am convinced of his bad character, evil, and selfish intent. He has the morals of an alley cat. It is also an aberration of the Electoral College and a unique set of societal conditions that gave him a razor-thin victory that enabled him to do this kind of destruction.
It is the fault of the propaganda that's been lying to so many people and the failure of our public education in the realm of civics. This is what we've ended up with: folks who can't think for themselves and are inculcated in this culture of right-wing lying and spinning. What we're seeing is a powerful cult, and it's going to take powerful deprogramming to bring some of our countrymen back to their senses.
Overall, I am feeling positive and optimistic about Trump’s first weeks in office. He has exceeded my expectations as to both the speed and breadth of change. He has pursued accomplishment of his campaign promises from day one. President Trump’s broad change initiatives are even a little fast for a lifelong Southern conservative like me. But for once, I see energy and real action, not just talk, committee hearings, and spin. Just take the southern border as a single example. As Trump said, “We did not need new laws to secure the southern border, we just needed a president who wanted to secure it.”
The things I am least satisfied with are the things I have always been least satisfied when Trump is involved. From the first day he become a political candidate, I have wished he would think a little more before speaking his “uncensored mind.” After 10+ years, I now accept Trump’s unrestrained speech as an assurance of transparency. What you see is what you get.
I see the new Administration actively working on securing the Southern border, balance the annual federal budget and shrink the size of the federal government, end fighting and money drain in Ukraine, end fighting in Gaza with the return of hostages, return education administration to the states, return critical supply chains to the US, and bring common sense back to our federal government. I want President Trump to be successful in every issue. However, if he can find paydirt on half, I will be happy. President Trump will face severe and persistent opposition as he pursues “Draining the Swamp.” He may have only two years until the country tires of the turmoil this “draining” entails. I wish him well.
We went from hell to another version of a different hell. The Democratic Party lost this election. Why? Because the Democrats have become elitist. They have stopped listening to the middle and lower classes. Biden used to refer to the “kitchen table.” He totally forgot about the kitchen table. When you have white, angry, middle, and lower-class American voters, they turn to Trump because he is an actor. He says exactly what everybody wants him to say, but he doesn't give a damn about what Americans want. If he achieves anything, it's in his own interest.
And Elon Musk is there for Elon Musk. We are looking at a coup d'état. Every dictator creates a lot of noise, and so you don’t see what is going on. It's a playbook. And we're all being played. I think what Americans lack is education. The American educational system is created to produce nonthinkers. They want you to be distracted and completely busy. So, you just become a follower. The lack of knowledge on how tariffs will impact all Americans is scary. When the impact hits all sectors of our economy and the working class, I hope there will be a national movement to stop the insanity.
In what democracy can you show up, not show a badge or identify yourself, and pick a young student off the street in Boston? It's called kidnapping. That is authoritarian. This is Putin's style. This is what Trump loves. As an Arab American who is a US citizen, I don’t feel safe here now because it is not just Arab Americans. You must always think, when they come after you, who is going to be next?
The Fulcrum is committed to regularly reaching out to people across the U.S. and capturing their views on President Trump’s second term. We strive to gather opinions that represent a diverse range of voices and life experiences across the United States. If you are interested in sharing your views in the future, please don’t hesitate to drop us an email. We will consider it when the time for our next survey comes around. Send us your comments and photo to Newsroom@fulcrum.us
Beatrice Spadacini is a freelance journalist for the Fulcrum. Spadacini writes about social justice and public health.
Ahead of Election Day 2024, the Fulcrum launched We the People, a series elevating the voices and visibility of the persons most affected by the decisions of elected officials.
Now, we continue the series to learn if the Donald Trump administration is meeting the voters' motivations for voting in the 2024 presidential election.
Not everyone was comfortable sharing their picture and full name. We respected their wishes.
Gabriel Cardona-Fox, 53, educator, New Jersey
I've never felt more depressed or hopeless about the fate of the world and my country since Trump took office. He is rapidly dismantling our democratic institutions, wrecking our economy, and soiling our international reputation in a way I never thought possible. The tariffs are essentially a tax on the rest of us to pay for a tax break for the very wealthy. This chaotic and misguided policy is sinking our entire economy and setting the stage for a system of crony capitalism, something akin to Putin’s Russia.
What I'm least satisfied with is the weak opposition from the Democrats and the failure of some institutions (i.e. Columbia University, law firms, and media companies) to show resistance. The only glimmer of hope I see is the courageous actions of a few isolated individuals and institutions. I think the ACLU, some judges, communities, Harvard, and other universities are beginning to stand up to Trump's dictatorial ambitions, but they don't yet resemble like an organized movement.
Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter
His party and the economic establishment are behaving like a herd of pusillanimous sycophants, and the Democrats seem powerless to stop him. The president is doing just what he promised to do. The framers of Project 2025 could not be happier. I just did not expect it to happen so quickly and with so little organized resistance. The damage Trump has done in the past 100 days will take generations to repair. We may very well be looking at the downfall of the American empire.
It's worse than I expected, even though we all knew what he said he was going to do. Nothing specific to the anti-gay and anti-trans movements. The rhetoric around trans women and trans people in general has been blown out of proportion over the last eight years. I am so happy I'm living in Colorado. It's one of the few states where I feel safe enough not to be freaked out all the time. But yes, in the trans community, we're all worried about what Trump is going to do.
We are worried about going to states like Texas, where there is a legislative proposal that if the gender markers on your driver's license or passport do not match your birth certificate, you can be arrested for fraud. I can't go to Texas. Those are the kinds of laws I'm afraid of. I'm only going to give my business to Colorado and to states where I feel like I'm accepted and welcomed, and that number is getting smaller and smaller, unfortunately. I am also afraid for young trans people now. I fear young kids will have to stay in the closet, and I’m afraid they might commit suicide. You know that the transgender community has the highest suicide rate in the country? My message to them is that there are resources available. Find out which states are good for transgender people, like Illinois, Colorado, and others. There is even a national transgender hotline that you can call for help. Do that.
I am aghast at how well-organized these nefarious activities have unfurled. I didn't believe project 2025 was literally their game plan, but evidently it is. They are so assiduously dismantling truly important institutions in the federal government. We could talk about USAID, about the Justice Department, the Department of Education, the National Institutes of Health, and the nominations for cabinet-level positions. They are a joke. They've populated the cabinet with intentionally inept, unqualified people.
When it comes to tariffs, they are objectively moronic. The GOP has surrendered tariff control to the executive. They are cowardly and unpatriotic. I believe that Trump is a Russian asset, ever since the 80s in New York, and his connections with Russia. I am convinced of his bad character, evil, and selfish intent. He has the morals of an alley cat. It is also an aberration of the Electoral College and a unique set of societal conditions that gave him a razor-thin victory that enabled him to do this kind of destruction.
It is the fault of the propaganda that's been lying to so many people and the failure of our public education in the realm of civics. This is what we've ended up with: folks who can't think for themselves and are inculcated in this culture of right-wing lying and spinning. What we're seeing is a powerful cult, and it's going to take powerful deprogramming to bring some of our countrymen back to their senses.
Overall, I am feeling positive and optimistic about Trump’s first weeks in office. He has exceeded my expectations as to both the speed and breadth of change. He has pursued accomplishment of his campaign promises from day one. President Trump’s broad change initiatives are even a little fast for a lifelong Southern conservative like me. But for once, I see energy and real action, not just talk, committee hearings, and spin. Just take the southern border as a single example. As Trump said, “We did not need new laws to secure the southern border, we just needed a president who wanted to secure it.”
The things I am least satisfied with are the things I have always been least satisfied when Trump is involved. From the first day he become a political candidate, I have wished he would think a little more before speaking his “uncensored mind.” After 10+ years, I now accept Trump’s unrestrained speech as an assurance of transparency. What you see is what you get.
I see the new Administration actively working on securing the Southern border, balance the annual federal budget and shrink the size of the federal government, end fighting and money drain in Ukraine, end fighting in Gaza with the return of hostages, return education administration to the states, return critical supply chains to the US, and bring common sense back to our federal government. I want President Trump to be successful in every issue. However, if he can find paydirt on half, I will be happy. President Trump will face severe and persistent opposition as he pursues “Draining the Swamp.” He may have only two years until the country tires of the turmoil this “draining” entails. I wish him well.
We went from hell to another version of a different hell. The Democratic Party lost this election. Why? Because the Democrats have become elitist. They have stopped listening to the middle and lower classes. Biden used to refer to the “kitchen table.” He totally forgot about the kitchen table. When you have white, angry, middle, and lower-class American voters, they turn to Trump because he is an actor. He says exactly what everybody wants him to say, but he doesn't give a damn about what Americans want. If he achieves anything, it's in his own interest.
And Elon Musk is there for Elon Musk. We are looking at a coup d'état. Every dictator creates a lot of noise, and so you don’t see what is going on. It's a playbook. And we're all being played. I think what Americans lack is education. The American educational system is created to produce nonthinkers. They want you to be distracted and completely busy. So, you just become a follower. The lack of knowledge on how tariffs will impact all Americans is scary. When the impact hits all sectors of our economy and the working class, I hope there will be a national movement to stop the insanity.
In what democracy can you show up, not show a badge or identify yourself, and pick a young student off the street in Boston? It's called kidnapping. That is authoritarian. This is Putin's style. This is what Trump loves. As an Arab American who is a US citizen, I don’t feel safe here now because it is not just Arab Americans. You must always think, when they come after you, who is going to be next?
The Fulcrum is committed to regularly reaching out to people across the U.S. and capturing their views on President Trump’s second term. We strive to gather opinions that represent a diverse range of voices and life experiences across the United States. If you are interested in sharing your views in the future, please don’t hesitate to drop us an email. We will consider it when the time for our next survey comes around. Send us your comments and photo to Newsroom@fulcrum.us
Beatrice Spadacini is a freelance journalist for the Fulcrum. Spadacini writes about social justice and public health.
Ahead of Election Day 2024, the Fulcrum launched We the People, a series elevating the voices and visibility of the persons most affected by the decisions of elected officials.
Now, we continue with the series The 50, a four-year multimedia project that visits the public where they live across all 50 states to learn what motivated them to vote in the 2024 presidential election and see how the Donald Trump administration is meeting those concerns and hopes.
Pennsylvania, with the largest electoral prize of all major swing states, was a coveted prize for Vice President Kamala Harris and then former-president Donald Trump in the 2024 race to the White House. It was predicted that the winner of the Keystone State was highly likely to win the entire election.
It was fitting for us to begin The 50 project by visiting Reading, PA. The majority Latino city inched a win for Harris, but ultimately Trump easily won Berks County, home to Reading, by 12 points and the state by more than 50% of the vote.
– YouTubewww.youtube.com
Many of the residents we spoke with pointed to the economy—the high cost of living—as the incentive to vote, but that wasn’t the only reason. "I know the economy was very difficult under Joe Biden," said Ramon Martinez, co-owner of Mofongo Restaurant. "I wanted to vote against Donald Trump because of his rhetoric against Latinos."
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Fellow small business owner Johanny Cepeda-Freyitz agreed with Martinez. She, like Martinez, has seen a decrease in customers at her restaurant, Mi Casa, Su Casa, because of the fear created by Trump's mass deportation agenda. Cepeda-Freyitz, who is also a democratic state representative, questioned the wisdom of having Elon Musk lead what she calls reckless and irresponsible behavior: "You bring someone into the administration that has no prior experience in how government works. And you're dismantling, and you're laying off, and you're firing all these people. So, how are you really helping families?"
We also spoke with republican Michael Rivera, Berks County Commissioner, about the aggressive moves coming from Washington, DC, and its impact on people, in particular, Reading's immigrant community. Rivera explained that many of his constituents aren't opposed to immigrants who come to the country legally and reacted favorably at the polls to Trump's closing-the-border campaign.
Rivera agrees the broken immigration system must be fixed to make it easier for people to come to the U.S., as the economy depends on it. "There are more job openings than there are people that are able to fill those jobs," he said. "We're not going to birth our way out of that. The way we're going to do that is through people coming in through legal immigration. So, the laws here in the United States do need to be improved."
The Pew Research Center estimates roughly more than 8 million undocumented immigrants are working in the U.S., representing about 5% of all workers.
Centro Hispano supports social services for newcomers and lifelong residents in Reading. "We can connect them to programs and services to help improve their quality of life," said Michael Toledo, President & CEO of Centro Hispano. "Whether it's in healthcare, whether it's in housing, whether it's food insecurity, workforce development, anything that we can do to help lift up our constituents."
Among the initiatives Centro Hispano collaborates with are voter registration drives.
Born and raised in Reading, Toledo said that many members of his community are concerned with what the Trump administration's priorities mean to them and their families. However, he also mentioned others say it's early in the administration and are taking a wait-and-see approach.
While Harris did win Reading handily, Trump’s success in moving the electorate relative to 2020 helped him win the crucial Rust Belt swing state—a sign of things to come in Election 2024.
Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum. He is the publisher of the Latino News Network and a trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network.
Street scene, Bishop, California
With President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Latino community of the self-proclaimed “Mule Capital of the World”—the city of Bishop, California—remains torn.
Biden took Inyo County by the narrow margin of 14 votes in 2020, while Trump won by 267 votes this year, according to an election summary report.
Ana Whitmore, a Latina who has spent the past fifteen years teaching TK-5 Spanish Dual Immersion in Bishop and nearby Mammoth Lakes, said she believes the right-wing appealed to the “religious revival” playing out within Bishops' Latino community.
The revival created “a sway back into Catholic and conservative values on issues like abortion,” Whitmore said.
Meanwhile, Carlos Cruz, a handyman who moved to Bishop in 2007 to provide for his family in Mexico, suggested that Latinos turned to the Republican Party searching for economic relief.
“Every Latino wants to live better,” he said. “And Trump is a business guy. He’s going to raise the country again. Try to make [it] better.”
Cruz is not alone. Approximately 52% of Latinos rated the cost of living and inflation as their top priorities in this year’s election, and some reports point to Trump's win as a reflection of the Democratic party’s failure to address working-class issues, ultimately leading to Harris’s loss.
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Yet there is little evidence that suggests Trump will prioritize the needs of everyday, working-class Americans when he takes office.
During his first presidency, Trump tried to raise the rent for 4 million low-income households, force single mothers to reveal their sexual histories before receiving welfare, transfer $5.8 billion in workers' tip money to employers, and attack workers' rights to collective bargaining, according to several reports.
In November last year, Trump announced plans to declare a national emergency and order the U.S. military to conduct mass deportations.
This plan could rip apart the 6.3 million mixed-status households, which account for nearly 5% of the country’s population.
But Cruz said, “Latinos aren’t scared about being deported. Trump was already President, and he didn’t do it that bad for us.”
Trump’s first-term family separation policy at the southern border was described as one of “the cruelest and most shameful chapters in recent American history” by MSNBC News.
Thousands of children were forcibly taken from their parents and transferred to shelters nationwide.
A string of mules walk past Mexican restaurants during the annual Mule Days parade in Bishop, CA.Robin Linse
Despite this recent history, Cruz believes mass deportations are “unlikely” to occur.
“It’s not like the President is going to take all the hard workers. He’s going to go for the money,” he said. “But if they do send me back to Mexico, I won’t really have a problem because I’ll just work harder there to build up my country.”
Nearly 1 in 10 California workers are undocumented immigrants, with immigrants representing 1 in every 3.
A mass deportation event would drastically deplete the workforce, increasing prices for all Americans by 9.1% and slashing the GDP by up to 7.4% over the next four years, according to reports.
The wildfires consuming over 40,000 acres and 12,000 structures in the Greater Los Angeles area as of January 13th have further eased Cruz’s mind.
“LA is going to need a lot of help to rebuild these houses. Who is going to help them but immigrants?” Cruz questioned.
However, Karen Rivas, a Bishop local and first-year student at John Jay College of Criminal Justice was among the 58% majority of Latinas who chose Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Rivas said the fact that 54% of Latino men voted for Trump “felt like a stab in the back as a Latina. This man waged war against Hispanics and women, treating us like criminals and aliens, and you’re still going to vote for that?”
Because Bishop is a small, rural town, “ICE doesn’t come here often, but when they do it is a big deal in the Latino community,” Rivas said. “There’s always this inherent fear of losing my family, losing my parents, because of these threats.”
Some Latinos have already withdrawn from the Bishop community for fear of deportation.
On December 14, 2024, some Latino families opted to remove their children from the holiday “Shop-with-a-Cop” program in which low-income students pick out toys with law enforcement officers, fearing police could record their address and return to search for undocumented residents. 
Murals decorate the kindergarten hall where Ana Whitmore teaches.Robin Linse
Some families are also worried about sending their kids to school.
During Trump’s first term, Nancy Hagopian, a Hispanic Liaison at Bishop Elementary, tried to assure parents of their student’s safety with letters and phone calls via the district office.
“But now parents are afraid that that is changing. You can see kids come here, their mind is somewhere else,” she said. “They try to play, learn, and all that, but they sense fear at home.”
Hagopian said her students have told her they don’t want to speak Spanish because classmates told them, ‘Go back to your country,’ and students playing soccer have replaced insults of ‘Oh, you’re slow; bad at running’ with ‘Oh, you’re Mexican.’
“Whether they are Mexican or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s a racist comment equating them with not belonging,” Hagopian said.
However, not everyone has noticed tensions rising in the classroom.
Ana Whitmore, the Spanish Dual Immersion teacher, said she remembers her kindergarten students “voiced concerns over immigration,” during the 2020 election, but “this time around, I have not heard it.”
Regardless, Whitmore said she is “nervous for some students.”
“Being an immigrant myself when I was younger, that was always a source of anxiety,” Whitmore added.
Not all teachers are as open to discussing identity and politics in the classroom.
Last Thursday, Hagopian met with school district superintendent Katy Kolker to discuss designing a class for teachers to better support and empathize with their immigrant students.
Regardless of political alignment, some Latinos hope to build a more unified Bishop for their children.
Rivas’ father started a soccer group for Latinos over the age of forty, the Seventh Day Adventists started a Hispanic support group, and Cruz hopes to see Bishop’s folklórico dance group perform in the 56th annual Mule Days parade.
Cruz said there is only one way to survive the hard days ahead, and that’s realizing “we’re all family—Hispanics and whites. We have to work together and keep each other going.”
Robin Linse explores the interplay between culture, language, and the environment as a student at Grinnell College.
Voters
Election night felt like the big reveal, when the nation’s collective aspirations and frustrations were colorized on Steve Kornacki’s all-knowing map declaring, “America has spoken”. Yet, in the days that followed, as I sifted through post-election analysis in search of answers about the new state of national identity, one lingering truth stuck out: voting behavior tells us much about which candidates we prefer but extraordinarily little about who we are as human beings.
For all the insight we can gather from the new configuration of red and blue, the limitations of what a vote communicates–and what it doesn’t–are just as important as the results. Understanding those limitations is crucial for how we show up in the world and connect with one another once the dust settles.
While post-election assessments of political phenomena may satisfy cravings for order amid the chaos, they seldom capture the depth of human stories and political motivations.
For instance, one Lutheran pastor I spoke with believes that the Republican Party is the only viable anti-war party, though he detests their rhetoric. Another friend praised Trump’s negotiation skills for the benefit of national security but voted entirely for progressives in down-ballot races. Meanwhile, a liberal-leaning friend left the presidential bubble blank due to Governor Walz’s handling of school closures during COVID and the mental health toll that it took on a member of his family.
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Though anecdotal, these personal stories scrambled my certainty in neatly-packaged narratives about the GOP success and Democrat failure. Voters are more complicated; their choices often reflect competing priorities rather than wholehearted enthusiasm. Many people place their hopes for a better future elsewhere, beyond the candidates’ names they check.
In American culture, voting is elevated to a nearly mythical status – a sacred act of self-expression. But as Michael Wear points out beautifully in The Spirit of Our Politics:
“We often think about politics as a forum for self expression and self actualization, for the exertion of our personal will, but politics, especially voting, rarely even approaches that because political decisions come to us premediated and multivariable…our vote is not an unmediated pure expression of our identity; instead our vote is a choice between options we did not choose ourselves.”
Voting, particularly in the constraints of our horse-race-style, two-party system, reflects preference, not the entirety of a person’s values or identity. Our daily acts motivated by community — not winning— are better representatives of our priorities. The active choice to make new friends in an adult rec-sports league, take a volunteer shift at church, serve as a poll worker, or even elevate more nuanced narratives on social media—these are forms of civic duty more vital for the health of American democracy than driving up voter turnout, zero-sum.
Who we elect is enormously consequential, and access to the ballot has been fought and bled for—this must be cherished. However, by putting the significance of the ballot into perspective and emphasizing the more unsung forms of civic life, we set the table for a healthier, more pluralist political culture.
The paradoxical data emerging from the 2024 election presents an opportunity to evaluate our understanding of voters’ values and priorities. How did 54% of Latino Evangelicals support Trump despite his disparaging rhetoric about Hispanic immigrants? Why did so many Muslim voters in Michigan vote for Trump without hearing him express concern for the horrors happening in Gaza?
In light of those paradoxes and despite them, we must resist the temptation to oversimplify their motivations. It is more expedient and requires less humility to say half the nation is simply uninformed or only cares about the price of groceries. That same critique applies to the assumption that Americans are wholly exhausted with conversations about equity and inclusion, or sick of bankrolling Ukraine’s defense effort against Russia. Convenient generalizations make it harder to see our shared values–the basis of cooperation needed to tackle shared challenges.
At the recent Obama Foundation Democracy Forum, Barack Obama highlighted the complexity of our electorate and the moment’s opportunity for pluralism: "We have to acknowledge that we all have multiple identities. Recognizing and listening for those multiple identities… being open to the fact that even the folks we disagree with most might have something that surprises us — that's an opportunity we cannot afford to miss."
It takes curiosity and humility to see others as whole people, not as caricatures. By understanding the complexity behind a person’s vote, we create fertile ground for more courageous political discussions and, ultimately, better results for the nation.
In the days ahead, let us allow our neighbors, whoever they voted for, to teach us about themselves. To build bridges across differences, assuming a level of good faith in others is paramount, even in the face of heightened moral stakes and legitimate fears. This approach doesn’t ask for the abandonment of convictions, but it does rely on a willingness to find shared humanity in unexpected places.
Curiosity is the default setting of a pluralist. Instead of asking, ‘Who did you vote for?’, try, “What are your hopes for yourself, your family, and this nation?’ By choosing curiosity over caricature and acknowledging the limitations of what our vote says about who we are, we create the conditions for trust and cooperation to tackle the challenges ahead – together.
Rollie Olson is the Democracy & Bridgebuilding Program Manager with Interfaith America.
President-elect Donald Trump and President Joe Biden meet in the Oval Office on Nov. 13.
It’s been a rough go of it for those of us still clinging to antiquated notions that with leadership and power should come things like honesty, integrity, morality, and expertise.
One look at any number of Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks and it’s clear those things no longer matter to a great number of people. (Hell, one look at Trump himself and that’s painfully, comically obvious.)
But these long-gone vestiges of a forgotten America, one in which criminals don’t get to be president and sex offenders don’t get Cabinet posts, got another blow Sunday night when the outgoing president went back on his word and pardoned his son.
President Biden, after insisting he wouldn’t, signed a “full and unconditional pardon” for any offenses his son Hunter had committed, which includes lying about drug use when buying a handgun, tax evasion, and other charges.
The defenses of Biden’s craven last-minute flip-flop came rolling in from many on the left who’d previously spent years wagging their finger at Trump’s nepotism and clear corruptibility.
But the pardon didn’t go over well with many others, including some Democrats who still seem to at least know the value of appearing to care about honesty and hypocrisy.
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But for those of us who simply believed the whole point of Biden was to save us from Trump and Trumpism, it was just the latest in a long line of disappointments from a man who turned out to be a lot more self-interested than he promised.
In 2020, many of us voted for Biden not because we liked his policies, but because he was qualified, decent, and had the best chance of stopping Trump.
And importantly, Biden signaled over and over again that he would serve only one term, and that mattered. After all, we weren’t voting for a lifetime of Biden or Democratic policies, but merely a means to an end: get Trump out for good.
As early as 2019 he indicated to aides that he wouldn’t run again, and as recently as July 2024 he acknowledged that he’d initially run with the expectation that he’d “pass it on to somebody else.”
Not only did he run again, he effectively shut out a Democratic primary. Then, even with dismal polling numbers, an obvious decline in his mental and physical faculties, and his own party members begging him to drop out, it would take months before Biden would do the right thing and step aside.
While Vice President Kamala Harris ran as good a campaign as she could have in these circumstances, Biden’s obstinance hardly gave her a shot.
But it wasn’t just Biden’s selfish decision to run again that ushered Trump back into the White House where he was never supposed to be. It was his policies, too.
Eager for an early win, Biden ignored warnings about inflationary policies from a slew of economists — in his own party — and signed a massive stimulus package that sent prices soaring. The inflation rate was 1.4% when he came into office, peaked at a painful 9.1%, and is now down to 3.3%.
Then, he ignored a chance to lower prices when he decided to not only maintain Trump’s tariffs, but hike them an additional $18 billion, an average annual tax increase on U.S. households of $625.
For the purposes of politics, Biden also rolled back Trump’s approval of the Keystone Pipeline, a project that Biden’s own Energy Department estimated would have created up to 60,000 jobs and generated an economic impact of up to $9.6 billion.
Also for the purposes of election-year politics, Biden forgave $175 billion in student debt— a cost passed on to taxpayers when many were struggling to pay for basic needs.
For political reasons, too, he undid Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy and opened the border to a flood of asylum-seekers — and countless others who would take advantage of our intentionally broken immigration system. For months he insisted there was no migrant crisis, until he tried to reverse the order — again, in an election year.
Most importantly, these policy decisions on the economy and immigration didn’t work. Americans felt the effects of them everywhere. But secondarily, they most certainly inured to the benefit of Trump
While Biden is obviously not the existential threat to democracy that Trump is, he showed us that he wasn’t, in the end, willing to put country over party, or country over himself. Biden was motivated by politics and personal grievances, hubris and partisanship.
While that hardly makes him unique, it does make him a failure at the one thing many of us elected him to do: He was meant to save us from Trump, and instead he seemingly did everything he could to invite him back in.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.
©2024 S.E. Cupp. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
