There was this article about a Trump supporter who drives a tow truck. He refused to help a Bernie Sanders supporter after she was in an accident.

In a Forum I sometimes participate in, one liberal remarked that this shows us something about Trump supporters. A conservative disagreed. I weighed in:

That was a very good article. He was pretty articulate about what happened that had him say no. Maybe he’s correct that his interactions with liberals left him unpaid, and maybe he’s not. Maybe he’s exaggerating and it was just a few- who knows? But his feelings were clear. And he was polite about it. And he felt good when he left.

Politics (and most everything else) is about how we feel. Some of us read a lot of policy and pros and cons and analyses before we have clear feelings. Some of us don’t. Some people have good feelings about “conservative” and “small government” and “fiscal restraint” and it’s really clear to them what they feel good about. Some have good feelings about “liberal” and “progressive” and “equality”, even “redistribution.”

I know why we make each other wrong for it, but I think that’s a mistake. I think there’s something to be gained from admitting that the bottom line for each of us is that our political desires are about how we feel.

This is the first article I’ve read like this, so I’m pretty sure we can’t say that lots of Trump supporters are like this. We’ll see if it catches on. But even a hundred wouldn’t tell us about the millions of Trump supporters.

Your feelings that “Trump supporters are like this” are simply your feelings. We want desperately to know what’s true. We’re wired for it. Even more than that, we’re wired to want to predict the future, to prepare for it and stay safe. Our brains concoct generalizations in a mere moment. This worked fairly well in the jungle. It doesn’t work that well to predict the stock market, the outcome of wars, or who would do a good job as president. It did a pretty good job of telling us to fight the tribe that was running at us with spears, but it doesn’t do a very good job of having us know the true nature of a large group of people.

I do business with a bright, capable, gentle, loving guy. He doesn’t want politics as usual, he doesn’t want Hillary. He’s a Trump supporter. He’s bright. And it’s all about feeling.

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That was what I posted, but I’ll add a conclusion here. The presidential election matters, but much more important is the congressional election. Congress has a lot more power than the president. Even more important though, is what guides Congress.

Currently, it’s all the forces in “politics as usual”, including money, raising money, and bring pork home for the district, whether it’s for wealthy donors, or to help the economy and convince voters the politician should be elected. They pander to us. They try not to do what we want, but to appeal to our emotions at election time. Because we don’t have strong feelings about the job they’re doing. Because we don’t know. Because they’re not accountable to us.

They could be. Support PeopleCount, and they will be. I promise.  Please add your name to our mailing list, and consider making a donation.  Thanks.