Rantz: Seattle progressives elected Donald Trump

In what is easily the biggest upset in political history, Donald Trump was elected President. And his campaign was successful because of Seattle progressive activists.

No, these activists didn’t vote for Trump. But they ensured that others would. These activists decided to engage in a months-long denigration campaign. Don’t support Hillary Clinton? You must be a sexist! Hell, if you didn’t fawn over her every policy statement, you hated women.

Check local election results

If you were even interested in hearing what Trump had to say, you were labeled a bigot, an idiot, an unpatriotic monster. And for many of these activists, they’re reading this blog and saying to themselves, “Well, they ARE all those things.” They believe over 50 million Americans are evil people who want to set back people of color and LGBT Americans. That’s the attitude that elected Trump.

The holier-than-thou, self-righteousness from far too many progressive activists fueled a lot of anger on the right. Anger that got Conservatives to vote because they didn’t want to be constantly bashed and insulted nor did they want to give activists a moment to be sore winners. An HRC win would have resulted in relentless gloating; it would have legitimized their delusions of grandeur. That would have been so nauseating, folks decided to go with Trump. And not just Conservatives; Independents went to Trump, too.

Look, I was proudly Never Trump. I wasn’t a fan, I think he will be a bad President, and I didn’t vote for him. I don’t regret that decision at all. However, even a part of me wanted to see Trump win just to shut activists up, even if for just a few years.

There are a lot of local progressive activists trying to figure out how 50+ million “dumb” voters elected Trump. Just look in a mirror. You screwed this up. But it’s not too late to come together with a shared interest in helping to unite this country. Stop calling every Republican evil. Stop telling Middle America they don’t matter. Stop telling everyone you’re so much better than them. Start accepting you don’t have all the answers. Go after Trump all you want; stop going after his voters. Bring them to the table with a legitimate interest in finding common ground.

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