Despite the liberal bubble we may experience in the Pacific Northwest, many Americans had high hopes about 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump. However, with over a year since his election, many liberal and moderate Americans are discouraged and disappointed with the events of the past months. After many failed attempts to pass legislation and other controversies by this administration, comes another scandal, the infamous Russia collusion. With Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations underway into Russian meddling into the 2016 election, the firing of James Comey and the guilty pleas by George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and Paul Manafort have come to light. Despite evidence supporting the collusion, the country continues to turn a blind eye and remains in denial and favor of the president. Those who originally supported Trump, specifically, refuse to disavow him because they were so sure that he would be the “It” president.
Hopes were that this would be “something different than what has been forever,” says an anonymous Trump supporter. He continued with other favorable remarks: “[Trump’s] not playing games like other politicians. He is speaking his mind and you know where he stands,” adding that there are admittedly “probably things he could improve on.” The idea that he would be a new wave politician was a recurring expectation among Trump voters, but the actions throughout his time in office do not show a man differing from the establishment politicians that he so readily renounced. He is not a man for the American people, and his blatantly offensive remarks are excused as rebelling against political correctness—in reality this lack of regard for minorities and others is divisive and unpresidential.
Instead of admitting that electing this underqualified man might have been a mistake, supporters of the President remain in denial, avoiding the news and negative information all together. As the anonymous Trump supporter says, “[Trump] gets to be a handful and sometimes I’m kind of disappointed, so I don’t watch all the TV all the time to know what’s going on exactly every week.”
A perfect example of the ignorance that allowed this election to take place is the fact that there is hard evidence from the FBI supporting Russian interference in our election, and yet supporters continue to dispute these facts. “I think the investigation has failed to produce anything… they’re stretching what the investigation was originally about… just looking for things,” says an anonymous Trump supporter.
Many truly believe due to lack of news consumption altogether, or due to biased news outlets, that Russian interference is just a baseless allegation, with no evidence to prove its truth. This intentional ignorance is frightening if not dangerous and only adds fuel to this divisive and problematic era in American politics.
