​Dear Anti-Trump Protestors, Don’t Shut Down Trump Rallies, Reach Out to Them

It is one thing to believe that a right-wing populist buffoon should not be president of the most powerful country on earth. It is quite another to engage in behavior that is clearly counter-productive to that goal. Becker, a former Democrat, and current Trump supporter who talked with the Washington Post after the Trump rally in Arizona, expressed similar sentiments, “I was kind of nervous because I didn’t want any ruckus to start, because when you’re old it’s kind of scary when there’s a ruckus.” Becker plans to vote for Trump, and her decision was reinforced as she listened to the protesters. “It’s kind of irritating when they’re yelling and screaming.” Similar tactics produce similar results, and yet protestors continue to use the kind of authoritarian repressive tactics they’re so afraid that Trump will use if he ever were to gain power.

Increasingly it is becoming common for left wing protestors to adopt these type of tactics that seek to shut down speech with which they do not like. These tactics are not only antithetical to a robust liberal society, but also they have the exact opposite effect these protestors wish to have. Imagine you are riding in an ambulance with you best friend’s life hanging in the balance. Suddenly the ambulance is stopped because it cannot pass by the protestors blocking the highway. The ambulance can’t pass in time and your friend slowly dies. All because some people can’t take the fact that other people want to go see Donald Trump speak. How anyone could think this tactic will do anything but turn people off from their end goals, is completely mind boggling.

When it comes to Trump, emotions cloud reason. Helser a Trump protester in Arizona told the same reporter, “The man personally offends me...He offends my wife — he offends her as a woman, he offends her as a Mexican American. He offends my kids, who are all half Mexican.... I’ve never lost sleep before over politics, but I have literally had lots of sleepless nights over this man.” While some dismiss the anti-Trump protestors as doing this simply for “social brownie points” or to virtue signal the superiority of their moral character to others, I don’t buy that. If they were just out to prove their moral superiority, they could do just write a self-righteous tumblr post from the comfort of their home.

It’s easy to see why Trump inspires such extreme reactions among his detractors. From calling for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration into the United States, to accusing a vast proportion of Mexicans of being criminals and rapists, to blaming China and other countries in the developing world for lost jobs and stagnant wages, he’s easily one of the most prominent demagogues in recent American history. His rhetoric smacks of a kind of European-style right-wing nationalism that seems to be gaining popularity over recent years – to the horror of moderates everywhere. However, we cannot stop Trump if we give in to emotion-driven tactics.

One of the biggest mistakes made by anti-Trumpers is their dismissal of his supporters as completely ignorant, white, right wing, racist, wackos. Though he has his fair share of those, a more comprehensive view was provided by the Guardian, which asked their readers to write in and explain why they’re supporting Donald Trump. The results were astounding. His supporters include people from all over the political map - among them a significant number of former democrats. Across the board, Trump’s supporters are sick of the new “acceptable parameters of debate” and “political correctness” that has shut down debate on issues that many Americans deeply care about. They feel that their anxieties, questions, and perspectives are either being totally ignored, or callously maligned by the establishment. Many who have not voted in years – or at all – are turning out in droves for the only man they see as someone who is willing to stick his thumb in the eye of everything the establishment holds dear. So when protestors use these futile bullying tactics, they only solidify Trumpsters’ belief in the need for this demagogue.

I don’t share Trump fans’ paranoid suspicion about all Muslims, but I recognize why they’re so afraid. Establishment Democrats are failing miserably on this front. They’re unable to even bring themselves to put the word “Islamic” in front of “extremist terrorist,” while the far left section of the party shuts down any debate on the issue of radical Islamic terrorism or Islamism as xenophobic. Meanwhile, Donald Trump gives them what they crave: an emotionally satisfying answer that is neither desirable nor constitutional. It is filling the void with an easy solution to a complex problem and of course it’s doomed to failure. But I firmly believe that without honest dialogue about how to best approach the threat of violent Islamic terrorism, or avoid the problems we see abroad where Muslims fail to integrate into European countries, we’re one major terror attack away from a Trump presidency.

We should also remind Trump supporters that the more power we give the government today to stop the threat of violent Islamic extremism, the more power the government will be able to use against them tomorrow. From the Patriot Act, to the NDAA, to revelations of abuse at the NSA, civil liberties we all cherish as Americans can be eroded if we allow security concerns to cloud our judgment. While incidents such as those seen in Paris, Brussels, the Netherlands, Cologne, and Rotherham have shocked the world, the majority of Muslims coming to western countries assimilate in basically the same way other immigrant groups do. Condemning horrifying crimes committed by those who actively despise secular values of human rights, women’s rights, and free speech does not justify condemning peace-loving Muslims who’ve fled intolerable conditions and just want to start a better life in the U.S.

I’m no fan of Trump’s wall or his deportation proposal, but I do understand why it’s alluring to his supporters. Our immigration system is an absolute mess. While the number of immigrants entering illegally has leveled off, there were about 11.3 million illegal immigrants in the country as of 2014, and is probably greater now. Many do worry that further illegal immigration as well as the next generation, which will be born here, will not assimilate, and the swell they’ll cause in the population will drive down wages, or overload public services such as welfare, police, and education. The strain on public schools that need to devote more and more funding on ESL programs that in many cases don’t work, is difficult to dismiss. Not to mention the fact that because those who came here illegally are not documented, the U.S. has no idea whether any undocumented immigrant is simply pursuing the American dream through hard work and frugal spending habits, or pursuing the dream of easy money through crime, in service of a cartel or street gang.

But the answer is not to shout down Trump supporters and chastise them for being xenophobic zealots. We have to counter with logic and rational thinking, explain to them how reform and expansion of the guest worker program and the simplification of the immigration process will actually drastically reduce if not curtail the problem of illegal immigration. We can’t simply call them stupid for thinking it is feasible to deport over 11 million illegal immigrants. Their fondness for this proposal is more about principle than practicality. They largely believe that since people who enter the country illegally have committed a crime they must be punished.

Clearly undocumented immigration in the vast majority of cases is simply to seek a better life. Anyone Trump supporter or not can agree that these people aren’t criminal in the way someone who steals, hurts, or defrauds someone is. Certainly children brought here illegally cannot be blamed for their parents’ crime. We can all certainly agree that illegal immigration presents an unacceptable security risk, and that we all want consistent and equal enforcement of the law in this country. We can also all agree that no one should get a “free ride” after entering the country illegally.For those already here illegally who have not committed a crime, a pathway to citizenship that would include paying a form of back taxes as a means of compensating for the costs of their use of public services could placate Trumpsters. Bryan Caplan gives several good proposals that could answer many of the criticisms of immigration reform. There can be a compromise that will at least assure all sides that their concerns are being taken seriously.

I detest Trump’s nonsensical rhetoric about the so called “evils” of free trade and his constant attacks on nations we trade with, but I completely sympathize why Trump voters want to believe that Trump will force companies moving manufacturing jobs overseas to magically bring back the jobs they used to have. So, instead of staring down our noses at Trump supporters and rattling off Economics 101 lessons on comparative advantage and why everyone benefits from free trade, we need to first show that we have some type of empathy and understand their positions and the reasons for them. We need to show how globalization has actually helped Americans raise their overall standard of living and explain that if we want more affordable stuff rather than just a higher number on our paycheck we should welcome cheaper goods from China. Let’s be honest, no one wants to pay $2,000 for an iPhone.

We need to point out how history has proven that Trump’s plans will not work, as import quotas and tariffs have failed miserably before. It is foolish to think that some manufacturing (small plastic toys or kitchenware for example) will ever return, but anyone who fears that in order to compete with China that we need to “race to the bottom” should take a look at the World Bank’s 2015 “Ease of Doing Business Rankings,” which shows that it is easier to do business in Norway, South Korea, Denmark, and New Zealand than in the United States. Note that none of these are third world hell holes where a few corporations, or the government, hold absolute power to diminish wages or run rough shod over work place safety regulations. It seems that if we got our house in order (including lowering what is the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world), many of these people (aka many of Trump’s supporters) would not be out of a job.

You may not like them. You may not see yourself associating with Trump supporters in a million years. But if you really don’t want to see him gain any more popularity, it is time to stop delegitimizing the perspective of his supporters as unworthy of attention. Blocking Trump supporters from entering rallies, or shutting down his rallies altogether only strengthens their indignation and solidifies their opposition to everyone who opposes Trump. The fact that many of these people either have never voted or haven’t for a very long time, only reinforces the notion that these people have reached their breaking point with the current system. They cannot be shamed into ending their support for someone who has proved time and again that he is shameless. With Trump winning primary after primary we can no longer afford to adopt tactics that contradict our end goal. As hard as it may be, we have to acknowledge these people as fellow Americans and treat their concerns seriously if we want to change minds and end the current flirtation with far right nationalist politics.