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Post #1165442

Author
darth_ender
Parent topic
Politics 2: Electric Boogaloo
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1165442/action/topic#1165442
Date created
30-Jan-2018, 6:10 PM

I will provide one last illustration of what I mean, and then I will stop for the day, merely taking the time to ponder how on earth a conversation about abortion led to this.

In Utah, Evan McMullin, an independent candidate, had a good shot of winning the Electoral vote there.

http://www.businessinsider.com/republicans-evan-mcmullin-utah-polls-2016-11

It was basically a three-way tie three days before the election, with all three hovering around 20-24%! Can you believe that? In the conservative bastion of Mormon Utah, going into the election, all three candidates had a fairly equal chance of winning. Utah has not voted for a Democratic president since 1964, and here is Hillary with a good chance of winning! Moreover, the last time a third-party candidate one a state was in 1968, and yet, McMullin stood a good chance of winning Utah as well! Why? I would speculate that it was because most Mormons do not actually like Trump. Many defected to the Democratic side because Hillary was the only other candidate they felt had a good chance of winning. Meanwhile, many others turned to McMullin, a fellow conservative Mormon as an acceptable, if not viable, candidate.

But in the end, Trump won with 45% of the vote. Yes, he didn’t get the majority, but he achieved the plurality. Why did the state flip definitively for him in the end? The answer is simple: he had a chance to win and support conservative causes most Utahns believed in, even if they did not like him or all of his views. Hillary still supported those liberal causes Mormons couldn’t get behind, while McMullin couldn’t win the larger race, even if he did take Utah. Conscientious of the closeness of the national race in our stupid two-party system, Utah threw their support behind Trump.

Does that mean that 45% of Utah is racist or fine with Trump’s racism? I believe the most likely answer is that, no, most are not racist, but rather they took a risk on whom they believed would best support the majority of their views. Sadly, I am confident it was the wrong answer.

My point: don’t be hasty to make accusations; human behavior is complex, and to define it simplistically with an either/or fallacy will only lead you (the general you—no one in specific) to come to your own biased and bigoted conclusions about others.