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Nearly six months after Donald Trump’s election, Democrats (including me) and other anti-Trump forces are still arguing over how to deal with Trump voters: fight them, shun them, or reach out to them.
More than 60 million Americans voted for the guy. A group that large must contain different varieties of Trump voters. They deserve a variety of responses.
Some Trump voters support the man so loyally that they’d never vote against their hero no matter how you approach them. But others are less loyal and could respond to an outstretched hand, depending on why they cast their votes.
If they voted for Trump because they disliked Hillary Clinton, we can ask if they might vote for someone else in 2020, when Clinton is unlikely to run.
If they voted for Trump because they thought he’d replace the Affordable Care Act with something better, we can ask, “If he doesn’t do that job by 2020, would you re-elect him?”
If they voted for Trump because they thought he could run the government well, we can ask, “If he doesn’t run the government well — if, say, he racks up big deficits — would you re-elect him?”
By the way, I’m talking strictly about political outreach. Politics is everyone’s business, but your personal relations are a private matter. If you’re a liberal Democrat and an associate or colleague voted for Trump, it’s not for me to say whether you should fight, shun, or befriend him or her.