I'm not sure how widespread this is, but it's at least enough of a thing that I'm seeing posts about it on my not-very-large Facebook feed. There's apparently a faction of Trump opponents who think that part of the pushback should involving shaming or criticizing citizens who voted for Donald Trump. I really can't think of a reaction to this election, or a strategy for opposing Trump and pushing forward progressive policies, that's more unhelpful than this.
I grant that Trump's undemocratic tendencies, illiberal beliefs, and general unfitness for office were on display for all to see for the many months of the campaign, and I wish to god that more people had decided that, whether or not they agreed with what his policies appeared to be, the man, himself, is unqualified for the presidency. I say straight out that it is extremely difficult for me to relate to the mindset of anyone who saw the same things I saw, and still decided to vote for Donald Trump. In this, I can understand an impulse to cast aspersions on Trump voters, the desire to rub their noses in the shit that Donald Trump and Mike Pence (let's never take our eyes off the man who will likely rival Dick Cheney as the most consequential VP in U.S. history) have already been tracking into the highest office in the land. I can see how this could bring a sense of vengeful satisfaction; after all, if all those people hadn't voted for Trump, he wouldn't be president. Righteous anger at those who voted for him is completely natural and totally understandable.
But will "shaming" Trump voters actually get them to reconsider their votes — which have already been cast — or consider anew the valid criticisms of Trump opponents? Or will it backfire and simply reinforce the unnecessary divisions among our population that Trump and the Republicans have exploited to their great benefit? I will be charitable and assume that a vote shamer's end goal is to get people to see the evils of Trump. But shaming a person primarily turns the accusations of wrongdoing against that person him- or herself. Far, far more effective to train one's fire on Trump, himself. If our many criticisms of Trump are indeed right, then many Trump voters will begin to feel shame all on their own. The idea that actively shaming someone will make them feel ashamed ignores some basic human psychology — rather than feel ashamed, what is perceived as condescension or unfair attacks will only harden the voter's assumptions.
This is particularly true when a key part of Trump's message is the alleged way that liberals condescend to, disparage, and otherwise dismiss the concerns of many Trump voters.
The idea that shaming would be an effective strategy is at least partly based on the assumption that every Trump voter agrees with and endorses every one of Trump's noxious positions. While I can understand someone making the argument that voting for Trump is a tacit endorsement of everything he stands for, and arguing that this should be made clear to Trump voters, this is quite a bit different from shaming Trump voters. Shaming is worse than useless if one of our preeminent goals at this point is to start rallying Trump voters to the anti-Trump side. And in fact I do think this is one of the most important things we need to be doing, starting now. My assumption is that of course not every Trump voters is racist, or misogynist, or wants to transfer massive amounts of wealth to the rich, even though these are clearly Trump's goals. I think it's pretty clear from the election results that economic dislocation and the ravages of a free market run amok are huge reasons people voted for Trump.
Have a lot of Trump voters combined this sense of economic outrage with a belief, for example, that minorities are benefiting from government policies while they themselves get the shaft? Yes, and that's a disturbing fact that every progressive must contend with in figuring out a path forward. But if we're going to take the fight to Trump and the Republicans, it needs to be founded in this basic principle: our fellow citizens are ALL potential allies, and our democratic process rests on the faith that right will out if we pursue dialogue with our neighbors. Not chastisement, but dialogue. We are seeing Trump already betray the faith of those who thought he was a politician who had finally truly heard the plight of working class and middle-class people, even as he, indeed, begins to make good on elements of his campaign like his anti-Muslim agenda. Rather than haranguing Trump voters over a choice they have already made, we need to grab them (figuratively) by the lapels and say, hey, look how Trump and the Republicans are already trying to figure out ways to benefit the rich and screw the workers of this country.
The idea of shaming Trump voters also usefully ignores the fact that Hillary Clinton was a truly awful candidate for the Democrats to run at this time of crisis in our country, that the Clinton campaign was the target of a Russian subversion effort, and that FBI director James Comey engaged in serious interference in the election process that inarguably hurt Clinton. Through a confusing mix of fact and fiction, rightly or wrongly, Hillary was muddied in a way that few candidates in our history have been. Whether you think all this negativity around Hillary was justified or not, an honest assessment of the election has to admit that for many people, she came out looking like a worse choice than Donald Trump. Let me put this point in stark but hopefully not unpersuasively simplistic terms: If you have to choose between a sexual predator for president or someone who thinks it's OK to be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to give a coddling speech to the ripoff artists at Goldman Sachs, does voting for Donald Trump automatically make you an evil misogynist? Everyone had to compromise when they cast their vote in this election. That's part of what was so terrible about it. I would argue that many people chose Trump out of the exact same despair at our economic situation that many other people chose Clinton. To assume that every Trump voter made their decision to vote based on reasons you don't agree with is a mistaken generalization that hardly serves the anti-Trump cause, let alone a productive democratic discourse.
Finally, the notion that voter shaming is in any way a proper strategy for success is an example of anti-Trumpers needlessly pissing away one of the most powerful facts on their side — by real world electoral measures, and not the retrograde funhouse fuck-up of the electoral college, Trump actually lost this election. Hillary Clinton's popular vote tally is at 1.6 million and still growing. Berating Trump voters has the taint of being a poor winner, and betrays an unfortunate lack of confidence in the justice of our position and our persuasive strength.
The election of Trump betrays massive and dangerous fissures in our economy, in our civil society, and in our collective democratic enterprise. A foundational element of how we heal our nation and advance a progressive agenda that truly helps the vast majority of Americans includes always bearing in mind that promoting division — by suggesting irreconcilable divisions between Americans — is a big part of how Trump won. Let's not buy into and aggravate this false view of our country. Trump's the enemy, not our fellow voter.