It was never about the price of eggs

Liberals mock Trump voters because the price of eggs has skyrocketed under his administration. But the average voter is expressing discontent, not making an economic point.

Photo by Jakub Kapusnak on Unsplash

I woke up and checked my phone in the middle of election night, and my heart sank as I saw the impending news. At that moment, it became clear that Donald Trump would become the 47th President of the United States. My mind jumped to my congregation, many of whom I knew would be devastated, not unlike I was, about the news. I wanted to create a space the following night for us to hold each other’s grief and lamentation.

When we arrived, I wanted to limit the political analysis and, above all, the recriminations. I didn’t want us to solve the problem that we faced, nor did I want us to blame one another or other people groups. It is easy to do that in the face of tragedy. It’s easy to blame voters we think of as different or ignorant. It’s easy to punch down.

J.P. Hill’s article on this issue is required reading (pardon the profanity). When I shared the article with my followers on Bluesky and Threads, I was disappointed with the responses. One person wrote, “they get no mutual aid from me. Sorry, not sorry.” Another opined that Trump supporters “learned how the real world works.” And still another said something even worse: “I would actually love to watch each and every one of them suffer because of the policies they voted for.”

These attitudes are seemingly self-serving, but they are, to use a phrase that smug liberals love to use, against the very interests of the people expressing them. There’s no winner under the Trump administration. We all lose. Oppressive despots harm us all, and we lose when we mock each other. Even the moment of catharsis that we face is not enough to capture our frustration and is often a waste of energy. It reinforces the narrative that liberals are elitist and classist. It offers no iota of self-awareness or humility.

I am frustrated, as many of you are, and that frustration is understandable. But the solution to our frustration is not to assign blame or mock people who voted for Trump. Even waxing about how Trump is bad for inflation (he is) and showcasing why Biden’s good and effective policies that gave us relief during the pandemic (but also led to inflation) is not a very useful option. Yes, under Biden, inflation was controlled, and the economy did well. Many liberals wish Democrats, the media, and pundits shared that fact more openly. For many liberals, Kamala Harris’s loss reflected bad messaging or even missing appearances on the right podcasts, as if Joe Rogan could have tipped the scales.

But the rightward shift in the U.S., alarming as it was for many blue-staters, was both a reflection of an international swing to conservative and far-right parties, as well as a referendum on incumbent parties. Across the globe, incumbents lost big. Many think this collective defeat of left-wing parties is because of global inflation, and for American liberals, that fact is particularly frustrating because in the U.S., inflation was actually controlled better than in other areas of the world.

The economic improvement under Biden isn’t the only story. Yes, it is clear the economy will worsen under Trump, and it already has. It’s clear that, due to a variety of factors, yes, the price of eggs has increased. But rubbing this fact in the face of Trump supporters just isn’t the ticket. Reveling in their suffering and regret doesn’t build a unified coalition, and it further divides us. In fact, it makes Trump’s opponents look petty, and it empowers Trump and his cadre of vipers.

Assigning blame and mocking disappointed Trump voters doesn’t build a movement. So yes, there are strategic and political reasons not to offer recrimination. I don’t think people are paying close attention to the news, specifically economic news. I don’t think many even knew who or what they were voting for. I suppose you can blame them for not paying attention, but I’m not sure that ire will get them to change what they are interested in and what grabs their attention.

Instead, we should consider the pathos of the electorate. They were clearly disappointed with the status quo. In the United States, disappointed voters simply vote against the incumbent. In many ways, the votes Trump received were not expressions of support for Trump but a rejection of Biden. Similarly, in 2020, voters, mired in a deadly pandemic, rejected Trump and favored Biden because they wanted a change.

No amount of condescension, mockery, or lecturing about how Democrats were right about how terrible Trump is and was will change the material fact that many of the disenchanted people who voted for Trump did so because they were frustrated with the conditions they were living in. And who could blame them? People aren’t being paid enough, real estate is too expensive, health care is costly and labyrinthine, and the wealthy keep getting wealthier. People are unsatisfied with the quality of life this market economy offers them, and they are ready for a substantive and material change in our system. And yes, the situation was better under Biden and would have been better under Harris, but even those improvements weren’t and wouldn’t have been enough. We need leaders and organizers to usher a way into something new and meaningful that disrupts the status quo that is leaving us all dissatisfied. We’re in it together. Smugness about being right and kicking people while they’re down doesn’t help us (and I’m not even sure it makes us feel much better). I totally understand the pain that leads to this—and for many of us, we have to continue to grieve, and also feel hesitant to put our bodies on the line for those we feel betrayed us. If that’s the situation you’re in, especially if you are in a vulnerable group, I’m with you and understand you.

What we need is an earnest coalition of people who want to make living in the United States more equitable. We need a populist movement that’s for ordinary people. Democrats failed them, and Republicans are doing even worse. Rather than mock Trump voters by telling them eggs are more expensive now, we should realize that they are quickly awakening to the horrors of his administration. Thus, we should seek to understand their plight and invite them to join us. Pay attention to the dissatisfaction of ordinary people and invite them to be a part of a revolutionary movement to make real change.