A local college was conducting a study and they were looking for conservative/Trump supporters to give opinions who were in the millennia generation (born between 1980- 2000). I heard about it through a friend of one of the students conducting the study. I was interested and so I volunteered. They wanted to know about my experience in my community since the election of Donald Trump.
The study had to be rescheduled a few times due to lack of
participants. This did not really surprise me but it was a bit strange. They
could not find any conservative/Trump supporters in Oregon in my age group. I
asked myself, was I the only one? Or was I the only one who would admit to
someone else that I was a conservative?
The Study
I called my wife as I got ready to leave my house. I wanted
to let her know that I was going and that I had fed the dogs and let them out.
As my wife and I talked she made an offhand joke about me being sure this was
not a trap to lure Trump supporters out. I laughed and did not really think
seriously about it. Still I made sure I had my pocket knife with me as I left
the house.
I would have been more worried if the university was in Portland
rather than Forest Grove. Portland is a big city with lots of people, Forest
Grove is a small town on the outskirts of the metro area. I figured I had more
to fear from coyotes than out of control college students. Although I am sure
people thought that about Evergreen University too.
I arrived and parked my car and met the professor and her
two students. They were all very polite and welcoming. Quickly any silly ideas
I had about being in danger vanished. My gut told me there was nothing to worry
about and it was right. I went into a room filled with the smell of pizza,
completed some forms and waited for everyone else to arrive.
The Group
The forms I filled out said that I could not reveal any
names, for the protection of everyone in the group and to allow them to express
their opinions without fear of repercussion. It seems silly but not that
outlandish given the current political climate. Soon four other guys showed up
and we started the study.
At first we were not sure what to say, but we quickly got
over that. We shared our experience in our communities after the election. One
guy said he was attacked for being in Portland with an American flag. People
dressed in black beat him and his friend until the police showed up and took
him away.
Another guy told a story about how he and one other person
at work cheered when it was announced that Trump had won, to angry looks and
sneers from other coworkers. Someone else was told they were a bad person and
to think what it would be like to have a daughter who had to hear what Trump
said on the access Hollywood tape.
I told of the best man at my wedding unfriending me on
Facebook and not talking to me since. It was good to know that I was not the
only one who had experienced these sort of things. We all did not agree on
everything, but we did agree that we did not like the attacks from the left. One
thing that did jump out at me was one guy who got serious when he said that he
was worried about the rise of socialism in the United States. I have to admit,
I share that concern.
One of the questions we were asked also stood out to me. It
was, do you feel bad for any group since the election? We all answered more or
less no to that one. It stood out to me more than the other questions because
of its language. Why would I feel bad for a group because someone got elected?
I didn’t feel bad for any group when Obama or Bush got elected, so why should I
start now? I do not think that the researchers intended it to be a loaded
question but it came across that way. It sort of implied that there was some
group to feel bad for.
It also referred to people in the terms of a group. As if Latinos
or women were just a group of people who all share the same thoughts and
experiences. I could not help but think, why would I feel bad for a group
instead of individuals? I could understand feeling bad for a group of people
who have been hit by a hurricane but that is because they were all affected by
a natural disaster, not because they were all born with the same color skin. An
hour had passed and all the questions had been asked. We thanked the
researchers, said goodbye and went back to our lives.
Reflection
Looking back on the experience it was good to know that
there were other people who had similar ideas as I do. We talked about Milo and
Berkeley, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Antifa, Socialism, and Kekistan
(Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee). We were not a group of Nazi’s, but just regular
people who had to work the next day. People who see the world one way and get
attacked for trying to explain it. People who are proud to be Americans and not
afraid to say it out loud. 
No comments:
Post a Comment