ASM107 Two Months with President Trump

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has it only been two months on this episode of ask science mike we're talking about trump's america he's got answers even though he may not understand [Applause] [Music] science faith welcome to ask science mike the weekly podcast where i answer your questions about science faith and life you know lately it seems like every third email i get is about donald trump so what do you say we'll just do an episode about our new president what he means for society how we resist him how we fight better how we get along and make the world happen could be interesting could be terrible but either way let's get it started okay before we talk about president trump or 45 as some of you call him because he won't uh say his name isn't it amazing let's talk about where you can see me in person if you're into that march 20th i'll be in athens georgia at iris 2017 uh march 24th i'll be at the blue conference in fairfax virginia march 29th i'll be at the christ and creation conference with biologos in houston texas of course there's always more events on the calendar just go to ask sciencemike.com and click on events there also want to let you know we have just launched a new thing with the liturgists that's the other podcast i do with michael gunger it's a whole collective of people making spiritual art and resources we've started a new meditations program so for five dollars a month we will do a weekly meditation for you uh we'll give you access to liturgies we produce in the future and right now we're doing a daily lectio divina meditation throughout lent so really exciting i've enjoyed seeing discussions if you'd like to learn more about that go to theliturgist.com look in the upper right hand corner for the donate button and click it and you can check out the meditation see if that's something that would interest you i think at this time in history we could use a lot more contemplative meditation as a society so that is our announcements now why are we doing this episode of ask science mike about trump's america well that's all the questions i'm getting on the show that's not true it's not all the questions but it's it's a significant portion it's the most popular question that comes in now it's coming up at every single live event and i go where you lead so i thought i'd do kind of a special episode talking about this it's been two months since the election or not since the election since the inauguration and uh things don't seem to be calming down if any thing our culture seems more intense tough to talk about in a lot of ways because the ask science mic audience is so diverse it's uh gender diverse it's uh orientation and gender identity diverse it is racially diverse but it's also ideologically diverse there's a lot more trump supporters in this audience than i would expect and so i've been on this multi-month listening tour trying to understand the motivations and thoughts of trump supporters you know for some of us myself included uh trump seems to be as far from what traditional conservatives and evangelicals say they look for in leadership that i can imagine i mean this guy just doesn't seem to fit the bill so what's going on like why are people even now two months after the inauguration still on board with this guy so as i've been on the book tour i've used my free time to go into public areas and hotel lobbies airport lounges diners church lobbies and just listen to folks and the conversations veer towards politics i have assumed a listening posture i've tried to be very non-judgmental and ask open-ended questions you know tell me more about that and just see if people will explain why they like donald trump so much and most of this happened in the south and the midwest with some uh dates on the west coast and and the northeast but most of these trump supporter conversations of which there were dozens and dozens happened in the south and the midwest and one thing that came up over and over you know more than half of the time i had these conversations was some resentment toward black people or blacks in the terminology of the people i was talking to and i tried not to shut down conversations even though that made me you know very uncomfortable but the way the conversations would generally begin was discussing social or economic issues many people are concerned about the pace of social change in america that say they voted for donald trump they are concerned about declines in jobs especially in the midwest so some of that economic anxiety we hear discussed in the media does seem to be present in general i noticed that they would talk about how america is in decline that as a country america is getting weaker on the national stage that it is doing a bad job taking care of its citizens or empowering them to take care of themselves but again more than half the time these conversations would go to the same place they would say that the left has enraged black people to destroy our country now this completely blew me away now for some of my black listeners i understand there may be a risk of you injuring your eye from rolling it right now but but for me as a as a well-meaning white southerner i was really surprised to hear that kind of language coming out of the conversations i mean here i am talking to people i've never met before who don't know me that well and they without any prompting lead the conversation to the problem black people hold for our country without any guiding without any sign of openness merely a lack of active resistance or correction made these conversations go in that direction so this was a deeply held feeling for many people about why they supported donald trump they wanted black people to appreciate what they've been given and they said they were happy that donald trump won't coddle them now if you're listening right now i assume that for most of this audience most of the people that listen to ask science mike including people who voted for or support donald trump those are really horrifying ideas i assume that because i don't know how someone who harvard that kind of active overt personal racism could be comfortable listening to this show i tend to think of this audience more on the spectrum of being colorblind or just learning about systemic racism but not invested in you know personal overt racist ideology and i was really really surprised how often that came up and what do we do with that now many people will then take those kinds of experiences and supporting data and they will then say well all trump voters harbor that kind of racism and believe me i understand the temptation i've been there myself but i just have talked to too many trump voters because even in my encounters i did encounter a lot of ideological diversity among trump supporters and again my sample size was pretty small there were a lot of frustrated fiscal conservatives people who couldn't see themselves voting for hillary clinton for economic and policy reasons who were terrified of what trump was doing to the country but thought that maybe his campaign promises were overblown and their primary motive was the deficit now that's a pretty small group a larger group i saw in trump supporters were frustrated single issue voters people for whom the sanctity of life in pro-life terms and i mean you know being against abortion was the single reason they voted they looked at the judges that trump offered as possible nominees to the supreme court and they voted for someone who would nominate those people to the supreme court because of a feeling of obligation toward the unborn and so that was a larger group and they would express frustration with trump's racist language with his sexism with his morality with his business dealings they would sound a lot like most of us only they voted for trump and we didn't okay but we have to admit that among those who enthusiastically support donald trump's presidency and supported his candidacy well those folks are over-represented with ethno-nationalists and overt racists and i as someone so wired toward peacemaking and toward bridge building i don't know what to do with that because i can tell you i'm not actually interested in building a political coalition that could swing midterms or whatever that accepts racism as part of its bond i mean there is nothing progressive or just about that kind of overt racist sentiment it's a huge problem those kinds of beliefs harbor incredibly dangerous behaviors for people of color for black people for hispanic and latino folk for anyone towards the margins of society this kind of latent frustration about race is dangerous now don't get me wrong i know that this is a learned behavior that none of these people woke up one morning and said oh i think i'll be racist right what happened is there was a very intentional societal structure in the post-civil war period that was designed specifically to separate poor whites from former slaves so they wouldn't realize their economic interests were aligned this was how wealthy powerful southern elites kept their place in society and this has been a multi-generational intentional system of social programming and conditioning that drives those beliefs beliefs today that's what's happening but how much energy do we spend trying to talk people out of that kind of deep-seated racism versus trying to out-maneuver them politically that's kind of the question i think that's what we're facing so some of us are white and i'm talking about our families i'm talking about people we know people we're close to that harbor this kind of overt racist sentiment what do we do about that also what do we do about people who have made progress out of that kind of white supremacist or white nationalist ideology or even a white segregationist believe that our are racist would simply be separated geographically uh towards you know someone who would say well i don't see race race is not a thing in my experience which is what it's progress over overt segregationist ideals but still ignores the differences in the lived experiences between white people and people of color so i started to picture kind of a spectrum of racism which i am on by the way i am on that spectrum of racism there are systemic things i do that perpetuate racism right the area i live in is really high home values that drives great school tax revenues which means the majority white schools my children attend are better equipped than schools in town that have a more even racial mix so my children as a result of a systemic choice i participated in by buying this home get an inherent advantage in how they move through life so what do we do how do we have these conversations well i think the first thing we have to do is we have to figure out where someone we're talking to is on the spectrum of racism so for someone who's deeply into a segregationist mode someone who harbors racial resentment probably our whole job is to simply point out the humanity of people of color to point out the value of their life experiences to point out the scriptural arguments because many of these people identify as christian of the equality of all people before god and that's the work with that person someone who's farther along someone who might say i don't see color that's someone you might have conversations with about structural racism the problems uh where white people have a leg up in society a large part of which is economic the average wealth of a white family versus a black family for example it's very different and creates a disproportionate advantage for children from those families to gather wealth themselves it becomes a system of perpetuation of economic disparity that might be the work with someone a little further along the spectrum but we have to understand first there is ideological diversity among trump voters and people are at different spots in how they relate to race and racism and for people who are like me a big finding is that overt personal racism is a much larger force in society than i thought before the election of donald trump so once we realize that what can we what can we actually do well first i would say it's really important to pay attention at the local level it's interesting to read national news media or watch national news but what does what do these issues look like in your community what does unemployment look like in your town what resources are there for marginalized people in your city in your neighborhood can you get involved at the local level because what's happening out your window is where you can make the most difference in the world and what makes the biggest difference in your own life so for example a lot of people are deeply concerned about environmental and climate change issues with this administration well the great news is local and state governments have much more influence ultimately on those issues than the federal government does right so let's get active at the local level and don't forget public pressure on corporations and companies in private industry drives a lot of change your dollars vote a lot faster than your democratic vote so think about targets bathrooms they're trans friendly because of public pressure so get involved locally lobby with corporations they carry a lot care a lot about your business boycotts work comments work shareholder votes especially work i saw a really amazing instance where a very large institutional shareholder is going to start forcing votes saying they're not going to affirm non-diverse board of directors anymore well that's incredibly powerful and drives a lot of change you can also support organizations that work towards creating the kind of world that you think is important so for people who oppose trump that's organizations like the american silver liberties union who is actively opposing donald trump um i'm supporting the movement for black lives so they have the resources to tell that story also you know subscribing to free press is important it's great that subscriptions to the new york times and the washington post have skyrocketed in the trump era uh the the fourth estate is going to be important in creating accountability in checks and balances during this time and also like i love protests this is very controversial with some members of my audience but i fully support the right to free assembly and protest i think it's important for raising awareness i think historically it's been demonstrated to be effective to raise awareness martin luther king was a protester we have a tendency to sanitize and neuter dr king's story in white america but he was not well liked in the era in which he lived he put a spotlight on very uncomfortable topics in america and that is important work but that can't be all of the work more than protests are needed some people have to engage in the courtroom some people have to engage in the press right so to that note i would say local organizing is important voting in a democratic system is important and frankly today with uh some of the issues we're seeing with uh voter suppression and the suspension of the voting rights act a great thing you could do is um get involved at disadvantaged polling places i i have this this vision of at the midterms taking things of bottled water to folks standing in line in disadvantaged areas waiting to vote someone can stand in line much longer if they're not thirsty right you can also contact your legislators at the federal level state and local level and lobby about policy in-person meetings are great phone calls are great emails are great if you write a unique email spamming with form emails doesn't seem to be that effective and also have you ever thought about running for office have you ever thought about what you would do as a city commissioner for example it may be for change to happen progressives will need to get involved in local government which right now say what you will about conservatives but the tea party has done an incredible job getting involved at the local level at midterm elections and that's why they have so much control over local and state governments so if trump frustrates you a great thing to do is mount a local resistance that includes running for office it seems unthinkable doesn't it who wants to run for office not me that's the last thing in the world i want but if everyone says that how do we complain about our candidates how do we complain about the people doing that work if we ourselves are unwilling to do it so maybe dear listener you're the answer maybe the future leader we need is you at a local level maybe that will become a state and a national level but one thing i saw in this election was so much enthusiasm about a third party we don't love democrats or republicans do we not as a country and i can understand it i mean democrats are a really corporate friendly party their stands on race only look good when compared to the republicans it's very frustrating both tend to be hawkish on foreign policy these days both of them tend to be right of center although my right of center friends will scream foul there that's my opinion i'm entitled to it and i have a microphone [Laughter] but we don't love the parties in this country we don't love our congress or the approval ratings for all of these groups is very very low and so what i've seen is this frustration expressed as third-party presidential votes and that's fine i you know a lot of you got very mad at me that i pushed so hard on third party votes in november i'm not gonna unpack that again wherever you are i'm not gonna try to move you on your action then but i will tell you that if an alternative to these two parties is important to you that you felt the only reason you voted for trump was because you couldn't stand hillary clinton well you waited too late to engage in the process third parties don't begin with the election of our president if you want to get a third party off the ground run local races move in to state legislatures and that provides a congressional races that aren't as expensive to run towards or city council races these are these don't require near the capital to get off the ground they provide a track record for how your policy ideas work so run a local race with a third party and the other thing we need to look at is how we vote first pass the post voting favors a two-party system because it penalizes anyone who votes third party the argument is they throw their vote away so i'm going to have a few videos in the show notes this week about alternative forms of voting and representation and if you really want to make a difference in a two-party system lobby for the adoption of this type of voting at the state and local level and guess what that would actually make multiple parties viable in america it's just math and the last thing i would say what what now what now for you like me who are frustrated and trumps america by the way for those of you who think trump's america is going well please email me i'm genuinely interested in your take on why the country is tracking in the right direction i disagree vehemently but the last thing you need to do is take care of yourself advocacy is exhausting you're pouring out of yourself constantly so i would challenge you to adopt a better rhythm of how you look at news get out of the 24 hour news cycle and into a once a day considered read of news get out of the treadmill of social media engage it less often and remember why life is worth living spend times with friends and with family spend time in meditation spend time living a life worth protecting living a life worth creating a nation that preserves the freedom that you have to live it take care of yourself and you'll find you have more energy to change the world we'll get back to a regular episode next week everybody but since so many of you have asked me about what do we do in the age of trump i wanted to give you at least these few thoughts as always let me know what you'd like me to talk about next and i will via ask sciencemike.com thanks for [Music] [Applause] listening