What it’s like being a Trump supporter
Two weeks ago, a contributing writer to the North Texas Daily published a column about her experiences dating a Trump supporter.
While it was an interesting look at how political views can impact our relationships, UNT students deserve a step further. Conservatives exist on this campus. There are students who identify as Republicans and those students, including myself, deserve to be understood as more than oddities that liberal girlfriends carry around in their pockets.
The United States has always been great. Democracy, equality and hard work are parts of the American experience that will never cease to exist. That’s easy for me to say though.
I’m a white, middle class female who was privileged enough to grow up in a middle class home. I went to public schools and was provided for by a loving family. I say this because it’s important to me, as a writer, to be honest about who I am and the background I have.
I am a junior at the University of North Texas and consider myself a conservative Republican. I believe that hard work leads to success. I don’t believe that abortion is something to take casually. I respect the flag and the lost lives that gave us the right to fly it. I believe in the United States of America, but I know it is flawed. We are flawed.
After the last presidential election, lots of opinions became amplified, from both the far left and far right. Politics is something that, for my generation, took a backseat for a majority of our lives until the election. No matter which side of the aisle you sat on, this was an important election. For a lot of us, it was the first presidential election we were allowed to vote in.
Bernie Sanders appealed to millennials with his laid back demeanor, but his popularity went beyond that. The way Sanders spoke about people, and how he wanted to help them, was beautiful and reminiscent of President Obama’s campaign speeches in 2008.
In reality, however, the economics behind Sanders’ plans and hopes for free college tuition were faulty. Trump appealed to rural Americans and became the rallying point which conservatives stood by – whether or not we agreed with all of his political aspirations. Hillary Clinton ended up scoring the Democratic nomination and carried with her female voters of all ages.
Being told that you’re less of a woman because you didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton is ridiculous. It’s hypocritical and rude, honestly. Yes, I am a female. Yes, I love my body and want to protect my rights, but those rights weren’t the only rights at risk of loss during the election. There were so many issues, so many parts of American life that were up for debate that every citizen prioritized differently, but being a woman who supports the Republican Party does not make you less of a woman.
Being a conservative doesn’t make you less of a person or less of a student on this campus. Your voice is just as loud as anyone else’s and you have every right to use it. America has been great over centuries, because of the young people who stood up for what they believed in. Presidents change, policies change and time goes on, but the spirit of America is one of diversity.
It’s OK if you don’t agree with me – I don’t expect you to – but I want this campus to be open to all viewpoints. I want students to be able to have political discussions that involve both perspectives, and I hope my writing will start those conversations.
Featured Illustration: Samuel Wiggins
Thank you for speaking up, Heather! As a staff member, I know that there are more conservatives on the UNT campus (staff, faculty and students) than the NT Daily would have you believe. This is a campus with 2,000+ military veterans, and veterans overwhelmingly tend to be conservative. The NT Daily also ignores the fact that Donald Trump won 58 percent of the Denton County vote, and many faculty and staff don’t live in Denton, but in more conservative leaning cities in the county. I agree with you that I don’t like to see conservatives at UNT treated as less than liberal/;progressive students, faculty and staff because of their political beliefs – and some of these beliefs are based in religion and so will not evolve to what the secular world has decided. And I particularly agree that women should not be shunned because they didn’t vote for Clinton. Feminism is about choices, not about conforming to a certain mindset, so women should be free to vote for whomever they want regardless of the candidate’s gender. This Trump supporter believes that the U.S. deserves better for the first female president than Clinton.
Thank you for speaking up, Heather. UNT has more than 2,000 student veterans – and veterans usually lean conservative. And 58 percent of Denton County voters – including many students, faculty and staff who may not live in Denton itself, but in more conservative cities – voted for Donald Trump. Non-traditional students, a large percentage of UNT’s population, may also lean more conservative than the young students who haven’t held full-time jobs and paid taxes. It’s no secret than many Americans become more conservative in their political leanings as they age. So there are more conservative faculty, staff and students at UNT than the NT Daily would have you believe. It’s just that the liberal/progressive leaning students are the ones yelling the loudest because they’re still upset that their candidate was not elected by the majority of Americans in the majority of the states.
Incredible article that speaks a lot of truth about this Universities view of conservatives. I believe it is time to stop the silencing of viewpoints of students on this campus.
Yes girl, yes! 100% agree! As a conservative female on the UNT campus, I feel that my values and opinions get shouted down and disrespected by the often louder liberal voices. This semester, the environment at UNT has felt hostile when sharing my political beliefs and I’m not feeling all the tolerance and diversity that everyone likes to claim we’re famous for.
“The United States has always been great”
Ehhhhhhmmmmmm? Like there’s no recording in history of all the fucked up things yanks have done? If the US always have been great then why do y’all cheeto lovers hate the BLM-movement? You brought black people over as slaves (does that count as always great?) and they’re a bit pissed about all the coppers murdering their families (also a great part of yankland?) so they’ve started the BLM-movement and since BLM is American it must be great, right? But they’re black so you hate them. But it’s American so it’s great?
Also if a country primarily uses carpet rather than normal floors in apartments and houses then the entire country’s a ghetto compared to real first world countries. Police in first world countries don’t carry guns to school. Well first of all they’re not at schools unless called to them. But your yank coppers just patrol universities with guns, even in California, like the entire US is a laughing stock to the rest of the first world,
I dislike the Black Lives Movement because it was founded on a lie. There was not police brutality in the Michael Brown shooting. It was a justified shooting, and the jury ruled correctly. Also, I dislike because it’s a lazy ass movement. Instead of being about protests, BLM should be about mentoring young black men and teaching them how to act respectfully to the police. My minister recently led a workshop about that. Oh, and I did I mention he’s black? I attend a Methodist church that is very much colorblind. Why do liberals continue to divide the U.S. by race? Many conservatives don’t think of race first. They think of the U.S. first and what’s best for the U.S. first.