George Saunders Discusses the Importance of Talking to Trump Supporters
14th June 2017
Author George Saunders last year dove headfirst into Republican heartland for a piece in the New Yorker entitled ‘Who are all these Trump supporters?’
Note that the approach is the same as he would use visiting some backwater in South America, Africa, or Asia.
To the Coastal Crust, ‘Trump supporters’ are some sort of alien species, with which no Normal Person would ever come in contact unless a special effort were made.
“I felt personally comfortable doing it,” he told host Isaac Chotiner, “I felt like I could hang in for a long time with [Trump supporters] trying to understand it from their point of view, trying to put myself in their shoes without losing clarity.
The natives are very nice if you make an attempt to speak their language.
Of course, he could find a Trump supporter merely by talking to his apartment building’s doorman or the cabbie that drives him to work every day. But that would be a bit too close to home. Much better to pretend that they live in Flyover Country, and that one can come home at the end of the day and shake the dust of their towns off of one’s feet.
June 15th, 2017 at 11:06
“the approach is the same as he would use visiting some backwater in South America, Africa, or Asia”
The difference between those places and Trump Country are so small as to be negligible.
June 15th, 2017 at 15:27
You say that because you are part of that demographic and share its delusions. That’s why you lost the last election.