Sifting through the rubble/data of the last election, it’s clear that a relative handful of minimally engaged voters in a few strategic states carried the Republican presidential candidate to victory. Often referred to as “low-information voters,” the popular narrative describes these members of the body politic as overwhelmed by the challenges of daily life, thus unable to follow events in Washington, D.C.
Trapped in low-wage jobs with little opportunity for advancement, the narrative goes, they are focused solely on immediate needs: buying shoes for the kids, keeping the old car running, paying rent, buying food, etc. People facing these challenges have little time to contemplate the nuances of American government.
What’s noteworthy from the last election is these voters generally put resistance to social change ahead of their own economic interests. They backed a candidate who pledged to slap tariffs on imported goods, which inexorably causes prices to rise. Their candidate also pledged to deport millions of farm workers, which inevitably will lead to higher food prices.
These easily foreseen consequences are less important to minimally engaged, low-information voters than the need to slow — or stop — society’s grudging acceptance of people with different lifestyles. Simply put, they want to yank away the “welcome” mat for non-white immigrants, the LGBT community, and any other group that threatens the hegemony of straight, white Christians.
If you are reading this, you are not a low-information voter. Congratulations, you are one of America’s reviled “elites,” and sorry, your vote was nullified by someone who pays far less attention than you.
As you peer down from your ivory tower, it’s easy to recognize some of the factors that motivate low-information voters — but it’s much harder to understand their prioritization.
Thanks to supply chain shortages wrought by the pandemic, inflationary surges in prices have been deadly for incumbent leaders around the world. In recent elections both here and abroad, economically frustrated voters have swept many heads of states out of office. Money worries are a core anxiety, so it’s no surprise that voters seek new leadership when prices rise faster than wages.
But the other, less quantifiable issues? Fear of immigrants? Hatred of gay and transgender people? This is the natural habitat of low-information voters.
At this point, nearly a quarter of the way through the 21st century, most Americans know — or know of — someone who is gay. There is still plenty of homophobia in this country, and that’s putting it mildly, but it is no longer the potent political wedge it used to be.
Transgender people, on the other hand, aren’t nearly as far along on the road to societal acceptance. Transgender women in sports is a contentious issue because many people see it as one of fairness: boys competing against girls, men against women. Access to public bathrooms also generates some squawking, while insistence on fussy pronouns can become tiresome.
So, yes, there are issues to resolve before conservative middle America invites the trans community over for dinner. But it’s important to recognize that transgender people, on the whole, are not taking advantage of anything. They’re not gaming the system. They’re not getting an undeserved leg up on everybody else.
They are simply being true to themselves.
There are a couple of transgender young men swinging through the branches of my family tree. A thousand years from now, when anthropologists analyze the dust of their bones, they will find both of these people had XX chromosomes, hence they were biological women. That’s indisputable, but it’s little more than a footnote in the wider story of how they choose to live their lives.
It’s not what’s between their legs that’s the biggest determinant of how they present themselves to the world. It’s what’s between their ears that really matters. There are many ways to live a human life, and remember, it’s a free country.
This, evidently, is too much nuance for low-information voters to grasp. That’s why many of them support a political party that’s increasingly disdainful of anyone who isn’t straight, white and Christian.
Even if you’re not gay or transgender, it’s possible to be kind and accepting of people who are gay or transgender. It’s not a surrender to Satan, and nobody is being lured by Lucifer. It’s just being thoughtful and respectful to people who differ from you.
Unfortunately, many low-information voters just don’t understand. And that’s everybody’s loss.
Brock has been a Daily News columnist for more than 22 years. He has lived on the Palouse even longer.
