Trump voters were persuaded to defy their own values

Our hearts and souls are reeling. What comes after this election will be some deep misery, we fear, for most of us in this country, and for the rest of the world.

How can we understand why the presidential election went the way it did? So many decent, hardworking, respectable people evidently chose Trump. We can explain it only by seeing these people as having been persuaded to make a choice that doesn’t respect their own values. How does this happen?

Trump’s bravado works to persuade otherwise smart people to think that he will work for them and make their lives better. Good folks may start to act in opposition to their own values because such a man tells them that he has the keys to a better life, especially when others aspiring to power do not specifically address some of their very real concerns.

Only education can work as a defense against charm and persuasion to endorse behavior people would not otherwise endorse and to act in ways they normally would not. Our values are — or should be — the base and motivation for our behavior. If we can resist value-defying persuasion, we can remain true to our own values.

We’re putting one foot in front of the other as best we can for now. The public may be in for a horrific awakening during the next year. Do we really care about each other, or just about ourselves? Love doesn’t conquer all, but we’re glad it exists.

Susan Abrahams and Peter Rolnick

Iowa City