Out of the Closet

From the time he was an adolescent, Johnny was always aware that he was somehow different than others. His parents, teachers, ministers, and neighbors all told him things that he didn’t feel were correct. He had thoughts and feelings that were clearly considered evil by the society around him, but try as he might, those feelings never went away. So in public he pretended to be the way they expected him to be. He got pretty good at pretending; so good that no one had a clue as to his true nature. He dreamt of a day when he could stop pretending, and be who he really was.

At first he thought he must be the only one who had to keep such a secret. Sure, there were a few people like him who were open about who they were, but they were reviled among his family and friends, and he sure didn’t want to become an outcast. So he kept pretending.

A few years later things slowly started to improve for Johnny. Many people in the media, and even some popular politicians, began to talk about these things. Not openly, of course – that would never have worked. But they clearly hinted at it, using code words and loose word associations that were understood by their listeners, but which could always be publicly denied as having any subtext. He began to notice that others were responding to these signals. Lots of other people. He began to understand that he was far from being alone.

He also started to think that if people like him were to unite and work together, they could change the underlying culture of society. So he started meeting with other like-minded people. He began to become politically active, and supported those candidates who were clearly sympathetic to his view of the world. As more and more of these candidates for change were elected, he began to feel more confident that things were finally changing!

And now, after years of supporting candidates who spoke about these matters by using carefully-chosen code words, a new, fresh candidate has emerged who spoke openly about the things he always believed! Donald Trump didn’t bother with the polite code words; he said what he felt, and this was exactly what Johnny had been waiting for: someone who represented what those feelings.

For Johnny is a racist. He never liked blacks or Jews, and always thought gays were perverts and should be locked away. He wanted to send all the Mexicans back, and keep Muslims in their countries, where we could bomb the shit out of them. He doesn’t see anything wrong about the Confederate flag, except that people are being too “politically correct” about it. Oh, and the misogyny! He had always felt that only men should be leaders, since women were inferior. He wished that someday women just shut up about equality, and go back to their “traditional” roles of cooking, cleaning, and raising babies, while always submitting to his sexual desires.

Johnny still can’t say those things out loud in public, because he knows that he would be ostracized socially, and would probably lose his job if his boss knew. So he still pretends, but come November, he will ecstatically cast his vote for Trump. And despite polls showing that Trump has nearly no chance of winning, Trump will end up getting millions of votes from people like Johnny who are skilled at acting one way in public, but who secretly long for the days of segregation and male dominance.

Don’t kid yourselves into thinking that people like Johnny are rare. All you have to do is spend any time on the internet and they will use that anonymity to reveal themselves. They are much more common than you think, and if you get complacent reading polls that show Trump as wildly unpopular, you will be in for a shock when he continues to beat the pollsters. Because polls rely on people saying what they honestly think, and these racists may be ignorant, but they aren’t dumb. They will happily report to be shocked by what Trump says when asked publicly, while inwardly smiling and thinking “ah, one of us!”. Don’t fall into that trap. Treat him, and those who support him in the shadows, as the serious threat that they are.