The Decent White Woman Who Voted For Trump.

Elizabeth Grattan
5 min readNov 12, 2016

Does not exist.

I’m sure that is a hard pill to swallow so you will immediately get defensive and start saying stupid shit like “not me” or “I didn’t vote for him!” Worse, you will rationalize your ballot with some sort of “it was the economy” argument. Or you will stand on the contradiction that it was “innocent babies” you were protecting. (Except, of course, all those disenfranchised through systemic racism).

And even more egregious, you will say now is the time to just let love and peace rule and that differences of opinion don’t need to sever relationships. Or you want to hold hands and sing kum ba yah and tell others we’ll get through it because it’s “only four years.”

None of those platitudes will serve as excuse.

After centuries of coverture and being forced into submission, after decades of progress that still discriminates against multitudes of citizens. After current events send a message that sexual assault can become another chance to victim blame. After woke white allies spoke softly about checking our privilege. After every single ounce of historical evidence. We put a man who dog whistled the Alt-Right into the highest office.

White women are responsible for the newly elected administration. White women. And the truly sad part about that is that it shouldn’t be surprising. White women have a long history of sacrificing others, including themselves, to secure their position on the plantation. This time is no different.

I honestly don’t care what your reason for voting for the Trump/Pence ticket is. I don’t give a damn. Whatever it is, it’s still bullshit. It still comes down to the premise that you voted for a man who ran on a promise of sanctioned racism and the inciting of violence to that end.

That’s not decent.

Decent people didn’t cast a ballot for a man endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. Decent people not wanting Hillary as President voted third party or stayed home instead. You didn’t do that. You got your ass over to your precinct and deliberately chose that candidate.

Now, some might argue that you didn’t do this with malicious intent. As if that kind of denial isn’t what got us to this place to begin with. Intentions don’t mean

Elizabeth Grattan

A Woman With A Voice. And Something To Say.