I work with dying Trump supporters. It's...confusing [View all]

I’m driving down a gravel road in rural North Carolina, looking at mailbox numbers. A hospice social worker, I’m headed to meet Petey, a patient dying of metastatic cancer. When I’d called his wife Jackie to schedule our first visit, she’d told me they’d been married more than 60 years. “I can’t believe this is happening,” she’d said, her voice heavy with sadness. “I don’t know how I’m going to make it in this world when he’s gone.”

A few homes down I see a ranch style house with a Trump flag hanging limp from what looks like a homemade flagpole. Hell no, not that one, I think, before realizing the number I’m looking for is on a grey mailbox at a driveway leading to that very house.

My eyes harden with anger. A thought pops into my head that I’m not proud of. “Good, he’ll be dead by November. One less vote for that bloated orange fascist.”

As I roll down the driveway, my mind lights up with stereotypes about the people I am about to meet. Stupid. Gullible. Easily manipulated. Incapable of critical thinking. Racist. Willing to rationalize and/or cheer on violence against people they have dehumanized (Blacks, Muslims, people in the LGBTQ community). I assume they don’t give a damn about democracy and are likely to have negative judgments about progressive-minded people like me (I fail to see the irony).

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/4/6/2233194/-I-work-with-dying-Trump-supporters-It-s-confusing