John,

I could never ever in a million years vote for Trump, but I have been telling all my Trump-trolling buddies that when 40% of the country wants to vote for this guy, we need to pay attention. There is something we don’t understand, and it is important than we do understand. It’s too easy and too lazy to generalize that Trump voters are idiots. 40% of the country is not idiot. When people are willing to look past his over the top narcissism, his misogyny, his lies, his selfishness, his demeaning of other people, his sense of entitlement, his lack of personal responsibility, his lack of empathy, his lack of basic human values, then they must really be hurting. Trump is not the problem. He is a symptom of the problem and the mainstream does not understand, appreciate or even accept the problem.

I had to hold my nose to press click on an article titled “Why I am voting for Trump”, but it was important to me that I did, and I am glad I did. I may be everything you resent — a coastal liberal who wasn’t born in America (my English is not terrible though, I assure you) who believes global warming is real, who would love to take guns away from private citizens, etc. And I may still vote for Gary Johnson, but I accept Hillary as my president. I don’t think Trump would have changed anything, and we will never know. But that doesn’t mean anyone is wrong to want to vote for him. You explained your reasons very well.

Thanks for writing the piece, brother. I get you. I really do.

Hugs,

Vikas