Trumpers: The poor. The disenfranchised. The shamed. Only racists talk about race

The poor.

The disenfranchised.

The shamed.

The people who voted for Trump feel this way and they were willing to kill and gut their own party to state their case.

Nine years ago, I wrote a column predicting Obama's nomination and election. It was easy to predict. It was where we were as a society.

Soon after that, I moved from my home state of California to rural areas and got a different view of our diverse country. Suicide out here is 20 times the national average for males 16 to 24.

So, I started asking why?

We live in this pristine, majestic place, a far cry from densely populated cities. Still, the best and brightest kids leave. Meaning the average kids simply stay home and try and figure out what kind of future they might have, which is pretty bleak.

I spoke with people - poor people - who worked part-time minimum-wage jobs, or on farms and ranches where they scratch out a living, outdoors, every day, year round, literally shoveling shit, milking cows, mending fences, digging holes. They work in coal mines and oil refineries and electric plants.

They do these ugly jobs so the rest of us can flick on a switch and get light, turn a thermostat and get heat or AC, twist a knob and get water, twist a key and start a car, and sit down and eat breakfast, lunch and dinner.

There are almost no black people, Muslims, Jews, Asians and few Indians and Mexicans. The few who are here, pretty much work the same soul-crushing jobs. When these stalwart Americans go home at night, broke and bone weary and stanched of spirit, they watch the evening news over Walmart dinners on Walmart TVs and Walmart digital digital rabbit ears NOT because they love Walmart but because it's the only place they can afford to shop and one of their relatives "has a nice job there."

Suddenly, rich millionaire entertainers, athletes and politicians appear on TV calling these rural and white Americans racists, women haters, bigots, that they have "white privilege," that they are ruining the environment. That they are stupid, uneducated, unrefined, unimportant, in need of being controlled.

And these voiceless Americans, betrayed by their own party, sat there and, for decades, they simply suffered as these two parties and Big Business and the 1% feasted on ALL OF US.

And so, after decades of this drubbing, and eight years in which they believed it got out of hand, and knowing a third party could never win, the laid their own "party" on the alter of American Political History and changed it from within.

Do they like Trump? Most say no. Is he a great moral character. Most say no. Is he a very flawed person who could be a compromised messenger? Most would say yes. But would he give them their voices back? Some chance at self-determination? At beating back the stranglehold of the federal government? All of them would say yes.

As Americans, this is the most important times since the 1960s, maybe since the 1860s.

I have written warning articles about this Trump scenario for eight years, begging both sides to team up against our real enemies instead of each other and refrain from the name calling. For both sides to temper the speech and quit convicting all people in a group for the actions of a few. To, as my hero Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, judge each person not by the color of their skin but the content of their character.

Basically, we need to get back to those higher thoughts and ideals of the 60s. That we don't have to agree with each other, but we should try to understand and empathize. To find common ground, and conflicting issues we can compromise to solve.

Successful people of any kind don't blame, don't make excuses and rise above their detractors, in whatever form they take. Winners know they are valuable. They know they will contribute, and they do. They know they can be president, or astronauts, or stay-home moms or dads. They know the only people who can really hold them down or disturb their "right to pursue happiness" are themselves.

Individual Americans will be a great woman, based on her skills, intelligence, education, determination, honesty. Wasting time on bigots, racists and misogynists will only slow them down.

Winners find people who lift them up and they find people they can lift up.

So I implore my Liberal friends to stop the violent protests and tantrums and try and listen to the message that was just sent. Americans have to stop the violence and name calling and start debating and compromising again.