It's on me to understand Trump voters? Here's the parable of the face-eating bear.

Opinion: It's on me to understand Trump voters? Here's the parable of the face-eating bear.
But the thing is, it's the bear that wants to eat my face, not the other way around. And I'm pretty sure no matter how much I understand about the bear, it's still going to want to eat my face.

Rex Huppke
USA TODAY


So, I’m standing in the forest and there’s this bear barreling toward me and I’m pretty sure it wants to eat my face. Clearly, the most important thing I can do right now is listen to the bear and try to understand why it feels the way it does, right?

That’s what the people on the edges of the forest are telling me. They’re saying, “That bear that wants to eat your face is misunderstood, and you need to engage with it and figure out what YOU did wrong to make that bear angry.”

To which I say, “Umm … OK. But the thing is, it’s the bear that wants to eat my face, not the other way around. And I’m pretty sure no matter how much I understand about the bear, it’s still going to want to eat my face.”

....(snip)....

Look, I can talk to the bear, but I'm pretty sure it's still going to eat me

So here I am, in the forest with the bear bearing down. And all I hear, once again – from the edge-of-the-forest chorus – is that I should do everything in my power to accommodate the bear and understand why it’s dead set on eating my damn face.

....(snip)....

When confronted with a bear, be noisy and don't show fear

No, I’m going to follow the advice of any good park ranger and stand my ground while making a lot of noise.

The bear might still eat my face. But if it’s going to happen again, I don’t need to investigate its motivations or examine how I may have wronged the bear by … I don’t know … recognizing the world has changed a bit. .................(more)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/11/14/trump-election-reason-maga-republicans-voters/76258152007/