This is a guest opinion column.
I don’t understand why Donald Trump has attracted so much hate and vitriol. It’s not uncommon for political candidates to be slandered by their opponents, but once an election or term is over, the level of hostility usually dies down and attacks focus on policy decisions and, to a lesser extent, on character.
I experienced some hostility when I was a Republican presidential elector in 2016. It was my fourth time being an elector for Alabama, so it was unusual that my mailbox started filling up with cards and letters begging me to change my vote a few weeks before the Electoral College convened. My mailbox was flooded with Trump hate letters, and my mail carrier, Mr. Meriweather, left a large mailbox next to my mailbox, and a few days later, he left the cards, so I had to go to the post office to get an extra box.
Most of the letters were the same, some with typos. But they were all vicious, attacking Trump’s character and listing the damage he would do to the country. The hyperbole was amusing, and some of the letters were laced with various conspiracy theories that defy all logic or rational structure. I kept nearly 4,000 of them, ignoring them except to show them to friends. I’m sure they were thrown out when I moved offices.
The mail was tedious and a pain to retrieve, but it did result in phone calls to members of the Flat Earth Society who opposed the promotion of round globes in schools. The calls began with about 10 days to go before the election results were counted. After a few calls and figuring out what was going on, I stopped taking the phones and had seminar participants leave voicemails. When the voicemail filled up, I didn’t delete the messages for fear of providing an electronic forum for disgruntled Hillary supporters to vent their anger.
I actually listened to a few of the calls and was surprised by the tone and the extreme condemnation of Donald Trump. One call in particular stood out to me. It was from a young mother who was explaining that she had a sacred duty to her children to fulfill her electoral duty and not start World War III. The more she asserted her position that Trump would blow up the world, the faster she spoke, and the more she hyperventilated, eventually crying hysterically and begging not to kill her children. Thankfully, there was a limited time to record the message, so she had no time to catch her breath before the phone was hung up.
Another caller told me he’d hired a law professor to help him learn how to abandon his Republican allegiance and vote for Hillary. It was a complicated process, of course, but the brilliant professor walked me through it. The message reminded me of a public service announcement I’d heard as a child about the dangers of snorting airplane glue. Apparently, my caller missed the ad and snorted it anyway.
All of this felt surreal. Until recently, the Electoral College, and especially the presidential electors, were one of those low-key political events that only party loyalists knew about and participated in. In 2016, every elector who voted for Donald Trump was targeted and mildly harassed until the vote was cast. Though I never personally felt threatened, the whole experience was the beginning of what some have called “Trump Madness Syndrome.”
It’s getting worse, not better. 2016 was my last year in office, and the rhetoric hasn’t subsided. If anything, the ad hominem attacks have become more puerile and fanciful, and they’ve increased in volume.
The idea that any of the candidates are a threat to democracy is absurd, and anyone who makes such a claim has never been taught our Constitution or the checks and balances of the separation of powers. To believe that any of the candidates would institute a fascist regime is as impossible as it is ignorant. Worse, comparing anyone to Hitler or any other dictator shows not only a lack of civics education, but also a complete failure to understand the depths of depravity that Hitler and his ilk possessed. The dictators of the last century were murderous thieves, and there is no room in our public discourse for denigrating them using such comparisons for political purposes.
It’s one thing to dislike someone’s policies and voice your opposition in polite debate, debating the merits and consequences of their proposals. But there’s no room for demonizing and degrading the candidate’s character, so that, whether intentional or not, outliers get the message that they will physically harm the candidate to prevent some far-fetched disaster they see as existential. But in reality, it’s just actionable political rhetoric.
The events of last weekend reminded me of the fiery rhetoric I experienced almost eight years ago, which was foolish and misguided then as it is now. Political leaders need to learn the lesson of Henry II and recognize that their supporters may not listen and distinguish between hyperbole and implied leadership directives. Ridding the world of Saxon priests may be a cathartic statement uttered in frustration, but vassals seeking future gains may take it to heart and act with significant but unintended consequences.
Will Sellers is a graduate of Hillsdale College and a justice on the Alabama Supreme Court. He can be reached at Email:.
