Here’s a shocking statistic for you:
According to the non-profit organization RespectAbility, in the 2016 presidential election, voters with disabilities and those who care about our issues split their votes pretty much evenly between Hillary Clinton (with 49 percent) and Donald Trump (with 46 percent).
I’m shocked that it was anything less than a shutout. Well, okay, maybe Trump would’ve gotten one vote from Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the wheelchair-riding cowboy, and maybe one from Madison Cawthorn. But besides those two, I always find it deeply perplexing when I try to understand why any disabled person would find anything even remotely politically appealing about Republicans, especially ones like Trump.
Why is anyone surprised that Republican-led efforts to make it harder for certain people to vote have also targeted disabled people?
Why is anyone surprised that Republican-led efforts to make it harder for certain people to vote have also targeted disabled people?
I suppose it’s good news that those numbers seem to have shifted a lot. Research by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that 17.7 million disabled folks voted in the 2020 election, which was an increase of nearly two million over our 2016 turnout. And a poll of disabled voters in battleground states, conducted by Greenburg Research just before that election, showed that disabled voters backed Joe Biden over Trump, 60 to 35 percent.
But I‘m still deeply perplexed when I try to understand how anyone could have voted for Trump in 2016 and then been surprised and disappointed by what he turned out to be. I mean, he fired his best cheap shots right out of the box when he said in his 2015 presidential candidacy announcement, “The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems . . . . When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best . . . . They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
If Trump could so proudly profess such profound ignorance about Mexicans, why would anyone think he would be any more enlightened about disabled people?
I fear that when the 2024 election rolls around, some disabled folks might get fooled again. They might be led to believe that somehow it’s possible to oppose Trump but still vote for Republicans. But Trump is not a caricature of the Republican party: He is an accurate depiction of what Republicanism is all about. Trump uses rhetoric that excites xenophobes, homophobes, and racists because he knows that mentality is an indispensable component of the Republican political base. Republicans can’t win without their support.
Other Republicans are obliged to do the same. They can try to distance themselves from Trump all they want but in the end they’ll all support the same policies he does. Trump is the personification of the creed of greed and selfishness that is the essence of Republicanism.
When someone votes for the Republican party, that’s what they’re voting for.