The Trump haters

hater: 

A person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success. So rather than be happy they make a point of exposing a flaw in that person.  

Hating, the result of being a hater, is not exactly jealousy. The hater [doesn't] really want to be the person he or she hates, rather the hater wants to knock [someone else] down a notch. 

--from the Urban Dictionary

I take difference with saying it "is not exactly jealousy", because it is (it is frequently confused with envy, to the point it is almost defined the same by most people). In a social hierarchy, one can be jealous of those they perceive to be challenging one for their social status, even if both are on the bottom rung.

Regardless of your definition of "jealousy", let us accept the definition of "hater" as stated above, for the sake of discussion. To be a hater is effectively to want to knock down someone (or a group of people) within the social hierarchy. Frequently, the term is appropriately applied to racists and sexists.

While most reasonable people will agree that racism and sexism are undesirable qualities, how do we deal with them?

Case in point: President-elect Donald Trump.

While many people have called him a racist, I am not quite sold on that. His followers may be, but that isn't his fault. And not wanting people immigrating illegally from other countries does not make him racist. It does make him law-abiding. And the birther controversy over Obama's birth certificate was reasonable considering Obama's father was from another country and Obama himself spent much of his childhood growing up in other countries.

No, where Trump has issues is his sexism. That is quite clear by many of his comments about women (both specific and in general) over the years.

So how does a reasonable person deal with such a man?

A reasonable person doesn't vote for him for president. Even "not voting" might be preferable. (Note: This does NOT mean you vote for Hillary. That is a separate discussion with other considerations.)

But let us consider the opposite question: How does a hater deal with Trump? I mean someone who hates racism/sexism so much, that they need to bring the racist/sexist down a notch? In other words, they hate the sinner more than the sin itself.

Clearly, that person would vote for Hillary Clinton, with no consideration for Clinton's qualifications or flaws. It becomes a decision based on the political calculus of keeping Trump out of the White House at all costs. It is a vote for the candidate most likely to defeat Trump, and not for the "best" candidate or the candidate most likely to help the country. In other words, it is a vote based on hatred alone. No other personal/political/philosophical values are considered. (Mind you, I am not saying this is representative of all of Clinton's voters. Only the Trump haters.)

So what happens now that Trump won/Clinton lost? Before you throw the "Clinton won a majority of the popular vote" at me, consider this:

So the final numbers for #ElectionDay are:

231,556,622 eligible voters

46.9% didn't vote
25.6% voted Clinton
25.5% voted Trump

Wow.

— Ethan Spibey (@EthanLDN) November 9, 2016

I don't know if those numbers are accurate, but I am certain they are close enough for discussion. Also note the unmentioned 2% who didn't vote for Trump or Clinton. In other words, Clinton did NOT win a majority. She won a plurality, which means more people did not vote for her than did. So even if you want a popular vote winner to decide it, she didn't accomplish that. In democracy theory, majority rules, not plurality. Regardless, we are still a semi-republic, so the electoral college decides it, and Trump won, no tiebreakers required.

So how do these Trump haters deal with losing? When the object of hatred is successful against your wishes, there are two typical reactions: Anger or depression. Or to put it in instinctive terms, "fight or flee". The anger response can be seen in yesterday's protests across the country. How can one reasonably protest against a victorious candidate? The same way we see the KKK holding protests long after the Civil Rights movement decided blacks were entitled to equal rights. Haters gotta hate.

But let's not ignore the depressed Trump haters. I can't even begin to count the number of tweets I read yesterday from depressed Trump haters. My daughter, whom I love dearly, had to stay home from school yesterday because she was deeply depressed over Trump's victory. While I haven't had a discussion with her yet, it is coming. I won't tell her what to believe politically, but she has to learn to leave emotion out of it.
   
That is the key: You vent your spleen by voting, not after the results come in. If you win and you want to cheer, great. But if you lose, accept your loss graciously. If I have learned nothing as a third party voter, it is that losing happens. You accept it, and look forward to the next election with the hope that things will get better.

I just hope the Left's Trump haters can learn something in this.