We spoke to one of UVA’s only Trump supporters
‘I’ve been scared on grounds for being a Trump supporter’
“I supported Obama in the past based on feelings rather than actually doing my research, which is exactly what I’m seeing a lot of my peers do this election voting for Clinton, just how I felt pressured to support Obama. I think people are tired of being pressured by both their peers and the media into voting one way or another and that is one of the many reasons why so many of us support Trump.”
This Third Year, who wishes to remain anonymous, has formed this opinion especially after taking many politics classes this year which has fostered debates on the election. In these classes the environment is respectful, but she hasn’t always faced that outside of the classroom.
“Someone called me an embarrassment to women, so that was interesting because I’m also a feminist.”
“These are the stickers on my car that I had to take off when I came back to UVA after a weekend at home, because I was so afraid that my car would get vandalized.”
She does stress though the negative feedback she has received on the “liberal campus” is not what she faces normally, and especially the faculty has been respectful of her views.
“It’s really just a small group of people, Clinton supporters, who are very very pro-Clinton and very very anti-Trump and also anti-Trump supporters” who “feel the need to belittle Trump supporters and their opinions. And that’s really unfortunate.”
She also notes that when the College Republicans dropped its endorsement of Trump, that also isolated Trump supporters on grounds.
“I think that dropping that endorsement really disheartened a lot of people on grounds…and it really hurt their morale in a way. But then I think that after a little while those same Trump supporters came back around with even more fire behind what they believe in because they felt as if they had been abandoned and that they were on their own now.
“That they needed to continue to fight until election day ever harder than they had before, because now they didn’t have any backing.”
She feels a reason why insult-driven rhetoric around Trump supporters exists is due to Clinton’s use of the word “deplorables” to describe Trump supporters when at a fundraiser this past September.
“That was really really disheartening because I used to love Clinton before this election actually and before I learned a little bit about her past endeavors, but it’s really unfortunate that she kind of had to spread that hate onto Trump supporters.”
“And I think that really gave the go-ahead and the okay for Clinton supporters to belittle Trump supporters and it’s really unfortunate that that happened.”
Of course, we had to ask about the leaked tape in which Trump was recorded talking about grabbing women sexually, and it was soon after that the College Republicans revoked its endorsement.
“I definitely think that there’s no excuse for what he said, obviously. But I think people are using that tape to even more so belittle the ideas of Trump supporters and belittle the grievances that they have with the past eight years and the way America’s been going for them.”
“I definitely didn’t approve of it, but at the same time I think dropping the endorsement was really the result of a lot of people on grounds pressuring the College Republicans to drop that endorsement…I think that was a bit of a drastic measure. I think we should have also taken into account who we’re running against and what that particular individual has done in the past…”
She recognizes that there have been a lot of scandals on both sides.
There’s a lot she agrees on with Trump, but there are also stances of his she doesn’t support.
In addition to witnessing harmful effects of Obamacare on people in her community, this student’s politics classes have shown her “how the actual implementation of policy has negatively affected people.”
So she agrees with Trump on issues related to healthcare, trade polices, the economy including lowering taxes on the middle class and raising support for veterans. Members of her extended family are in the military, and her grandfather and great uncles served during Vietnam so increased awareness and reform for veteran care is something she is “pretty passionate” about.
Though as an Environmental Science major (double with Foreign Affairs), she has discrepancies with him regarding the environment. But she feels like those issues are not as pressing as others. “If we strengthen our economy we can definitely work on [social] issues together in the future after we try to really bring about some economic reform.”
“He represents true freedom and a very prosperous future for all Americans regardless of what the media says.”
“It’s not always easy. A lot of my friends are Clinton supporters and I try to respect everybody’s views equally…To be perfectly honest sometimes I’ve been scared on grounds for being a Trump supporter.”
Overall though, she said she has talked with other Trump supporters on grounds and found that “we all tend to have similar [experiences] where the majority of people do respect our opinions and are very kind towards us when we have political discussions and things like that.”
*Featured image posed by a model