I often hear from many of the people I blog about either by email or electronic message. This one, however, was a shocker. Tania Vojvodic, the 'scary' Trump supporter called me.
Yesterday I came across Tania's Facebook post where she was beside herself that the NRA endorsed Trump. In the video, she did not only display elation but a vile disdain for Hillary Clinton and for politicians not jumping onto the Donald Trump Express. Watch her video and read the blog post here.
While writing a blog post about Bernie Sanders lashing out against Disney, I got an alert on my Facebook Page. It was a message from Tania Vojvodic. It turned out she is not only a Trump supporter here in Texas but a Team Trump 2016 National Team Leader and Texas Congressional District Co-Chair for Donald Trump. The post went semi-viral, so I wasn't all that surprised to hear from her. I was surprised by her message.
Mr. Willies, should I call you now or respectfully, call you in the morning? I do look forward to speaking with you. Regardless of our differences of opinions, I'm sure that we can have a very decent conversation. Don't you? I look forward to enlightenment!!!
Well, I respectfully asked her to call now. I intended to write a blog post on the media, but I figured blogging about her would be more interesting and add more to our political discourse.
Tania was made aware of my post about her via someone on the Trump team. It made me wonder if she was coaxed into getting in touch with me. She told me no one on Team Trump asked her to call. That said, given the person she is I wonder if they may have known she would want to.
But I digress momentarily. Too many people are taking a potential Trump win for granted. The fact that Team Trump is granular enough to 'put out social media fires' should scare the $hit our of Democrats.
Tania was very easy to talk to, and the vile sentiments that came out in her video were nowhere to be found. She attributed it to a type of bravado after winning something. After all, the conservative NRA endorsed her candidate.
My goal in speaking to Tania was not to try to convince her that Trump is a bad guy and a con. To be clear, that is what I believe. I wanted to listen to her to understand what made her a Trump supporter. I wanted to earn her respect so that she felt free to tell this left wing liberal how she became a Trump admirer, supporter, and surrogate.
Tania's story is different than most. She had a personal connection with all things Trump from the age of fifteen when she was accepted into a Teen Pageant. She bonded with the Trump image ever since. In other words, she was a 'Trumpeter' throughout Trump's 'ideological changes.' As such, she is comfortable accepting his utterances as policies that will make life better for Americans.
Tania's connection to Trump allows her a comfort to dismiss his misogyny, sexism, racism, and all the isms he has articulated. Then again so has Omorosa, Mike Tyson, and his national spokesperson Katrina Pierson. Tania has met and engaged with Trump's sons as she has campaigned for him throughout the country. That type of familial relationship can be blinding.
Tania believes, rightfully, that the Republican Party is broken. She sees Trump as the non-political person that can restore it. She said she was a Christian, who had a dream that told her Trump will be the next president.
There is much more that we spoke about including our respective families. I did more listening than talking throughout because I really needed to understand how her mind relative to Trump actually works. And you know what? I get it. I don't agree with it. But I get it.
A very intelligent friend and neighbor of mine, an engineer, is a Trump supporter. A friend and volunteer at the liberal KPFT 90.1 FM radio station where I do my show Politics Done Right, is considering voting for Trump. I know many others who will not say that they will vote for Trump out of a sort of shame, but the direction of conversation leads one to believe they are leaning that way. The disdain many have for both parties allows their psyche to morph Trump into what they want him to be disregarding just about all of his otherwise fatal flaws. That said, we must not forget the white supremacist and racists that believe Trump is a ticket to the greatness they once had before those other people came and took it away.
I enjoyed speaking to Tania Vojvodic. She was not scary. The totality of a person cannot be judged from a video clip or a few mistakes. She agreed to read my blogs and listen to my radio shows and give DailyKOS & OpEdNews a read. I hope she will read and listen with an open mind.
I hope to talk to Tania throughout the campaign to see if she has a change of heart. After discussing many socio-economic issues with her, it was evident that she is ideologically fungible like most Americans are if given the latitude.
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