I’ve spent the last week chatting with friends and acquaintances about why they voted for Trump.
Business owners I know told me that they were looking forward to less government oversight. Less government interference.
One wealthy guy I ran into told me “I always vote with my wallet. It’s my money, not the government’s.”
Another wealthy man I know who despises Trump’s divisiveness explained his vote for Trump:
“I weighed all the pros and cons and I just don’t want my taxes to go up.”
Then he shrugged, “I wish there was another choice,” as if Harris was radically different than other mainstream left-center Democrat that may have run instead.
Jews I know who voted from Trump pointed to one issue. Trump’s unwavering, never criticize and no handbrakes support for Israel.
Religious Christians I know seem solely focused on abortion or making sure the “gay agenda” wasn’t forced on their kids.
Even an Arab man I know who voted for Trump cared about one thing. “Biden has been a disaster for the Middle East because of his support for Israel.”
Many Latinos who voted for Trump in record numbers claimed that Trump stood for “traditional Latino family values.”
A few gun enthusiasts I shoot with have many times told me that they didn’t want Harris to take their guns away.
None of this is to say I agree with any of these groups that only Republicans can be good for business. Or that Democrats all want to get our kids to change genders. Or that Biden and Harris haven’t been incredibly supportive of Israel’s fight against maniacal terror organizations. Or that Harris is somehow to blame for Hamas or Iran.
It’s kind of silly after decades to keep repeating that Dems will take away guns when it hasn’t happened after 20 years of Clinton, Obama and Biden.
Those are a collection of lies and half-truths that get told over and over.
But what all of these very disparate groups have in common, regardless if they’re being honest with themselves, is that their reasons for voting were based on themselves with a lot less expressed concern about how Trump may impact others.
My wallet. My guns. My. My. My.
And herein lies one of the problems with America.
In Japan, people who get to work early park at the back of the parking lot instead of the front so if any of their co-workers are running late they can get a better spot and not be tardy.
Here, we go into road rage if someone takes “my” space at Target.
I have no crystal ball into whether Vice President Harris would have been a great president or not. Some Democrats have been great presidents. Others have not. Same with Republicans.
I certainly don’t want America to crash in the next four years.
A lot of whether our economy does well or not is cyclical anyway. Other times impacted by wars or crises thousands of miles away.
But what we all know is that if are going to ever have a chance of living in a country where everyone has an opportunity to flourish, then we need to stop practicing me-only politics.
Let’s learn about how a candidate’s words, policies, advisors and goals impact not just ourselves but our neighbors.
Nelson Mandela reminded us that “there can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to helping others without expecting anything in return.”
The same goes with how we vote and what policies we support.
We’re all guilty of it — Me-only politics at one time or another, but has it dawned on any of us that those politics don’t advance the ball of creating a society in which everyone belongs and thrives.
Maybe the election was just about the price of eggs.
But I think if we dig deeper, the election was more about our own short term self, instead of how we can value others, too.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of Jeffrey Kass' work on Medium.