An open letter to NJ Trump supporters

Dear New Jersey Trump supporters:

It wasn't and easy week for people like you in New Jersey and all across the country who supported President Donald Trump. Then again, no week has been easy in the last four years.

To have to defend yourself against charges of being a racist, deplorable or just plain stupid isn't for the faint of heart. For many of you, it was the first time you got engaged in politics or really got behind a person you voted for. The opposition accused you of doing it for all the wrong reasons and inferred that you were somehow evil for doing so. For so many Trump voters, he was a refreshing change. He's not a career politician and called out the creatures in "the swamp" that made you feel like the outsider who was never heard.

All the other side saw was an inarticulate bully who offended their sensibilities and embarrassed them in their tight circles of people who think just like them. They are college-educated and somewhat sophisticated in their speech and demeanor. They could never get behind someone who spoke and tweeted in the manner President Trump did. They are much smarter than that and much smarter than YOU, in their minds. However, they didn't vote with their minds. They voted with their hearts, and what's in their hearts is hate. Hatred for anyone who doesn't think like them and especially someone who articulates those thoughts in the way Trump, or you did.

I would say about 80% of them voted against their own interests and the long-term interests of the country. That didn't matter. He was the ugly, boorish, egotistical, narcissistic, immature jerk that ruined their party four years ago and they weren't going to let that go. Much of America is scared and weak. They don't want a disrupter who is going to go against the grain. Trump made them feel insecure, and they're basically insecure people, so they couldn't stand a man who spoke out and spoke up the way he did. In a way they never could. The Democrats didn't take the Senate and in the mid-terms in two years, will probably take heavy losses, so there is some hope.

President Trump hasn't conceded yet as of this writing and maybe he won't have to. Many of you are clinging to that hope, but there is more to be content about. You, unlike many of the hate-filled people on the other side, have a life, family, children and real relationships. Many of them do not. Politics may be a small part of your life, but it's everything to the other side. A good portion of them are unhappy, dysfunctional people who hate the country that's given them and all of us so much. You can blame it on higher education, the media, their fathers, etc. I'm not a psychiatrist, so I can't say for sure. What I do know is that no matter what the final outcome of the election is, or what happens in another four years, you will still be the strong, generally happy and productive person you are, but they'll still be the miserable hateful people preaching tolerance and showing none.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy. Any opinions expressed are Dennis’ own.