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Nicholas Kristof

By Nicholas Kristof

Opinion Columnist

Some of the best advice Democrats have received recently came from Bill Clinton in his speech at the Democratic National Convention.

First, he warned against hubris: “We’ve seen more than one election slip away from us when we thought it couldn’t happen, when people got distracted by phony issues or overconfident.” That’s something that any Clinton understands in his — or her — gut.

Second, related and even more important, he cautioned against demeaning voters who don’t share liberal values.

“I urge you to meet people where they are,” said Clinton, who knows something about winning votes outside of solid blue states. “I urge you not to demean them, but not to pretend you don’t disagree with them if you do. Treat them with respect — just the way you’d like them to treat you.”

That’s critical counsel because too often since 2016, the liberal impulse has been to demonize anyone at all sympathetic to Donald Trump as a racist and bigot. This has been politically foolish, for it’s difficult to win votes from people you’re disparaging.

It has also seemed to me morally offensive, particularly when well-educated and successful elites are scorning disadvantaged, working-class Americans who have been left behind economically and socially and in many cases are dying young. They deserve empathy, not insults.

By all means denounce Trump, but don’t stereotype and belittle the nearly half of Americans who have sided with him.

Since I live in a rural area, many of my old friends are Trump supporters. One, a good and generous woman, backs Trump because she feels........

© The New York Times