I'm probably one of those people this thread is meant to lambaste, as I've been calling for quite a long time for more understanding of a certain voting block. But I feel like I need to make a distinction here.
I personally am not calling for tolerance of sexism, xenophobia, or racism. I wouldn't describe myself as a moderate. There is a fundamental lack of understanding that I think we can clear up.
Specifically, fuck racists, sexists, and bigots. Fuck any Trump voter who is a racist, sexist or bigot. A lot of them probably are, cause America is a deeply bigoted country that has been built on pillars of sexism, racism, and white supremacy. There is no doubt that Trump road a wave of white nationalism to power and that a large part of his voters cast their ballots specifically because they think he will "make america great again" by moving America backwards by a century or so. To claim that bigots don't exist in America or that racism is dead is either grossly ignorant or insidiously racist.
But to simply write off 50 million American voters as racist, sexist, or bigoted, is logically insane. There are probably all kinds of opinions within that group, people who ARE economically downtrodden and desperate, people who're indoctrinated in the hatred of Clinton, people who are just fucking dumb as all hell, selfish, low-information, etc. If we want anything like a path forward for American democracy and for the progressive movement as a whole, it would be best if we did not indefinitely alienate half of the voting population in our anger and fear at a white nationalist president.
If the liberals don't want them (or actively ignore them), they only have one other place to go, and that's the party of regressive bigotry.
None of this matters tonight, because a lot of people are righteously afraid and angry. A Trump presidency means actual tangible harm to minorities living in America and GOP control means we may be dealing with the consequences of this election for decades to come in the form of SCOTUS Judges and continued efforts at voter disenfranchisement. But in the coming months we gotta start gearing up for the midterms and we gotta figure out how to get people out there voting for a future free from the white supremacy that permeates our nation. We obviously can't do that by trusting every Progressive in America to get off their lazy asses and vote, a large swath of them abandoned this country because they're unreliable, so for the next few years we gotta expand the base and there is a disenfranchised block of white voters that will gladly join us in the future if only we can promise (and deliver) one in which they're a welcome part.
When the GOP lost in 2012 their post-mortem revealed the fundamental problems with the party... they largely ignored that and as such elected a bloviating orange shit of a man to POTUS. When the post-mortem of this loss is done, we'll need to take a lot of shit a lot more seriously if we want to look anything like a progressive, liberal party in the future.
In the mean time, fuck racists and sexists and bigots. White liberals and moderates need to do more now than they ever have to support our minority population and move forward with what progress we can make in these dark times.