By David Marcus in a NY Post Op-Ed….
Last week I drove a 20-foot box from Brooklyn to Arkansas and back. Ostensibly, the purpose was to move a couple to Fayetteville for a fee. But this was a chance to take the temperature of that strange terrain we call Middle America.
Each day, after hours of driving, I’d tuck into a bar in some town and talk to the people. They had a lot to say.
First stop: Wheeling, W. Va. At a little sports bar called T.J.’s, I met Chuck, a Vietnam-era Navy vet who is concerned about American foreign policy but generally confident in President Trump. “If you’re a Democrat, he’s the worst thing since Stalin,” he told me. “If you’re a Republican, he’s Jesus.”
On Venezuela, Chuck wanted more aggressive policies; on the Middle East, less. But when I asked him about the Democrats running for president, he struck a note I’d hear over and over: He wasn’t sure how much they cared about average Americans.
Chuck was especially dumbfounded that all the wannabes at the second debate agreed illegal immigrants should get free health care, while ignoring the plight of people born here.
My next leg took me through Ohio, Indiana and most of southern Illinois.
In Vandalia, Ill., a little town that was once the state’s capital but now doesn’t have even Uber, I called Callie’s Cab Service to take me to a sociable bar. Callie herself picked me up.
Callie used to be a Democrat but no longer votes. When I asked her if Dems had moved too far left, she said no. “Not too far left — too far gone. They don’t care about Americans.”
At a bar called The Blind Society (a hipster paradise that looks like it should be in Greenpoint), Amy, the owner, was easy to spot: She sported a fantastic bob hairdo with blond highlights and was very much the woman in charge.
Amy described herself as a liberal, but not a progressive. She’s worried about Democrats’ socialist rhetoric. And this, as far as I could tell, was the far left of Vandalia.
…
In St. Robert, Mo., I had my most extensive conversation with strong Trump supporters. Sitting at a picnic table outside my hotel, I spoke with a family from North Carolina whose son just graduated from a nearby boot camp.
They told me they like Trump because he does what he says he’ll do and is for the people.
Note…
David Marcus talked to a lot of people who seem to need a change….
But have no sense of how to do it….
That Trump cares about white folks left behind in America is ludicrous….
image….alamy.com
These folks obviously are partial to demagoguery.
They seem to have been brain washed into a different reality….
Trump is NOT their savior….
Amen Scott….
50 years ago these same people (or their parents and grandparents) in these sane towns would be saying the same thing about George Wallace.
Yeah these folks have Facebook where they can share memes about how today’s kids aren’t respectful enough while defending the daily disrespect Trump shows, but other than that there’s not much difference.
The woman attemding her son’s boot camp graduation in Missouri said as much when she said “norms” don’t concern her (I’m sure the “norm” of young black men keeping their pants pulled up is a whole other issue)
FOX News and talk radio have permeated these towns the last 2-3 decades and now they have taken over the GOP.
Trump is nothing more than a Facebook meme that makes people who don’t think about it (or as Jack notes are partial to demagoguery) feel better. And the Republican Party by extension is nothing more than that.
Honestly we can’t win these people over. I’m not saying Democrats shouldn’t target rural areas. But our best hope is doing what worked in 2018. Increased urban turnout and further inroads into suburban and exurban areas.
From my blue bubble I can drive to two of these towns in this story in a couple hours -St. Robert, MO and Vandalia, IL. St. Robert is a military town being near an army base and Vandalia is the part of southern Illinois that is far more Kentucky than Chicago.
Trump has done nothing to make life in these towns better. But he appeals to those who are looking to complain more about “elitists” who are looking for actual solutions while they feel superior about living in “real America”. FOX News and Rush Limbaugh have trained them well. Now it’s the whole Trump Republican Party.
CG ,the other day ,was ribbing me about my friends at the Elk Lodge and how they were likely Trump fans.
He’s right,most of them are,although I’ve been surprised at the number who generally don’t defend him or even say much about him.
What I’ve found though is that few of them can even point to anything he’s actually done.A few like him because the media doesn’t like him ,claiming that,except for FoxNews, the rest of the media is anti American(meaning they just don’t like the media and they believe they are “America”) .
The majority will concede,after some arguing, that they really know he’s full of it but they “want” to believe in him (cultish much?) .
Scott is Right.It will be exceedingly difficult for any Democrat, even Biden, who surprisingly many express some admiration for, to make major inroads among these folks.Not saying some effort shouldn’t be made(wouldn’t write off any group) , but we must be realistic as for what it takes to win?As the old saying goes, you hunt where the ducks are.Well they’re not here .
They’d go down with the ship for the guy….
Snake oil salesmen are still alive and operating in America…
Even manage to get elected President….
We don’t have to “win them back” Jack, we simply need to outvote them (like we did last time) in the states that count.
What Scott was describing is exactly what I saw and heard when I was canvassing in the ethnic neighborhoods of Cleveland. Trump validates these folks and their whiteness. An old fat white guy is in charge, and he looks just like them, they’re back on top again. After eight years of a black guy those folks in Cleveland would be damned if they voted for a woman. Trump was the perfect storm for their insecurities. And, yes, they might not believe him in all things, but they are being “true to their school,” they need to stand up for one of their own.
But haven’t the Republicans been on this road since Nixon devised his Southern Strategy? They have used race as a club for over 50 years now. So when we are remembering what some individual might have done or said in the past, it’s impossible to forget that every Republican Presidential candidate has used subtle or overt racism to win votes since Nixon. Everyone of them.
That’s why I was so surprised to read an excited defense of Nixon the other day, a defense of what Nixon did to benefit black folks. Nixon wasn’t only a racist, he was an incredible anti-Semite. His tapes have countless examples of comments that can only be described as racist and anti-Jewish. He complained that “it was time that a Jew in America realizes he’s an American first and a Jew second.” How anyone could defend Nixon after reading quotes like this is beyond me.
Last night the husband and I went to an anti-ICE raid rally in Santa Rosa. Several thousand people showed up and were organized to help assist people who might be in danger from deportation this weekend. So, I might be real busy this weekend.
I saw Pence at the border yesterday on his tour of those horrible detention camps (aka concentration camps) at the border. He blamed the lack of action by the Democrats for the conditions. He could barely keep that “straight” face that he has plastered on his mug breathing in the smell of people who haven’t been able to bath in weeks. Many of the asylum seekers are being held in a prison for profits that benefit rich Republican contributors, and this closest case has the nerve to blame the treatment of these people on the Democrats.
Tell it to mother Mike.
For those interested (maybe it’s what motivated the current writer to visit Vandalia), Joseph Lyford wrote what I think was a monograph for the Fund for the Republic (later the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions) in 1962, and republished by Harper & Row in 1965 (before Int’l Standard Book Nos) called The Talk in Vandalia “with photographs by the author”.
Although I haven’t made the attempt, it might be interesting to compare Vandalians’ views of the world and politics in the early 1960’s with another generation’s views half a century later.