Left Behind by Trump's Boom: The Rural Americans Who Elected Him

[workinclasszero]

By Sarah Foster November 28, 2018, 3:00 AM CST

Countryside missing out on recovery as jobs reappear elsewhere..It’s ‘real rough’ in east Kentucky as cuts to food-stamps loom

Times are tough all across rural America. Nationwide numbers paint a rosy picture of accelerating growth and near-full employment. Swaths of the countryside tell a different story, its protagonists barely scraping by as their jobs drain away in the downturns and don’t come back in the booms.

The economic divide maps onto a political one, which only deepened in this month’s midterm elections. President Donald Trump claims credit for a vibrant economy. Yet it’s in the least-vibrant rural areas that his Republicans picked up support -- the same trend that helped Trump get elected two years ago. Cities and suburbs, where the recovery is palpable, swung toward the Democrats.

In Clay County, Kentucky, unemployment is almost double the national rate. After almost 11 years at the diner, Hensley reckons her job there -- working shifts of up to 12 hours, six days a week -- remains the best she can get.

It pays $1,200 a month. The first biweekly check covers rent on her apartment, the second bills. She feeds her family out of tips and about $300 a month in food stamps (two-fifths of Clay County’s population rely on them). Hensley, who’s 30, is seven months pregnant and won’t get paid maternity leave, so she’s planning to take just four weeks off –- as she did with her previous five children. That took a toll on her health, she says, but “a month is a long time when you ain’t got nothing. You never get to sleep peaceful at night.’’

Clay County delivered an 87 percent vote for Trump in 2016, and this month helped send Republican Hal Rogers back to Congress for a 20th term with almost 80 percent of the county’s ballots.

A lot of Trump’s rural supporters “don’t sound as if they expect to get anything out of the administration,’’ says Andersen. Feeling abandoned, they just want to “destroy the system overall,’’ he says -– and Trump was “the first candidate in a very long time’’ to explicitly feed such resentments.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-28/left-behind-by-trump-s-boom-the-rural-americans-who-elected-him

[Demsrule86]

1. Trump is about to cause a recession so we will all pay a price for his election...he is too stupid

to govern and everything he touches dies.

[hatrack]

2. That's nice . . .

"A lot of Trump’s rural supporters “don’t sound as if they expect to get anything out of the administration,’’ says Andersen. Feeling abandoned, they just want to “destroy the system overall,’’ he says -– and Trump was “the first candidate in a very long time’’ to explicitly feed such resentments."

IOW, their lives are fucked, whether by circumstance, personal stupidity or economic forces beyond their control. They're unable or unwilling to move. So, naturally, they now want to make sure that everyone else's lives are fucked by electing the mirror of their resentments.

Thanks a fucking lot.

[workinclasszero]

5. Right. "they just want to "destroy the system overall,''

These unthinking blind haters just want to destroy everything.

This is the Trump cult in all its glory!

People who are barely scraping by with the help of food stamps elect a NYC rich con man and his ****ing party who will CUT the food stamps and take food out of the mouths of their own children!!

The more Trump and the GOP savage these people, the more they VOTE FOR THEM!

[SWBTATTReg]

8. I agree. These people should remember that the urban areas / metro areas support these ...

rural areas economically by tourism, by purchasing products made in these areas, and by the dollars our workers pay into SS, etc. I'll remember this when I vote next time, that rural America doesn't care a bit for us, in the rest of America and want to destroy everything around them. No wonder urbanites don't want to move to the country any longer. There are no opportunities there, and if they are, they are solely in the hands of families that have been in the area for generations so there is nothing there anyways.

Anybody else has to work for the scraps that are left over from these rural 1%ers, who own quite a bit of the town, they usually also own the local banks, the local commerce stores, and most of the desirable real estate in town, and also control the purse strings via control of the town's/county's city government, so the 99%ers are stuck in a limbo land, urban areas which are too expensive for them to relocate to, and stuck working what few jobs are left in the rural areas.

What really pisses me off too, is that rump is playing these people too just for votes, so what's different here vs. nothing from his admin. vs. other prior administrations? After all, these voters are the ones that these prior administrations in place that is supposedly overlooking them?! They fell hook, line, and sinker for the republican lies that they constantly listen to, that everything must be cut, cut, cut, but leave a $trillion dollars for the military, etc.!!

And I understand that this is not all rural voters...there are lots of people in rural areas that are progressive and are DU members. But I am getting sick and tired of what are the rural voters thinking of, what are they doing, etc. etc. etc.

[Ohiogal]

3. So they just want to destroy everything?

"A lot of Trump’s rural supporters “don’t sound as if they expect to get anything out of the administration,’’ says Andersen. Feeling abandoned, they just want to “destroy the system overall,’’ he says -– and Trump was “the first candidate in a very long time’’ to explicitly feed such resentments."

That makes zero sense. It's as if they're saying "I'm down and out, and I want to bring everyone else down with me."

[Hermit-The-Prog]

19. exactly what they want

That's the sentiment of my neighbors. I warned my son the day after the election that this was a grenade tossed into the middle of the kitchen because they resent it being better equipped than their own. It was a vote to destroy what they didn't have -- bring it all down to the level they've created for themselves by voting GOP for 40 years.

[ProudMNDemocrat]

4. Why does Rural America continue to vote for Republicans?

I just do not get it.

Rural America is dying as cities and other urban areas are growing. It will not be long when all of the family farms are taken over by the big corporations, worker's are paid pittance for food grown for the rest of the world, but not for them. As long as farmers continue to lose money due to Trump's tariffs, everybody in Rural America loses. Jobs are few and far between.

[duforsure]

6. With their tax scam bill

It kicked off millions from health care, and slashed almost 2 trillion from Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, which will hurt them the most. If these people in rural area's think that helps them , good luck to them if they are that stupid. Add tariffs and other things he's passing to hurt the economy with it'll come down on them the hardest soon, and anyone with a brain will realize they were lied to, and taken advantage of by trump and the gop.

[Vinca]

7. Ivanka could have manufactured her shoes in Kentucky.

These idiots need to realize that Don wouldn't go into a mine with them and he really doesn't give a shit if they have food on the table.

[blueinredohio]

9. It's hard to feel sorry for people who voted fepublican

and have five kids with one on the way and can't make ends meet. I'm originally from the south so I know there's nothing there, no decent paying jobs, no future but why not move? Or at least don't keep having kids who are the ones who really suffer.

[3Hotdogs]

10. "destroy the system" doesn't go beyond the gub'mint.

Their "reasoning" is about the structure that leaves them fucked. They don't have the information to understand that their actions go beyond Washington and into all of our lives.

[titaniumsalute]

11. I read this article

Many things to be debated...but good grief if you are basically poor and work 12 hour shifts 6 days per week why is the lady at the diner preggo with her 6th kid?

I have two kids. Kids are expensive no matter what. We stopped at two because, at the time, we relaly couldn't afford more. I can now but in my mid 40s no way.

[workinclasszero]

12. It blows my mind too

Why bring another kid into a world like that?

Makes no sense.

The way the people in this story live their lives is incomprehensible to me.

[hatrack]

13. Like the NYT article where they hung out at the diner in West Virginia . . . .

This was about a year ago. One guy they spoke with had no job, no savings, no prospects - but he did have 154 guns in his gun collection. SMDH

[workinclasszero]

16. Wow that's just stupid

How does a person get through life like that?

[PJMcK]

14. Birth control and abortion are sins, that's why

That's what far too many people believe. Their religions tell them so. Family planning is evil and that's why they want to get rid of Planned Parenthood.

Equally important, for whatever reason, far too many people embrace ignorance rather than education. Accordingly, they lack critical thinking skills and are unable to see the connections between their actions and their lives. When such people have lots of kids, such as the woman in the article, those children grow up in the same stunted environment thus perpetuating these negative qualities.

I'm baffled by the behavior of such people.

[dalton99a]

15. And who is representing them? Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.

[workinclasszero]

17. Exactly, the very people who promise to make their lives an even more living hell

People in other countries must look at the insane stupidity of the American public with fear and awe.

Fox noise and hate radio have built a nihilistic empire of blind hate that would amaze even Goebbels!

[Coventina]

18. Womp womp.

I'll send my thoughts and prayers.

[tonedevil]

20. Can we say...

they vote against their own self interest yet?