General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums538: The One County in America that Voted both Trump and Obama in a Landslide
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-one-county-in-america-that-voted-in-a-landslide-for-both-trump-and-obama/But none of that gets at the heart of why so many people who cast a ballot for former president Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and who saw Trump as unqualified to be president nonetheless voted for him. Although its far from a microcosm of the nation, theres one place that I believe illustrates what happened in 2016 better than anything else.
. . .
When Trump said, What the hell do you have to lose? a lot more people heard it than just African-Americans, said Pat Murray, a Democrat who worked 29 years as a press brake operator at Donaldson and now serves on the Howard County Board of Supervisors. Our wages have been stagnant, and our insurance has gone backwards, he told me, citing the union-sponsored health plans surging deductibles. We work 50, 60 hours a week because theres no one to hire.
Clinton came to be seen as establishment and dishonest in a year when a plurality of voters wanted change. But in a baffling display of obliviousness, she spent much of the fall jetting between big-city rallies, which were often followed by closed-door, high-dollar fundraisers. She spent precious little time making her economic case before people in midsize cities or small towns like Cresco. And even though she outspent Trump $6.5 million to $2.2 million on Iowas airwaves, her ads were more about Trumps antics than about how she would raise voters wages or how Trump might lower them effectively ceding that ground to Trumps utopian jobs promises and inescapable slogan.
. . .
By 2016, however, Howard County morphed into Sanders territory. The Vermont senator struck a nerve with his calls for a working-class revolution and his attacks on Clintons Wall Street ties and shifting rhetoric on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
. . .
To rebuild lost trust and win support, future Democrats face the twin challenges of, first, persuading voters that Trump is on track to negatively affect their livelihoods and, second, reclaiming the mantle of working-class hero that every successful Democratic nominee has embraced since vaudeville ruled the stage at the Cresco Theatre.
My dad told me, Youll never be rich enough to be a true-blue Republican, Bigley recalled. Now theres too much darn money in politics, on both sides. His advice to his party? Get out here in the sticks and roll around with us common folks for a week or two.
This is a really interesting article. I imagine a bunch of folks will want to shout down its points and yell about Russian influence and voter suppression. Those are real issues. But so is the Democratic Party's disconnect with rural voters. I know a lot of these people. Howard County is not an outlier. If average, working Americans buy into this "both sides are elitist" arguments (they are) and just want to "shake things up", we need to do a helluva better job selling our message. Because the Democratic message is the opposite of elitist when it comes to economic issues.
Coventina
(27,057 posts)Being OK with racism is not OK.
hueymahl
(2,447 posts)Can't disagree with that.
That was not exactly the point of the article, however.
Coventina
(27,057 posts)Oneironaut
(5,486 posts)Everything! We have the greatest living conditions that the world has ever seen (in a general sense / modern society). One war or psychotic President could reduce our country to rubble. If you voted for Trump because you had nothing to lose, then youre either ignorant or delusional.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)"Howard County is not an outlier."
Yes, it is. It's even described as being the reason it was used. Very strange.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)What he meant was that the opinions being expressed weren't all that unusual as compared to the rest of the country. But it seems he forgot that the county was in fact an extreme outlier in terms of the magnitude of the switch.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)several Counties much like Howard,found the same reactions. Especially in Ohio and Pennsy,and when the Friday Death Letter from Comey hit,that Amped up the negative feed back.
When you show up in Jeans and a real Barn Jacket in a small rural town,that is how you dispel the elitist Image. Might sound hooky to some,been there and done that.
crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)Yet voted for someone who shits on gold toilet seats.
GeorgeGist
(25,311 posts)and draw conclusions.
J_William_Ryan
(1,748 posts)in support of the fact that presidential elections are popularity contests, having little to do with policy positions or the issues.