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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe "Left Behind" Trump voter has nothing left to tell us.
"Editors are looking for stories on Trump voters who are making do, soldiering on, hanging tough, wishing each other Merry Christmas instead of that heathen Happy Holidays, and extending the president the benefit of the doubt no matter how many times he does them rotten. Small-town, heartland, blue-collar, bingo-hall, left-behind authentic representatives and descendants of the Real America whom hip elitist bi-coastals and technocrat politicians ignore, until their votes bite Democrats in the butt. So where does an enterprising reporter go to bag a focus group of Trump voters in their native habitat? The local diner.
And not just any diner. Definitely not one of those Silver Diners, a chain that offers Flexitarian menus, whatever the fancy hell that means, or one of those shiny faux-retro diners in the suburbs catering to Happy Days nostalgia. No, it has to be a diner that still offers a wood-paneled haven steeped in the aroma and kitchen grease of yesteryear, a clientele of rumpled regulars, an old cathode-tube TV in the corner, and voilà . . . Steven Whitt fires up the coffeepot and flips on the fluorescent sign in the window of the Frosty Freeze, his diner that looks and sounds and smells about the same as it did when it opened a half-century ago. Coffee is 50 cents a cup, refills 25 cents. The pot sits on the counter, and payment is based on the honor system. So begins a dispatch from Claire Galofaro, an A.P. reporter whose special beat is Trump Country, in a story dated December 28, 2017. The Frosty Freeze is in Elliott County, Kentucky, a region in worsening distress which in 2016, for the first time, broke its string of going Democratic, betting on Trump to be the turnaround guy. Trip Gabriel is The New York Timess unofficial Trump roving diner correspondent. In In Iowa, Trump Voters Are Unfazed by Controversies, Gabriel opened at one diner (The eight men around a rectangular table, sipping coffee from a hodgepodge of mugs donated by customers, meet daily for breakfasts of French toast, eggs and bacon at Darrells diner), then popped into another, where he quoted a waitress who didnt vote in the 2016 election because she didnt like either candidate, not exactly a gem worth extracting. Reuters reporter Tim Reid also drew blanks when he corralled a trio of Trump supporters at a Bob Evans diner in Jackson, Ohio, and asked their opinions on the Russia investigation. I have never heard anything about it, imparted Chastity Banks, and neither had the other two Trumpies. At Nana Dees Diner, in Mesa, Arizona, CNN interviewed a quartet of Trump supporters over the family-separation policy at the border that was ripping children from their parents. I think people need to stop constantly bringing up the poor children, the poor children, complained one old dear. Quit trying to make us feel teary-eyed for the children. Yes, that does sound like the heartfelt, cankered voice of a Trumpian.
The journalistic device of converting diner patrons into field studies didnt originate in the aftermath of Trumps upset victory. Its a hoary practice that became a staple in campaign coverage of political caucuses and primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the diner became the go-to spot for getting the ornery lowdown from the red-flannel-plaid set. The deadline laureate of this hunter-gatherer journalism was the Washington Post reporter and columnist David Broder, the dean of the Washington press corps, who knocked on doors at dinner hour, interviewed subjects on park benches, and convened impromptu focus groups of diner patrons to get a feel for shifts in sentiment that had eluded correspondents trailing candidates from stop to stop. Broder put in the shoe leather and brought back the goods on his Tocquevillian rounds, but today that approach has become a cliché, a traffic jam, a theatrical genre. The patrons have become self-conscious in their role-playing as Average Americans, trying to finish their cardboard waffles while the politicians go glad-handing from table to table surrounded by a scrum.
t is unusual, however, to keep returning to diners, bars, and American Legion halls to take the temperatures of one sliver of the electorate and gussy up their predictable sound bites with descriptive dabs of short-storyish scene-setting. (The Washington Posts Alexandra Petri did a hilarious send-up of this woebegone naturalism: In the shadow of the old flag factory, Craig Slabornik sits whittling away on a rusty nail, his only hobby since the plant shut down.) It not only privileges the attitudes of one subset of voters but it leaves a lopsided impression of the whole mural. The media is blinded by its obsession with rural white Trump voters, Ryan Cooper argued forcibly in a column for The Week last December. Trump doesor didhave unusual levels of blue-collar support, but the actual bulk of Trump support is the same old professional, petty bourgeois, and ultra-wealthy capitalists who have been voting Republican for generations. And, Cooper notes, this zoom-in on rural whites has largely ignored the black and brown working class who never fell for Trumps nonsense."
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Every word of this
LonePirate
(13,431 posts)As we all know, racism, not economic anxiety or some other nonsense, is the reason why they voted for him and why they still support him. So, cut to the chase and ask the pertinent question.
Duppers
(28,125 posts)Such Christians, why they don't give an F about these "poor children"?
Because they're not, they're racists. Their religion is just a cover.
JHan
(10,173 posts)I get just letting them speak and allowing them to reveal themselves. But the ensuing articles about them are steeped in pathos and apologia and comes across as excuse making.
Editorial Boards in legacy media houses need to do some soul searching.
dalton99a
(81,569 posts)Merlot
(9,696 posts)Nor can we wait that long. Some are pretty young.
dalton99a
(81,569 posts)Merlot
(9,696 posts)Trying to change minds or understant bigotry is a waste of time.
NCjack
(10,279 posts)to file official documents.
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)It continually breeds new disciples of hate.
malthaussen
(17,216 posts)We have areas where the entire local political structure, from school boards on up, propagates in collusion with ultra-evangelical and reactionary religious indoctrination. These bubbles perpetuate themselves from generation to generation, and will always be with us. And it appears that their numbers are sufficient to sway elections when the rest of the electorate is apathetic.
-- Mal
dalton99a
(81,569 posts)They are beyond the reach of logic or decency
= racist , idiot or racist idiot
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)3Hotdogs
(12,402 posts)They get their "real" news from Sean and Rush. They don't have any other sources because Sinclair won't offer anything else.
A.M. radio offer nothing else except Jesus.
And their ain't no more local newspapers.
So the system will perpetuate.
malthaussen
(17,216 posts)They're not going to die out, they're not going to be appeased, but they must be dealt with, hopefully by drowning their voices with other votes.
-- Mal
JHan
(10,173 posts)Immigration and demographic changes have always been a contentious issue in American Politics, and the fear is real among white males. Even among millennials, white millennial males reportedly skew republican
With demographic trends moving towards a more diverse electorate, these white males fear loss of power.
JHan
(10,173 posts)BeyondGeography
(39,377 posts)I enjoyed the dietary observations. Once you get to a certain age, eating like this does only bad things for your selfhood:
Of course, Uncle Sam, funded in large-part by deep blue state tax dollars, will be there for these folks when the associated medical bills come due.
dhol82
(9,353 posts)Not sure what the rubes will do then.
Pot luck suppers? Church raffles? Go fund me pages?
Let granny just die on the back porch?
JHan
(10,173 posts)"Of course, Uncle Sam, funded in large-part by deep blue state tax dollars, will be there for these folks when the associated medical bills come due."
- and they vote in Republicans who want to slash the social security net.
sagesnow
(2,824 posts)ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)I think people need to stop constantly bringing up the poor deplorables, the poor deplorables, complained one old DUer. Quit trying to make us feel teary-eyed for the rural voter. Yes, that does sound like the heartfelt voice of a DUer.
Paladin
(28,271 posts)Fuck and forget the rest of them.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)on this racist ilk to distract and divert attention away from their ongoing generations long agendas of hatred, white supremacy and murder.
Thank you for this instructive analysis of how our MSM continues to enable and encourage racism, division and hate. After all, they gave us the idiot trump.
SWBTATTReg
(22,156 posts)build a factory or office building. First of all, probably not enough workers available to hire, for I guarantee you, the younger folks have already fled the area/locality. Multiple this by the thousands of rural towns and cities. This is happening everywhere in rural America. Second of all, services for their workers, should they do build there? Non-existent.
Work ethic? How many people like us get enough free time in our lives to go over a greasy spoon diner (believe me, I would go too, if I could find one around me, I enjoy them too) and sit with a bunch of whiners as these guys seem to be doing (whining endlessly about everything, from the cost of their morning beer going up from 25 cents to at least a dollar, etc.).
Believe me, I got tired of the whining real soon when I was out there in rural America (I won't say where)
and I will never will ever go back. No wonder they can't keep anyone there, or any businesses there, in the rural part of America. These people have revealed that mostly all they can do is bitch and moan, while still staying seated at the diner table and not get up and do anything about it.
Whiners, everyone of them. Pathetic and lazy (and I know its not all of them but it's a lot of them still). And I get tired of being blamed for everything when the true answer is staring rural America right in the face...
Girard442
(6,083 posts)"Girl, there's a better life for me and you."
Let this process run on for nearly 3/4 of a century, and this is what's left in "this place".
lostnfound
(16,189 posts)Neither do I.
and yet more than half of all female voters who did went for Trump?
Mind boggling...
JHan
(10,173 posts)Last edited Sun Sep 9, 2018, 03:00 PM - Edit history (1)
Trump did worse with white women than previous Republicans and Hillary outperformed previous Democratic Presidents when it came to college-educated white women.. I think she became the first Democrat to win college-educated white women over a Republican challenger in any sort of significant way ( more than 3 points). White college-educated women, since Nixon, tended to lean Republican.
Still, one would have expected her to gain more support among white women. Reasons for that are partly tied up in cultural fear and the way some of them perceived Clinton herself ( shaped by disinformation, RW scorched earth politics and so on)
JHan
(10,173 posts)to say there were more than 5 is to be optimistic. There were a lot of really dumb, eye-rolling articles about support for her in left-leaning publications. So even in some articles where they featured support for Clinton, the spin was obvious and lowkey antagonistic or outright hostile. It was all irredeemably dumb with only a few exceptions.
Whatever the number, profiles of Bernie Supporters and Trump supporters were more prevalent, with Trump dominating.
I ain't 'fraid to call it journalistic malpractice.
JDC
(10,130 posts)cp
(6,652 posts)Good article--thank you for posting.
JHan
(10,173 posts)Maybe NYTimes will take a hint.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)JHan
(10,173 posts)calimary
(81,441 posts)Why? Are we a minority-rule nation now?
There are SO MANY MORE people in the big metro areas who are affected by Washingtons decisions and policies than there are in the small towns. Why doesnt the majority rule?
Heres my BIGGEST complaint: Why does Iowa get to go first in the primaries - with its tiny population - while California, the most populous state in the union, wherein MORE people are directly affected by national policies than Iowa will ever know or even imagine, has to wait back in the pack to take a turn? TEN or 20 Iowas piled on top of one another wouldnt even begin to be impacted to the extent that California is. Why doesnt California get the priority that Iowa does? Same for New Hampshire, for that matter.
Thats always been a big complaint of mine. The disproportionality. I dont think a little sparsely-populated farm state should set the pace in primary season. By the time the bigger states with the biggest populations (who tend to pour the biggest loads of tax money into federal coffers to fund programs that prop up smaller states) get the chance to vote, all too often the candidate is already decided, and maybe the preferred choice of the most people has already given up.
Yes the little states have a voice. They should! But when its such an extremely disproportionate voice, then I cry foul.
bucolic_frolic
(43,259 posts)Klan support was outside big cities, in small town America. Deep burbs of big cities. Trump harkens back to that time period, the time period of his father. We've read about Fred. What was going on? Prohibition. There sure was bootlegging going on in NYC in the 1920s, some domestic, some from Canada. This was the time Seagrams and the Bronfmans got their start, a history that's been buried for almost 100 years. http://www.lonepinepublishing.com/cat/9781894864114/gallery/excerpt I have found no tangible connection, though the facts might be explored by some. It just seems curious when I consider: What is Trump's current obsession with Canada? All he wants to do is cripple Canada and its economy. Strange, strange indeed.
bucolic_frolic
(43,259 posts)Do your research on where and how you spend your money. We tend to not like big business. Sometimes little business harbors gremlins of a different cloth. And don't tell them about health food. They wouldn't recognize it and don't deserve it.
sandensea
(21,657 posts)Except of course corporate bankrollers, who count on their votes to help them push us all back into the 19th century.
Le Grand Pronounceur
(78 posts)Or Kick Cameron? Or Nicolae Carpathia?