We Need ‘Somebody Spectacular’: Views From Trump Country
After Bill Bissett, the president of the Kentucky Coal Association, told me that President Obama cares more about Paris, France, than he does about Paris, Kentucky a sentiment that seems broadly shared around here I decided to check out this little town with a big name set amid the verdant undulations of picket-fenced Kentucky horse country. Soon enough I ran into Cindy Hedges, whose boot store stands on Main Street and whose hours, as described by a sign on the door, are: If Im here, Im here. If I aint, I aint.
Straight talk, the way the people of this particular Paris like it, is the kind of talk they recognize in Donald J. Trump. Hedges is a garrulous woman who says shes never met a stranger. But recent times have tried her affability. Her business has been slow. Her husband, Mitch, lost his job as the coal business collapsed, she has been withdrawing money from savings, and the couple are struggling to afford health insurance. All of which has led her to the conviction that the country is off track and needs somebody spectacular to get us halfway straight.
For her, that somebody is Trump. She voted for Barack Obama in 2008, and says her political choices are gut-driven rather than party-driven. I have never been this political, she tells me. This is the most fired-up Ive ever been for a candidate. She believes Trump will get business going, revoke trade deals she sees as draining domestic jobs, and clean up the mess Obama has left us. But what, I ask, of Trumps evident character flaws? Sure, hes kind of a loose cannon, but he tells it the way it is and, if elected, people will be there to calm him down a bit, tweak a word or two in his speeches. And I just dont trust Hillary Clinton.
Kentucky voted twice for Bill Clinton before going solidly Republican in presidential elections. Now Kentuckians are clambering aboard the Trump train and to heck with its destination. Obama is blamed for the collapse of coal, particularly in eastern Kentucky, and the ever more stringent standards of the Environmental Protection Agency. Beyond that, the blame is aimed at airy-fairy liberals more concerned about climate change often contested or derided than about Americans trying to make their house payments.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/opinion/sunday/we-need-somebody-spectacular-views-from-trump-country.html
pangaia
(24,324 posts)Zorro
(15,748 posts)Trumps going to get us killed, probably! he told me. But Ill vote for him anyway over Hillary..."
kacekwl
(7,020 posts)Mitch McConnell for some answers to why things are going in the "wrong" direction. Jobs in alternative energy could most certainly come to Kentucky. Look around folks and see who is really working for your interests.
shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)I'm sure that STFU Donny's supporters will be flocking to book stores - if they could read.