Johnstown Never Believed Trump Would Help. They Still Love Him Anyway.
JOHNSTOWN, Pa.Pam Schilling is the reason Donald Trump is the president.
Schillings personal story is in poignant miniature the story of this area of western Pennsylvania as a wholeone of the long-forgotten, woebegone spots in the middle of the country that gave Trump his unexpected victory last fall. She grew up in nearby Nanty Glo, the daughter and granddaughter of coal miners. She once had a union job packing meat at a grocery store, and then had to settle for less money at Walmart. Now shes 60 and retired, and last year, in April, as Trumps shocking political ascent became impossible to ignore, Schillings 32-year-old son died of a heroin overdose. She found needles in the pockets of the clothes he wore to work in the mines before he got laid off.
Desperate for change, Schilling, like so many other once reliable Democrats in these parts, responded enthusiastically to what Trump was sayingbuilding a wall on the Mexican border, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, bringing back jobs in steel and coal. Thats what Trump told them. At a raucous rally in late October, right downtown in their minor-league hockey arena, he vowed to restore the mines and the mills that had been the lifeblood of the region until they started closing some 40 years ago, triggering the American carnage Trump would talk about in his inaugural address: massive population loss, shrinking tax rolls, communal hopelessness and ultimately a raging opioid epidemic. When Trump won, people here were ecstatic. But theyd heard generations of politicians make big promises before, and they were also impatient for him to deliver.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/08/donald-trump-johnstown-pennsylvania-supporters-215800?cmpid=sf
My addendum: I grew up in SWPA. There are people just like these in my family. Coal is all these people know. They don't want anything to change. They can't cope with change. They would rather believe The Donald's empty promises than retrain for a new career. Admitting they were wrong is a sign of weakness in their minds. Decay and desperation are all around them, yet they long for a past that will NEVER come back.
Freedomofspeech
(4,228 posts)Westmoreland Co....It's the guns and camo mentality here. Just awful living here now.
ck4829
(35,091 posts)Nope, she said.
This is what we are up against.
dalton99a
(81,590 posts)The power of willful ignorance
Girard442
(6,085 posts)Once upon a time, some of it was based on legitimate grievances, like the relentless attack on the middle class, but now it has taken on a life of its own.
Dulcinea
(6,665 posts)Last edited Wed Nov 8, 2017, 03:58 PM - Edit history (1)
They're angry and desperate. They have no idea where they fit in anymore, or if they fit in at all.
A mark will never admit s/he's been conned. All shysters know that.
They'll be left with nothing but a red hat, made in China.
RhodeIslandOne
(5,042 posts)If you haven't read the whole thing, it's honest at the end as to what the Trump love is all about.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)lest their delicate snowflake sensibilities get offended and their feeling hurt
Paladin
(28,273 posts)Lucky Luciano
(11,260 posts)Tikki
(14,559 posts)and California find him completely deplorable...I mean he was on TV and all.
Tikki
kimbutgar
(21,195 posts)The racist pos.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,212 posts)That's what they mean when they say they like Trump because he speaks his mind.
robertpaulsen
(8,632 posts)Because they hate the same people. That's the secret of Cheeto Benito's success.