A Town at the Intersection of Trump and Sanders
'James Snyder, the mayor of Portage, Ind., is a Donald Trump delegate from the state whose primary on May 3 made Mr. Trump the de facto Republican nominee. He is a two-term Republican mayor in Porter County, which sits on the shore of Lake Michigan, is predominantly Democratic and delivered big majorities for both Mr. Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Politically, Porter County, near the heart of northwest Indiana’s heavily unionized steel industry, was once an extension of Chicago’s Democratic machine. Now, after years of economic upheaval, places like this are going their own way, not Washington’s way. That’s a problem for Hillary Clinton, linked in these voters’ minds with a federal government that has failed them. . .
Even in relatively prosperous Chicago bedroom communities like Chesterton, Ind., on Porter County’s northern edge, for a voter like Angelica Levy it’s “anybody but Hillary.” Ms. Levy, who was selling her children’s old clothing in a front yard with a Bernie Sanders sign, was concerned about Mrs. Clinton’s contributions from the financial industry. “How do you fix things when people who are part of the problem are giving you money?” Mr. Sanders is “something different” from established Washington, added Ms. Levy’s partner, Jon Nolan.
Portage was incorporated in the late 1950s, and it became home to white steelworkers and business owners fleeing racial change in neighboring Gary, Ind. Today, that divide is less over race than economics, city officials say. Portage has helped plow Gary’s streets, but it’s further away politically than it has ever been: Lake County, where Gary is located, was the only county in northwest Indiana that Mrs. Clinton won.
Mr. Trump, Mr. Snyder told me, “is making three very simple points. He’s tied a wall to jobs, China to jobs, and he’s said, ‘Let’s take care of our veterans.’ Even if you may not like him, who disagrees with those three points? And all of those are executive, more executive decisions than they even are legislative. And they’re things that everybody goes, ‘That’s reasonable, we’re in America, we can do that.’ ”
Mr. Snyder said he wasn’t “angry at anybody.” There just comes a time, he explained, when people think, “You know, why are we giving all this when we’re not taking care of our own people?”
That is Donald Trump’s and Bernie Sanders’s underlying argument, Mr. Snyder said, “and it is a great, simple argument.” Expressed as “America first” by Mr. Trump, and by Mr. Sanders as, “This country belongs to all of us,” it resonates well beyond Porter County. From the Rust Belt to the Great Plains, blue-collar workers, farmers and small-business owners said the recession showed them that the federal government and major political parties had become almost freakishly disconnected from their struggles. They are voting for people they view as furthest from that system. . .
“Coming out of the crash of 2008 and what everybody’s been through in that period of time, there’s distrust of Washington, and you’ll probably hear that from anywhere you go in the country,” Mr. Maletta told me. Mr. Sanders and Mr. Trump are “the ones saying, ‘We’re gonna cut through all the crap and we’re gonna get things done for you.’ ”'
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/30/opinion/a-town-at-the-intersection-of-trump-and-sanders.html?
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'Portage was incorporated in the late 1950s, and it became home to white steelworkers and business owners fleeing racial change in neighboring Gary, Ind. Today, that divide is less over race than economics, city officials say. Portage has helped plow Gary’s streets, but it’s further away politically than it has ever been: Lake County, where Gary is located, was the only county in northwest Indiana that Mrs. Clinton won.'
sure of that. Maybe it is time for the people to get things done for them.
Thanks for sharing. 
Trumps a liar. He will say anything, and then turn right around and say something else that contradicts what he said the first time. Anyone that buys into that BS is going to be in for a rude surprise if by some fluke the orange moron wins the WH. The other problem is Bernie is not likely to win the nomination. I know many don't like Hillary, but as Bernie said numerous times, she is by far on her worst day better than Trump would ever be.
As you know Ellen, I was for O'Malley, and I wish he had gotten more traction, but sadly he did not. I voted for Obama over Hillary in 2008. I have said since day one that I will vote for the nominee whoever that may be, and I will. With Trump being the nominee for the republicans it makes it even more important to vote for the Democratic Nominee, no matter who it is, because our country barely made it through 8 years of George W. Bush, and I have a feeling Trump will make Bush's incompetence look like child's play if he were to get into the WH. The man is a certified idiot that we can not allow near the WH. Just my opinion.
I do miss the crowd on the O'Malley board. Hope you are doing OK ellen.
I'm doing ok.
