So much perfectly good ink has gone into "understanding" Trump voters, and the blogster feels most of that has been wasted. So it* decided to add one more anecdotal write up to the many produced by the pros.
As always, the blogster has no good or comprehensive answer. Today, it wants to share a couple of thoughts contrasting what a few traditional Republicans gone Trump say with their actions.
In the small mind of the blogster, one thing you need to understand about "good middle class Republicans" and their support of Mr. Trump is that these now retired folks had a relatively good financial life. While there have been millions of American workers who lost their pensions, their health care, their houses, many more made it through the 50s, 60s, and so on, basically fine.
The ones who bought a home in the late 50s or in the 60s for anywhere between 15 000 and 30 000 dollars and sold it before the Great Recession for ten or twenty times what they paid for it and had a government sponsored pension on top of Social Security number in the dozens of millions.
And many now live in nice communities around their peers somewhere near a balmy beach or on a hilltop with a view.
Their mantra is "we did it, so can you with enough work and grit".
Some of their children have succeeded. Never mind that these are mostly the ones who got a government job while holding on to the belief that government is pretty evil, or that they are the ones who benefited from the networks that come with a good education.
Then there are the other children. The ones who did not get to live the American dream for a variety of reasons.
There is the daughter who works two jobs in one of the large urban areas of the US and who cannot make rent despite working 12 hours six days a week.
There is the grandson who works as a security guard and gets most of his calories from soda because it is half the price of a bottle of plain water. He now weighs 300 pounds and counting.
The old folks bought their offspring a house so they don't join the ranks of the homeless camping out along the freeways, creeks, and under the bridges a few miles away.
The media are not reporting fairly on Donald Trump, one of the retirees says. Yes, they actually change the meaning of what he says by airing only short clips out of context, adds the other. He never said all Mexicans who come here are criminals or rapists, the first adds, all he said was that some are, and we need to protect our borders against those. Other countries charge large tariffs on US goods, much more than we charge on theirs, a third says, take their auto industry for example, the Europeans are very protective of that, and we should just get a level playing field, preferably without any tariffs at all, so all countries could do what they are best at, and we would all benefit.
Do you now understand what Fox News and gibberish can do when you live in a sub urban neighborhood with next to no crime and a steady diet of Fox?
In case you have been wondering whether they like Donald Trump as a person - the answer is no. They see him as uncouth, as immoral, and they do not mind because in their opinion, he has done so much more than the last five or so presidents combined.
* We are gender neutral at the K-Landnews. If you cannot understand why, there is a body of research out there you might want to google or bing or duckduck.
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