As I mentioned in my last post, I was traveling quite a bit over the eastern seaboard over the last few weeks. I had the opportunity to talk to quite a diverse group of folks along the way… ranging from “conservative” corporate, to “rural conservative,” to “liberal progressive.” Ranging from the Carolinas, to the back door of Charlottesville, to upper New England.
As I also mentioned, during this time we had two shake-ups of Trumps inner circle, we had the Charlottesville situation, the bluster with North Korea, and at the very tail end, the attacks in Barcelona and Finland.
In the course of my travels, I saw the people in “rural” Virginia as the most tied to their beliefs. The “Corporate conservatives” in the Carolinas were supporting the administration only so far as they thought he’d improve the life of corporate America. They wanted tax breaks, health care reform (but not repeal), and reduced regulation. At the time, there was the sabre rattling with North Korea going on. The reaction I got regarding the Administration’s reactions to this was “He’s f***ing insane and Korea is as bad.” They didn’t think anything would happen, but they didn’t really trust Trump to act in a sane and rational manner either. These are the people who, when the recent poll numbers came out, were the ones who were showing Trump’s approval rating slipping. But they will support whomever they feel will provide them with the financial incentives that they need to profit.
I was most intrigued by the conversations I had in the “rural” Virginia area. As I arrived into the area, I can’t say I was surprised by the number of Trump supportive signs I saw, but I was intrigued, as this was an area that Trump won handily, but also seemingly hasn’t “produced” in any of the campaign promises that he had made in this area. The loyalty to the President’s campaign message surprised me a little. I was expecting some frustration on the lack of delivery of the promise. And I did get that… but it wasn’t geared towards the President… but at Congress… and specifically at the Republican leadership – more so on the Senate side than the House side. The feeling I got was that they were torn on the healthcare situation… The don’t like Obamacare – because for the most part their rates have gone up – and in some situation by a big percentage. But they seemed to acknowledge that this wasn’t the case everywhere. Most felt the ACA was broken, but really didn’t need to be repealed and replaced… but needed a major overhaul. Oddly, indirectly blamed people like me, who owned the own businesses and offered their employees “private” insurance for a lot of the problem for pulling the “healthy people” out of the ACA pool. I have to admit I was surprised a little by the nuance understanding of the issues, but also by the implication… they wanted EVERYONE to be in the same boat… so they wanted a single pool of people, but they definitely didn’t want a single-payer system. While intrigued – I have yet been able to reconcile the divergent aspects of this view.
What struck me most about my conversations, was that these people felt that the President, if left to his own devices, could lead America to a better place. They were loyal to his vision of making “America Great Again.” They saw him thwarted by the “establishment” and by his own Cabinet. When I talked to the about what specifically they looked for, their response was telling… Most were people working two or more jobs every day… seven days a week… many had more than three part-time jobs just to make ends meet. They relied on minimum wage jobs and tips to get them through… more often than not putting away for a vacation so their children wouldn’t know how tough thing were…
They did not say the President was infallible… just the opposite, they thought he was his own worst enemy, but they have grown over the last several years to feel that they were no longer the recipient of the American Dream… but just a cog in someone else’s dream. They repeatedly said that Trump talked about their concerns and that was why they supported him.
At this same time, the situation in Charlottesville occurred. In the South, pride in their heritage is very important. However, everyone I talked to said that this wasn’t about heritage, but rather the “alt-right” taking advantage of the situation and capitalizing on the situation. Many felt torn over the statutes. They felt that in many ways the statues were a point of pride in a very difficult period of American history, but in the same breath, they acknowledged that most of these statutes did not go up during or immediately following the Civil War, but 50+ years later during a period what many states were trying to limit the enfranchisement of the vote for former slaves’ descendants.
As I traveled north, I met with an increasingly liberal/progressive mentality… admittedly, the median age also dropped to the early 20’s so that people were just dealing with having to find jobs, pay rent, and come to grips with student loans. Not surprisingly, they didn’t feel that the current administration had any of their interest in mind, but only focused on those who had already “made it.
Interestingly, not once did I hear anything about immigration… at least not in a negative light. The consistent message heard was, keep the one’s who want to work hard and contribute here, but send the “moochers” home. All political spectrums seemed to see the benefit of an immigrant class, but fell short of an open border policy.
A View from the Purple Seats 