A friend lives in a small town on Michigan’s upper peninsula. Like much of the country, people are struggling there. What industry there was is mostly gone. The chief source of revenue is tourism, and the tourists are only there between May and October. The rest of the year, people do what they have to to get by.
She tells me great stories. A book store opened on Main Street. The local Evangelicals discovered the store was selling those magazines. (The kind men claim to read for the articles.) They protested to the town council, who explained that the convenience store at the gas station had been selling the same magazines for years, and they had never objected. The protest fizzled after that.
In 2008, my friend wrote to me and asked me to send her Obama buttons and bumper stickers. “Everybody wants them”, she told me. “But we can’t get them here.”
The area’s non white population are, mostly, Native American. Ojibway, usually, or members of smaller tribes known collectively as the Sault Indians.
But this largely white community supported our first African American president. Because he spoke to them. He had represented steelworkers in Chicago. He understood that they were struggling. He had struggled himself. So he carried the U-per, which is what people who live there call Michigan’s upper peninsula.
In 2016, my friend asked me for Hilary Clinton campaign materials, but said she had to keep them out of sight. Most of her neighbors supported Trump.
Donald Trump wasn’t one of them. Like Obama, he promised change.
He didn’t mean it, of course. But he made promises. He would remake the country, take us all back to the way it was in 1970. Except, of course he can’t.
They were tired of politics and politicians as usual. Here was a man who spoke his mind. He didn’t make prepared speeches. He didn’t use fancy words. He sounded like the man down the street. So, Donald Trump carried the U-per in 2016.
This is what people need to understand about Trump supporters. They were taught, all their lives, that if they worked hard, they’d do well. So, they worked hard, and they’re struggling. They can’t afford the things their parents had.
Donald Trump promised them better lives.
Thanks, in no small part to Obama’s efforts, jobs are plentiful. Trump points to that, and tell his supporters decent wages, and better lives will follow. Except, of course they won’t.
Whoever gets the nomination in 2020 needs to understand that. He needs to understand that, a lot of good, decent people are struggling to get by. They want a good quality of life. That’s not a bad thing. If the Democratic nominee can speak to that, chances are he or she will wind up in the White House.
Trump appeals to the worst in people. Let the Democratic nominee appeal to the best. Trump dumbs down. The Democratic nominee needs to appeal to people’s intelligence. We need change in this country. Democrats and Republicans understand that. We need a candidate who will make a real difference. Who understands that people are struggling, no matter what Trump says. and they need real help and real change.