After my house fire and a month in a hotel I moved across the state to stay with my parents for six months. A town of 12,500. A town my family has lived in since we came here from Scotland and my ancestors worked their way from NYC to rural, southern IL working the "rails." Heck my parents live in the house my dad grew up in and my great grandfather built (he owned a construction company). Grandfather was the only doctor in town for a time being. Known as the "baby doctor." He delivered more than 3,000, myself included.
It used to be a powerhouse of a town. By far the largest in the county. A huge Snap-on plant people on my mother's side worked at for a few generations. Another to repair locomotives. Both gone. No jobs. I have cousins that drive too many miles for a job where they make far less than they used to.
While I was there they couldn't afford to keep their primary school. So it was sold to a church for $32,000 and some loose change. Children moved to the secondary and high school.
About a block of Main Street torn down also while I was in town. Buildings without businesses in them for so long the city viewed them as dangerous.
The largest locally owned resturtant, which had a great burger, also closed and sold to a church.
The Main Street I recall as a kid, and I am 50 in a few days, was pretty cool. Almost every store now closed. Only banks, insurance firms, and thrift/second hand stores.
The have and have nots in town could not be more drastic. My parents live in a few block area with houses, really mansions, built in like 1880-1900. My parents have a fucking elevator. On my daily walks, and I am a walker, a few blocks away on streets I'd not seen before folks were living in houses that were falling down. I wondered if some even had power.
This is the part of the midwest you heard about in all the fawing (they were kind of BS how they were written, but not untrue) Washington Post and New York Times stories, that voted for Trump.
I am not going to justify their votes, I can not, Trump will do nothing for them!!!!!! But the pain is real.
Heck, a few blocks from my parents my mom's younger sister and her husband, which was a ISO9000 guy at Snap-on until it closed, had a 1885 house that was staggering. Three floors and a basement. Corner house with a huge yard. Pocketed doors. Hardwood floors. 3 fireplaces. In near perfect condition.
They were only able to sell it for $99,000 after years on the market. See they had to move 120 miles away for jobs.
In the coming elections we have TO POUND THIS, OUR PARTY HAVE SOLUTIONS, WE CAN CREATE JOBS, TRUMP DOES NOT HAVE ANY PLAN. But Trump tapped into this pain and used it for his personal gain. The pain is true.
I had not so much witnessed this before. I live in a much smaller rural IL town across the state. But I have a huge military base a few miles away that helps the economy in a manner that is hard to explain. But billions and billions a year.
Why I have a billion dollar airport. Put in as joint use with the base, because the base was on BRAC. Or a $60M new high school. Base doesn’t have a high school, sends their children to our town and pay us millions.
I have zero faith Republicans will do anything for that town my parents live in. Maybe 70-75% my party can fix things. Even more if we elect REAL liberals.
So that sign in the pic above. Misguided and uninformed on many different levels. But again, the pain is real.