Simitians mission to middle America

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Chuck McManis <chuck.mcmanis () gmail com>
> Date: December 12, 2017 at 7:05:47 PM EST
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Simitians mission to middle America
>
> Dave - for the IP list.
>
> The following article appeared in the Sept 6th issue of the Mercury
> News, it recounts the quest of Joe Smitian (currently a Santa Clara
> county supervisor) to understand the vote for Trump. I embarked on a
> similar mission mostly with my extended family which covers the
> spectrum across the country. Much of what Joe found I can corroborate.
> But this is the key message:
>
> > People really, deeply hated Hillary Clinton. Their economic problems were decades
> > in the making. And Democrats could learn a few things by listening carefully.
>
> > Simitian explains that the switch from Barack Obama to Donald Trump wasn’t as
> > outlandish as it seems from here. In 2008, the voters in the three counties thought
> > Obama was the change they craved. He wasn’t. With Trump, they were doubling down.
>
> I have observed similarities between suicide bombers and voters for
> Trump, where both groups have testified that their actions were the
> only way left to them with which to effect change. While they realized
> they were going to harm many innocent people, those same people were
> somewhat complicit in allowing the oppression to continue.
>
> As of this writing I don't know if Moore has won the election in
> Alabama or not, but I hear two different narratives, one which is
> appealing to voters (the system is broken elect me to fix it) and one
> which is not (we need to elect leaders who share our morality and
> values).
>
> We need empathy, we need to internalize why someone who is rational,
> feels that detonating a suicide vest in the middle of a crowded market
> is the only way left for them to get the attention of the government.
> We need to understand why it is important to get a "win for the
> Republicans" at the expense of a "win for the people they represent."
> We need to elect leaders who will penalize big money interests when
> they do wrong, and we need to expose people who pander to those
> interests at the expense of their constituents. I believe that only
> then will we get the voters of middle America to vote for competent
> leaders over buffoons.
>
> From the Mercury News:
>
> After Donald Trump was elected president, Santa Clara County
> Supervisor Joe Simitian, a long-time Democrat, embarked on a mission
> to Middle America to find out why. He wondered why the rest of the
> country saw things so differently than his own constituents.
>
> The 64-year-old supervisor spent a week in each of three counties that
> had voted for Barack Obama but flipped in 2016 for Donald Trump:
> Robeson County, N.C.; Cambria County, PA., and Macomb County,
> Michigan.
>
> Simitian munched on fried chicken at Candy Sue’s in Lumberton, N.C. He
> ate a hot dog at Coney Island Lunch in Johnstown, PA., with an
> 80-year-old retiree who voted for Trump. He even visited a traveling
> circus and a biker bar.
>
> The nub of what the supervisor found is worth repeating in our bubble
> within a bubble. People really, deeply hated Hillary Clinton. Their
> economic problems were decades in the making. And Democrats could
> learn a few things by listening carefully.
>
> Simitian explains that the switch from Barack Obama to Donald Trump
> wasn’t as outlandish as it seems from here. In 2008, the voters in the
> three counties thought Obama was the change they craved. He wasn’t.
> With Trump, they were doubling down.
>
> “It’s a mistake to think that this is a moment in time,’’ says
> Simitian, whose hometown, Palo Alto gave Trump only 12 percent of its
> votes. “We’ve been building to this point for decades.’’
>
> Working around his board schedule and traveling with an office-holder
> account — not taxpayer money — the Santa Clara County supervisor
> checked in with his office at 3 p.m. daily and stayed in touch by
> phone and email.
>
> He talked to people from all stratas — cops, teachers, librarians,
> labor leaders, elected officials, journalists, even a college
> cross-country team. By and large, he found people remarkably eager to
> explain their viewpoint.
>
> But he did have one telling exchange on the phone with a Republican
> leader in Pennsylvania who resisted talking to a Democratic
> officeholder from Silicon Valley. Simitian asked her why.
>
> “Silicon Valley didn’t give a (expletive) about western Pennsylvania
> for the past 50 years,’’ the woman told him. “I have no reason to
> believe that anyone cares today.’’
>
> Simitian will be talking about his mission at the Mountain View Senior
> Center on Sept. 9 at 2 p.m., and at the Palo Alto City Council
> chambers on Sept. 16 at 1 p.m..
>
> The three places he visited offered different portraits in economic
> decline. Robeson County, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 5 to 1,
> is a poor place that has been deserted by tobacco and textiles.
>
> Cambria County in western Pennsylvania is a hardscrabble locale that
> has seen plants closed. Even in more affluent Macomb County, north of
> Detroit, people have a sense of losing ground.
>
> Simitian says Democrats in Silicon Valley underestimate just how much
> people loathed Hillary Clinton, who became the symbol of an
> establishment they felt betrayed them.
>
> He says he constantly heard the mantra, “emails, Benghazi, and
> foundation.’’ “It was palpable,’’ he said. “They didn’t like her. They
> didn’t trust her.’’
>
> In a gas line in Michigan, Simitian asked a man whom he had voted for.
> The man said he had voted libertarian. Simitian asked why. “I think
> Hillary Clinton is the Antichrist and I fear Donald Trump,’’ he
> remembers the man saying.
>
> That distrust was compounded by mistakes in the Clinton campaign: In
> Johnstown, PA., Clinton showed up at wire-producing  factory for an
> invitation-only event.
>
> That prompted local wags to point out that Hillary was appearing —
> literally — behind barbed wire, one of the factory’s products. Trump,
> meanwhile, invited everyone to his event at the War Memorial arena.
>
> Did people believe everything that Trump was selling? Simitian says
> no. But the Republican was at least talking about their economic woes,
> while the Democrats seemed distant.
>
> “False hope,’’ he quoted one one business leader in Johnstown as
> saying, “is better than no hope at all.’’
>
> <http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/09/06/a-supervisors-search-to-fathom-trumps-appeal/>



-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/18849915-ae8fa580
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-aa268125
Unsubscribe Now: 
https://www.listbox.com/unsubscribe/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-32545cb4&post_id=20171212224107:716C7B26-DFB7-11E7-8294-BA8AFE2C01A1
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com