When many hear the words Make America Great Again, they get a bad taste in their mouth. They think of racist, sexist, and bigoted people. Yet if we choose to look past this idiotic and simplistic answer of why people like Trump and his movement, we begin to get a much clearer picture. When I was growing up, I remember my Grandma saying, “America used to be such a great country.”
The woman – born in 1936 to a middle class home in Cincinnati, Ohio – did not describe an all-white America as being great; instead, there was a much more complex answer. She talked about her father who worked at Pepsi Cola company and led their union, always talking about the pride he took in that job. She spoke about when prayer was said in public school and when people had reverence for their God and their country and when families stuck together and most marriages did not end in divorce. She watched as the world around her went on the internet and left the ideals of the past behind. It would be no surprise that in 2015, when someone came around saying Make America Great Again she would become the most Ardent of supporters.
In the fall of 2016, the Presidential election seemed all but decided. The establishment politician Hillary Clinton held a substantial in lead in the polls over the Republican candidate Donald Trump. Many pundits wrote Trump off due to a lack of political skill, moral character, and experience. Yet Trump was having massive rallies selling out stadiums and getting thunderous applause from crowds.
He echoed these words and over again, “We Are Going to make America Great Again.” When you looked at national polls it seemed to have no effect and that was mostly true. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by about 3 million votes, but those who were paying attention saw a much different story.
They started seeing a profound shift in Democratic states from just four years ago in one region in the country, the “Rust Belt”; specifically Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa. These states are called the rust belt because of their lack of industrialization compared to their glory days.
In 1979, there were 19.4 million manufacturing jobs in the Midwest compared to 3.5 million in 2010 according to the U.S Bureau of Labor statistics. Leaving whole communities and towns behind, these communities used to be union workers’ Democratic communities. They got Democrats elected time and time again. According to the NBC exit poll in Ohio 2020, Trump won voters in Unions by more than those not in a union. This concept would be unfathomable to Democrats in 2012 when these exact people voted in large numbers to put our first black president in the White House.
When this part of the country (Ohio) looked around in 2016, they saw half of their town gone and their economy left behind. In 2009’s great recession, they saw other parts of the country moving on through the technological revolution.
They saw one candidate Hillary Clinton, whose husband signed the NAFTA trade agreement, sending thousands of jobs overseas. They looked at their low middle class family and their job loss and listened to the Democrats answer to this problem; “Learn to Code”. When most neither had the education nor ability to do that.
Last they listened to a billionaire running for president saying “Bring it all back”. To this they cheered in applause. This upset feeling towards Democrats often grew to hatred and resentment when Hillary Clinton called these people “a basket of deplorables” and the left as a whole described this group-who had overwhelmingly voted to put the first black president in office – as racists. The result showed Michigan Shifting 11 points from 2012. Wisconsin shifting 7, Pennsylvania shifting 7. Iowa shifting 18 points, Ohio shifting 11 points. While every other region shifted left.
They treated them with such a closed mind that no healing could be performed. CNN’s Van Jones said on election night “This was a White lash on a changing America” about the part of America that was most accepting of change in 2008. There was no reconciliation, no understanding sent to this group, only contempt was sent their way.
It was a complete misunderstanding of what took place in this group fueled only by arrogance. Arrogance of a wealthy elite that runs both the Republican and Democratic party. It was the arrogance of those who have never seen their face covered in coal dust or have not been able to put food on the table because of their lack of education. And an Arrogance of many that can look at 35% of the country and say “basket of deplorables” while their very fortunes are dependent on this labor.
If these elites speak with truth when saying we must bring our country together they must drop the name calling and look how to bring all into our culture and economy.
