NPR's Don Gonyea had a story a copy of days ago about striking workers from Erie PA picketing at the corporate headquarters of their employer in Pittsburgh. He spoke with a number of the striking workers. All had voted for trump.
One said she would definitely vote for trump again, noting "I have not heard him (trump) try to break unions. They keep saying he's against unions, but I've never seen him go after a union." Another appeared to let his support waiver somewhat, but said he's "not against him." A third said there are still lots of things he likes about trump, but he is "letting the American worker down."
One thing notable about these particular union members is they belong to the UE, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. The UE is one of the more progressive -- some would say radical -- unions left in America. It is one of the few truly member-run unions in the labor movement, one of the few who early on endorsed Bernie Sanders, and one of the few unions that seems to honestly live up to it's progressive rhetoric (no, I do not work for this union).
My point is this, THESE union members mentioned all voted for trump in 2016. This despite the evidence being clear from the first day he ran he was a racist, misogynistic thief who never did anything positive for working class people as well as being members of a union noted for radical -- and successful -- progressive action.
Similar stories have been told about workers in the Chevy plant in Lordstown Ohio who all lost their jobs as of last Friday, as the final Chevy Cruze rolled off their assembly line. Worker after worker who voted for trump and says either they would again, or displays only slight hesitation but -- like the workers in the story about the UE -- can still find things about trump that warrant support.
Things are messed up in America and I don't know if
anyone has a solution. On the one hand I say let these idiots rot. They were dumb enough to vote for the trump, let them reap the misery that is coming their way. But I also know we cannot function as a country much longer if we stay as divided as we are. How many bills of any substance will the House pass in the next two years that are voted on entirely along partisan lines, like
HB1. which passed on Friday, predictably without a single republican vote?
This level of division is not sustainable. We joke and chuckle about a certain breed of Americans dying off, or segregating in certain parts of the country and leaving those of us who are "enlightened" to bask in the glow of our open-mindedness and all the benefits we get for not hating the blacks and the gays, and of not having an orgasm every time we fondle our firearms. But we should know better. Our nation could not survive that kind of divide in the 19th century. It can't in the 21st either.
