‘There are a lot of bitter people here, I’m one of them’: rust belt voters on why they backed Trump again despite his broken promises

[Lisa558]

How about comparing his honesty.
Elon Musk illegally worked in the US after coming her from South Africa, where his fathers rights to three Zambian emerald mines helped finance his start.

So what is dishonest about that? He never claimed he wasn’t privileged.

 

[postman]

So what is dishonest about that? He never claimed he wasn’t privileged.

He illegally worked in the US.

That's actually grounds for deportation.

 

[rightwinger]

Your comment earlier was,

"Looks like a truck I designed in the fourth grade".

I am now an adult

Elon should know better

 

[Lisa558]

He illegally worked in the US.

That's actually grounds for deportation.

A self-supporting student overstaying a student visa for a brief time is a totally different area than the lowlife illegals coming here and demanding taxpayers out them up in fancy hotels and provide three meals a day.

 

[postman]

A self-supporting student overstaying a student visa for a brief time is a totally different area than the lowlife illegals coming here and demanding taxpayers out them up in fancy hotels and provide three meals a day.

He didn't overstay a student visa, he WORKED on a student visa.

He didn't have a permit to work in this country, which is a violation of immigration law, and subject to deportation, etc.

 

[Cellblock2429]

Looks like what Elon did

/——/ There’s a market for outrageous designs. Not everyone adores a Kia like you do.

 

[Lisa558]

He didn't overstay a student visa, he WORKED on a student visa.

He didn't have a permit to work in this country, which is a violation of immigration law, and subject to deportation, etc.

Same thing. He was allowed to work on his student visa as long as he remained a student. When he dropped out, his visa then expired.

TOTALLY different category then the lowlifes breaking in from the southern border, falsely claiming “asylum,” demanding we support them, increasing crime, ruining the public schools and neighborhoods where they settle, and driving up rents on lower-income Americans.

 

[rightwinger]

/——/ There’s a market for outrageous designs. Not everyone adores a Kia like you do.
View attachment 1065814

I drive a Lexus

 

[Hollie]

I am now an adult

Elon should know better

Somehow, I don't think Musk is awake at night agonizing over your tender sensibilities.

 

[rightwinger]

Somehow, I don't think Musk is awake at night agonizing over your tender sensibilities.

He is too busy planning for running the country

 

[Hollie]

He is too busy planning for running the country

He will take over for Biden's babysitters.

 

[MarathonMike]

The Guardian

Many in Youngstown, Ohio, believe the president-elect will tackle the town’s decline this time. Others are worried about his character flaws. Their concerns help explain how he returned to power – and how his second term might play out

Andrew Gumbel
Sat 11 Jan 2025 07.00 EST
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The last time Donald Trump was president, he travelled to Youngstown, Ohio, among the most depressed of America’s rust belt cities, and promised voters the impossible. The high-paying steel, railroad and car industry jobs that once made Youngstown a hard-living, hard-drinking blue-collar boom town were coming back, he said. “Don’t move. Don’t sell your house,” he crowed to a rapturous crowd in 2017. “We’re going to fill up those factories – or rip ”em down and build brand new ones”.

None of that happened. Indeed, within 18 months, General Motors (GM) announced that it was suspending operations at its one remaining manufacturing plant outside Youngstown, throwing 5,000 jobs into jeopardy in a community with little else to cling to. Trump’s reaction was to say the closure didn’t matter, because the jobs would be replaced “in, like, two minutes”.

That, too, did not happen. People moved away, marriages broke down, depression soared and, locals say, a handful of people took their own lives.

Ordinarily, politicians who promise the moon and fail to deliver get punished at the ballot box. But that did not happen to Trump either. Instead, he has steadily built up his popularity in Youngstown, a city that was once a well-oiled Democratic party machine but has now turned into one of his most remarkable bases of working-class support.

“Does [Trump] understand at all what you’re going through?” Joe Biden asked Ohio voters during the 2020 presidential campaign, referring directly to the GM closure. “Does he see you where you are and where you want to be? Does he care?”

To which the answer, in Youngstown, has been an astonishing and vigorous “yes”...

Anyone seeking to understand the earthquake that has shaken US politics – to the point where a convicted felon, serial liar and twice-impeached former president can return to the White House in triumph, as Trump will do on 20 January – might learn a lot from the disillusioned working-class voters of north-east Ohio.

They tell blunt, profanity-laden stories of watching their city slump ever deeper into decline and express a real bleakness about the future. They see a political class corrupted by big-money donors who, they say, don’t care about communities like theirs. White voters point to conversations about justice – for racial minorities, for the children of immigrants, for women worried about losing their reproductive rights, for transgender teenagers – and question why nobody ever talks about justice for them.

Few expect Trump to fix everything or believe him when he says he will. What they do believe is that the system is broken and corrupt, just as Trump says it is, and that a candidate who promises to tear it down and start again might just be on to something.

“We just want a change, a change in the weather,” a retired aluminium worker wanting to go just by his first name, Paul, said as he sat with a group of friends in a cigarette shop in Struthers, a down-at-heel overwhelmingly white Youngstown suburb once known for its thick clusters of bars, pizza parlours, strip clubs and illegal gambling joints.

Paul and his friends come to the shop most days not to smoke – smoking is not allowed – but to scratch away at lottery tickets and reminisce about the old days, when a single factory salary could support a whole family and the main drag in Struthers was packed every Friday night with working men flush with their weekly pay packet...

The high-paying factory jobs started disappearing in the late 1970s with the closure of Youngstown Sheet & Tube, based in Struthers, and the bars and other businesses followed soon after...

“We feel left behind,” said another cigarette shop patron, a former railroad worker who wanted to be known just as Joe. “People who’ve lived here all their lives are working two or three jobs just to pay their bills.”

‘There are a lot of bitter people here, I’m one of them’: rust belt voters on why they backed Trump again despite his broken promises

Many in Youngstown, Ohio, believe the president-elect will tackle the town’s decline this time. Others are worried about his character flaws. Their concerns help explain how he returned to power – and how his second term might play out

www.theguardian.com

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When Henry Ford started his first assembly line in 1913 he said, "It will be a haven for those without the brains to do anything else." For four generations it was. Now that haven is coming to an end.

View attachment 1065371

To pass the test to get into a trade school to learn a skilled blue collar trade one probably needs an IQ of at least 80. That is the cut off point to get into the military. Trump cannot solve the problems of those people below 80. He does articulate their anger and gives them people to hate.

View attachment 1065373

Billionaires are far more likely to want to help the poor than power grubbing Democrats who exploit the poor in order to fill their own pockets.

 

[postman]

TOTALLY different category then the lowlifes breaking in from the southern border, falsely claiming “asylum,” demanding we support them, increasing crime, ruining the public schools and neighborhoods where they settle, and driving up rents on lower-income Americans.

A Visa violation is a Visa violation.

The 19 hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks entered the United States on tourist visas.

I'm sure you approved of their visa violation too?

 

[postman]

He will take over for Biden's babysitters.

The first thing Musk should do is to eliminate government subsidies for EV's and charging stations.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Good grief. The entire Democrat party schtick is to appeal to disgruntled, bitter losers and convince them that they are a victim of those who are well-adjusted.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

You just don’t appreciate the engineering talent and ingenuity it took to accomplish that.

Brain Candy

Same goes for the useless spectacle of the Pyramids. Devoting all that intelligence and sweat to dead dictators indicates a desire to escape from life and freedom.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

The lower income whites and lower middle income whites who make up Trump's most devoted followers would benefit from Democratic economic policies, but they are too befuddled to know it. Most obviously, they would benefit from universal health care paid for by high taxes on rich people and corporations. Like trained pit bulls they snarl at mention of "socialized medicine," Nevertheless, they rarely have health coverage at work. They can rarely afford health insurance paid for by themselves. They certainly cannot pay for serious medical emergencies. They would also benefit from generous pensions guaranteed by the government. They live from pay check to pay check, and cannot afford to save for retirement.

View attachment 1065774

"I'm on Your Side, You Moron. I Know What's Best for You Better Than You Know Yourself."

What makes you think your political judgment is superior to the workers' choices? You're revealing the same snobbery that can never sincerely want to help anyone it claims is being suckered by the other side.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

Denying the greenhouse effect will not make it go away. The greenhouse effect is responsible for the Los Angeles fires.

I agree with Trump on immigration, and support for Israel. I doubt his commitment to Ukraine and Taiwan.

Environmentalism Is Actually Hoarding

The Zero-Growth Greenies are preventing the working class from earning a decent wage. The prosperity from unrestricted development of resources is what creates higher wages and class mobility. When the top is making a lot, it feels generous. Besides, they can't afford to turn off workers in boom times.

The motto of static wealth is: "We got ours, and we're not going to let you get yours."

The whole delusion that causes Conservation assumes that what has already been developed is all there is. But it barely scratches the surface of what's out there. It's like when Rockefeller was told in 1880 that the only oil out there was under what had seeped to the surface.

 

[The Sage of Main Street]

/—-/ I thought you libtards told us the LA is a desert. Hot is hot, dry is dry, and you need to bring in fresh water and charge the hydrants.
And in a greenhouse, the moisture condenses and falls back to the ground.
Make up your minds.

Charred Topsoil Is Useless Anyway

Sea water can put out fires. It will ruin the soil but only on the surface, which can be scraped off. The pipes and hoses can be lined with anti-corrosive materials.

 

[Hollie]

He illegally worked in the US.

That's actually grounds for deportation.

You should alert Musk so he can flee to a sanctuary city. I'm sure he'd like free food, healthcare and housing plus a pre-paid debit card.