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My travels in white America - a land of anxiety, division and pockets of pain
This summer, Gary Younge took a trip from Maine to Mississippi to find out what has brought the US to this point. From the forgotten poor to desperate addicts, their whiteness is all some of them have left and that makes fertile ground for the far right
Jeff Baxters enduring memory, from childhood, is the glow. Coming down over the hill overlooking the coke plant in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the molten iron would make itself known both as a vision and an aspiration. Its like the sun landed there, says Baxter, a burly, bearded retiree, who achieved his boyhood dream of becoming a steelworker.
Today, the plant, like the one Baxter worked in for 30 years, stands derelict a shell that represents a hollowing out not just of the local economy but of culture and hope as though someone extinguished Baxters sun and left the place in darkness. Buildings in the centre of town that were once testament to the industrial wealth produced here stand abandoned. More than 40% of the population now live below the poverty line; 9.1% are unemployed.
Cambria County, where Johnstown sits, was once a swing county. Al Gore won it in 2000; George W Bush took it in 2004; it went to Barack Obama in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 each time by fairly narrow margins. Last year, Donald Trump won it in a landslide.
Baxter, who once backed Obama, voted for Trump, the first time he had ever voted Republican. I liked [Obamas] message of hope, but he didnt bring any jobs in Trump said he was going to make America great. And I figured: Thats what we need. We need somebody like that to change it.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/06/my-travels-in-white-america-a-land-of-anxiety-division-and-pockets-of-pain
Jeff Baxters enduring memory, from childhood, is the glow. Coming down over the hill overlooking the coke plant in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the molten iron would make itself known both as a vision and an aspiration. Its like the sun landed there, says Baxter, a burly, bearded retiree, who achieved his boyhood dream of becoming a steelworker.
Today, the plant, like the one Baxter worked in for 30 years, stands derelict a shell that represents a hollowing out not just of the local economy but of culture and hope as though someone extinguished Baxters sun and left the place in darkness. Buildings in the centre of town that were once testament to the industrial wealth produced here stand abandoned. More than 40% of the population now live below the poverty line; 9.1% are unemployed.
Cambria County, where Johnstown sits, was once a swing county. Al Gore won it in 2000; George W Bush took it in 2004; it went to Barack Obama in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012 each time by fairly narrow margins. Last year, Donald Trump won it in a landslide.
Baxter, who once backed Obama, voted for Trump, the first time he had ever voted Republican. I liked [Obamas] message of hope, but he didnt bring any jobs in Trump said he was going to make America great. And I figured: Thats what we need. We need somebody like that to change it.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/06/my-travels-in-white-america-a-land-of-anxiety-division-and-pockets-of-pain
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My travels in white America - a land of anxiety, division and pockets of pain (Original Post)
Denzil_DC
Nov 2017
OP
Didn't bring any jobs in??? He's delusional. we were losing 700k a MONTH when Bush left office
AlphaCharley
Nov 2017
#1
AlphaCharley
(74 posts)1. Didn't bring any jobs in??? He's delusional. we were losing 700k a MONTH when Bush left office
Denzil_DC
(7,233 posts)2. It's a (very) long article.
Younge's been writing about US politics for years, and it's probably worth setting aside the time to read the whole thing to get a clear idea of his perspective.
hotrod0808
(323 posts)3. I respect that
But I am sick and fucking tired of hearing from people who voted for Trump. They picked the blowhard who has yet to create multiple paying jobs as a "businessman," meaning he stiffs contactors and loses money on his property.
Paladin
(28,254 posts)4. My sentiments exactly.
I'm not wasting any more time on articles about whiney-assed white people who voted from trump. Life is too short.
dalton99a
(81,475 posts)5. "What is new is that Trump has emboldened the bigots and channelled their thinking in a fashion
not seen in modern times"
That's the gist of it