PSUsarge wrote:

jamiethekiller wrote:still can't reconcile how badly she lost outside of any major city. How do they think Trump is going to serve them!?

I covered Central and Northeast PA for the past two years for work, basically living in both for the better part of last year as well. I keep up on the news in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg, York, etc. pretty regularly.

The most-covered topics, besides crime and typical local news, include:
* Opiod crisis - deaths, overdoses, community sessions, etc.
* Layoff concerns due to M&A activity (ex. Mondalez takeover of Hershey rumors)
* Looks back at what ______ was like in 19__

As has been widely reported, rural white america is going through a major identity crisis, and Trump's ability to target that anxiety is what carried him. This is a part of America that not only has lost hope, but has no voice or specific entity to blame for their troubles.

What I can't understand after regularly interacting with people in this region for the past two years is how they continue to believe that he truly has their best interests at heart. Rural PA people are not ones to BS and typically see through BS immediately. And yet, they love this guy. Is that a sign of their desperation, a sign of how good of a con man Trump is, or some of both?

It remains to be seen what Trump can or can't do as President, obviously. But there is no fucking way he reverses the trends of automation and globalization, which are the main factors to blame for the loss of the manufacturing jobs that this demographic relied on for generations.

What should be a wake up call is that, deep down, I am sure much of rural PA and rural America know all of this is true, but they still see Trump as their best option.

jamiethekiller wrote:still can't reconcile how badly she lost outside of any major city. How do they think Trump is going to serve them!?

Grotewold wrote:

PSUsarge wrote:

jamiethekiller wrote:still can't reconcile how badly she lost outside of any major city. How do they think Trump is going to serve them!?

I covered Central and Northeast PA for the past two years for work, basically living in both for the better part of last year as well. I keep up on the news in Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg, York, etc. pretty regularly.

The most-covered topics, besides crime and typical local news, include:
* Opiod crisis - deaths, overdoses, community sessions, etc.
* Layoff concerns due to M&A activity (ex. Mondalez takeover of Hershey rumors)
* Looks back at what ______ was like in 19__

As has been widely reported, rural white america is going through a major identity crisis, and Trump's ability to target that anxiety is what carried him. This is a part of America that not only has lost hope, but has no voice or specific entity to blame for their troubles.

What I can't understand after regularly interacting with people in this region for the past two years is how they continue to believe that he truly has their best interests at heart. Rural PA people are not ones to BS and typically see through BS immediately. And yet, they love this guy. Is that a sign of their desperation, a sign of how good of a con man Trump is, or some of both?

It remains to be seen what Trump can or can't do as President, obviously. But there is no fucking way he reverses the trends of automation and globalization, which are the main factors to blame for the loss of the manufacturing jobs that this demographic relied on for generations.

What should be a wake up call is that, deep down, I am sure much of rural PA and rural America know all of this is true, but they still see Trump as their best option.

bump

CalvinBall wrote:

Updated poll numbers

231,556,622 eligible voters

46.9% didn't vote
25.6% voted for Clinton
25.5% voted for Trump
1.7% voted for Johnson

Gimpy wrote:Maybe they were just busy with work or school. It's dumb as hell to hold elections on a Tuesday.

BigEd76 wrote:

SI_LeeJenkins
The Cavs are going to the White House tomorrow. One of them speculated they may be the last NBA team to do that for a while.

Luzinski's Gut wrote:He's not going to insult them by labeling them as "deplorable." He won't throw the blanket racism accusations on any white person who lives in the country.

jamiethekiller wrote:still can't reconcile how badly she lost outside of any major city. How do they think Trump is going to serve them!?

Youseff wrote:if you read the deplorables quote it's not bad & it's factually accurate as well. and it's not like these racists would have been swayed to vote Clinton if she didn't say it. where it failed is I think it was designed to consolidate votes behind her and against him, but most left leaning Americans dont vote, mostly because they suck.

swishnicholson wrote:

Youseff wrote:if you read the deplorables quote it's not bad & it's factually accurate as well. and it's not like these racists would have been swayed to vote Clinton if she didn't say it. where it failed is I think it was designed to consolidate votes behind her and against him, but most left leaning Americans dont vote, mostly because they suck.

Hard to believe the same board can attract such disparate posters.

"And we cannot do it alone. I cannot do it alone. I'm not like Donald Trump, who says, 'I alone can fix it.' I've never quite figured out what it is he alone can fix. But that's not what you'll hear from me. I think we have to do this together. So, together we're gonna pass the Equality Act to guarantee full equality. We're going to put comprehensive quality affordable healthcare within reach for more people, including for mental health and addiction. We're going to take on youth homelessness, and as my wonderful, extraordinary, great daughter said, we are going to end the cruel and dangerous practice of conversion therapy. We're going to keep working toward an AIDS-free generation, a goal that I set as secretary of state, and with your help we're going to pass comprehensive gun laws. ..."

"I know there are only 60 days left to make our case -- and don't get complacent, don't see the latest outrageous, offensive, inappropriate comment and think, well, he's done this time. We are living in a volatile political environment. You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic -- you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people -- now 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive hateful mean-spirited rhetoric. Now, some of those folks -- they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America."

"But the other basket -- and I know this because I see friends from all over America here -- I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas -- as well as, you know, New York and California -- but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they're just desperate for change. It doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They don't buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they're in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well."

pacino wrote:South Philly: