Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Some People Really CAN See The Forest!

A liberal friend writes on Facebook as follows:
So Hillary Clinton blames her loss on FBI Director James Comey. She seems to be in a bit of denial.
The New York Times today had stories from three key swing states that she should have won: Michigan http://nyti.ms/2g7Q5ZY, Pennsylvania http://nyti.ms/2eUGKTf and Ohio http://nyti.ms/2fOZdlH.
In each state, citizens who voted for Obama in 08 and 12 said they voted for Trump because he understood their problems.
“His points really hit home for us,” said Jacob Hawk, 23, an electrician from Minerva, Ohio, who voted for Mr. Obama in 2012. “A huge portion of it was just bringing jobs back to Ohio.”
Chris Vitale, a longtime Chrysler employee and United Auto Workers member, supported Barack Obama twice, as did his union and his county. But on Tuesday, Mr. Vitale rejected the U.A.W.’s choice, Hillary Clinton, and voted with gusto for Mr. Trump.
“The Republicans that generally get run are anti-manufacturing, anti-Midwest,” said Mr. Vitale, 44, of St. Clair Shores, explaining why he rejected Mitt Romney in 2012 and Senator John McCain in 2008. “Mr. Trump understood our problems right off the bat, without being told by anyone.”
Jack Chilcott, who was laid off after 32 years when Erie City Iron Works shut its doors in 1995, attributes Trump's victory to blue-collar voters like himself, working and retired, who fear for their economic security.
“I was 49 and had to start all over again,” he said. “I worked for half the wages and no vacation.”
These are the same voters that Bernie Sanders was speaking to during the primary.
Noting that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont also criticized free trade agreements when he ran against Mrs. Clinton in the Democratic primary race, Warren (MI) Mayor James R. Fouts said that some who normally vote Democrat in Macomb County had initially supported Mr. Sanders and migrated to Mr. Trump only after Mrs. Clinton became the Democratic nominee.
“There were a significant number of Sanders people who made the transition to Trump,” said Mr. Fouts, whose office is nonpartisan. “Bernie might have won here; Joe Biden might have won. But Hillary was never going to be the candidate to convince people around here that she was going to make a difference in their lives.”
When Ford Motor Co. CEO Mark Fields told investors on Sept. 16 that the company planned to shift all its small car production from the U.S. to Mexico, who do you think criticized the company?
Not Hillary.
"We shouldn’t allow it to happen. They’ll make their cars, they’ll employ thousands of people, not from this country, and they’ll sell their car across the border," Trump said during his visit. "When we send our jobs out of Michigan, we’re also sending our tax base." http://on.freep.com/2g3wBXd
How is it that a billionaire with orange hair is more in touch with the working people than the Democratic candidate?
Hillary's silence on issues like this is what cost her the election, not Comey.
I don't know what, if anything, Trump is going to be able to do to bring jobs back to these places. If he doesn't, these folks in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania will be the first to turn on him.
However, Democrats should learn a valuable lesson from this election that they cannot just pay lip service to "working families" while undermining their livelihoods by advocating policies that make it easier for companies to move jobs to Mexico and overseas and exploit foreign workers. A $15 an hour minimum wage means nothing when your $40 an hour job with union benefits and a pension just got shipped to Mexico. Free trade is great, but fair trade is better.
H/T : Bruno Tedeschi

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