I Hear America Singing Again
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal, 6/3/18
What do NASCAR fans, Wal-Mart
customers, plumbers, electricians, county sheriffs, teachers, blue-collared
workers, green collard eaters, steel workers, Michigan machinists, coaches,
chicken growers, drill operators, beer drinkers, tee-totallers, pro-lifers, gun owners, self-described rednecks, café
owners, hunters, miners, and a passel of lawyers, doctors, and pastors have in
common?
You
probably know. It’s an undiminished, still passionate support for President
Trump. Or so says Salena Zito, a
reporter for the Washington Examiner and a political analyst for CNN. (You read
that right, CNN).
A
respected reporter and researcher, Zito has drawn her findings from over 25,000
miles on roads less traveled, and from hundreds of interviews of citizens who
are from a work-based and faith-driven ethic and culture. In articles for the Washington Examiner and
in a culminating new book titled “The Great Revolt,” Zito concludes that the
heartland spoke in 2016 and that its voice is still reverberating.
From
my own daily interactions, I can experientially add several more Trump
constituents to the list above: carpenters, committed Christians, retired
military officers, garage door repairmen, computer experts, and non-voters in
2016 who are now registered voters. None
of what I see and hear bodes well for those awaiting a Democratic comeback or a
blue wave of any size.
Review
the long and the shorter lists above. Do
they both not reflect a hardcore, hard working America? Do they not illustrate heartland authenticity
and cultural realism? Do the lists make
you think of Wall Street or Main Street?
Hollywood or Marietta? Karl Marx
or Adam Smith? Corporate influence or
small business owners? Globalism or localism?
Never
have so few misjudged so many and miscalculated so much as in the 2016 presidential
election. The few were pollsters and
media stars who simply got it wrong. Who
in the world were they polling? Not the
good people of all races at the gas stations where I pump gas. Not the exterminators who come to my house. The many were the working stiffs who got
behind a candidate who didn’t put on airs, spoke plainly, and challenged our
media stars. The talking heads, that is, who pontificate on things
they know not of, while showing ignorance of and condescension for a populace
with whom they never mix.
Zito
attributes Trump’s victory and continuing popularity to several things. One is the “Perot-istas” (voters who
propelled outsider billionaire Ross Perot to a considerable showing in 1992
against President H.W. Bush). Another is
the “King Cyrus Christians” (comparing Trump’s Christian supporters to ancient
Jews whom the good pagan of Persia freed, allowing them to return to Jerusalem
and rebuild their temple), and another the “silent suburban moms” (voters who
were uncomfortable revealing their support for Trump but supported him still).
As
for the “King Cyrus Christians,” Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council
probably represented them well when he remarked, “My personal support for
Donald Trump has never been based upon shared values, but upon shared
concerns.” Which leads me to ask if any
Jews rejected King Cyrus’ help just because he was a pagan and not a worshipper
of Jehovah. The prophets Ezra and
Nehemiah certainly didn’t. Turns out,
modern Christians aren’t as self-righteous as their critics have claimed.
A new populist
coalition is not just in the make. It’s
already built – of former Democrats, unionists, conservative Republicans,
evangelicals, southerners, and Midwesterners – and is holding steady. I call it rural and small town America. It is the coalescing of working people who
embraced a different style candidate, one well educated with a good vocabulary
but who avoids the words “proliferation,” “vis-a-vis” and “sequestration,”
opting for “swamp,” “hellatious,” and “lovely.”
Think Harry Truman.
Suited politicians appearing daily on
television just no longer inspire. The
same goes for the media stars who frankly are no longer needed. Disaffected blue-collar voters are quite
aware of the disdain in which they are held by those who dwell at the heights
of finance, media, and government. Their
Andrew Jackson-style revolt is for real.
Poet
Walt Whitman heard America’s heartbeat as he penned lines that heralded the
common man: “I hear America singing … the carpenter as he measures his plank,
the mason as he makes ready for work, the young wife sewing or washing, the boatman
singing what belongs to him on his boat, each singing what belongs to him…”
America’s long unheralded workers are
stirring. They’re not “peasants storming
the gates.” They’re fed up citizens
doing their duty and shaking things up.
Corporate America thinks the workers and their unorthodox leader are not
long for the road. But they are wrong.
Roger Hines
5/30/18
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