Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Wayne County is happy it voted 84 percent for Donald Trump

The Ferrington Farms subdivision has one house in it. 


     FAIRFIELD, Illinois — Drive 275 miles due south from Cook County to Wayne County. You'll notice differences right away.
     It is warmer here, literally — last Wednesday, when it was 42 degrees in Chicago, it was 67 degrees in Fairfield, the county seat, and with a population of 5,000, the largest town in Wayne County, population 15,000.
     Figuratively warmer too. Ask directions at a bakery and the owner will walk out into the street to point the way. Strangers volunteer to put you up for the night. Pop in on the bank president, unannounced, and he'll visit with you a good long spell. The Rotary meeting starts with a sing-along of "Clementine."

      This isn't the traditional South, true. But the three vehicles in the fleet of the Fairfield Police Department are pickup trucks.
     The occasional Confederate flag can be spied flying in the yards of modest homes that sell for $35,000. There is a free-standing video store.
     Like the South, this is Donald Trump Country. Though he is being sworn in Friday as the 45th president with historically low popularity ratings nationwide, you wouldn't know it in Wayne.
     Line up Illinois' 102 counties based on how they voted in the presidential election, with Cook County at one end with 74.4 percent voting for Hillary Clinton. Skip over the next 100 counties and you end here, at Wayne, a struggling coal, oil, farming and light manufacturing region that went 84.3 percent for Trump.....


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21 comments:

  1. No. Not at all. They saw things getting worse for them not just in a relative but an absolute sense. They saw Clinton as a candidate for "more of the same" who told the religiously inclined in so many words that they were going to have to change their ways or else. The Dems did not give them much of a reason to vote for them. Trump at least promised hope even though I doubt he'll keep any of his promises. By the way, I voted for Clinton.

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  2. One other thing - I hate to post under a pseudonym like Zonker but realistically I have to as long as having one's identity known can lead to all sorts of nasty things if your employer does not share your views.

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  3. Sometimes I think when you feel you have no hope you are more apt to try something else. When it is false hope the results are more devastating.

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  4. Sad that the warmer way of life is passing, but it was ever so. The old ways are sustained by faith, hard work and perseverance, but also by hypocrisy, prejudice and ignorance. Good that Neil let the townspeople speak for themselves -- you can see how well meaning folk can vote us into disaster. I for one will not rejoice when their foolishness is exposed by Trump's actions as President of the United States.

    john

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  5. I'm trying to empathize with those people, but it's very hard. People like them were the instruments by which an utterly unqualified clown was elected president.

    Bitter Scribe

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    1. Easier to empathize with these people than with the stupid cops going out of their way to confirm the worst criticisms of the Federal report.

      john

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  6. I grew up in a small downstate town very similar to Fairfield and I have spent time in Fairfield. It is difficult to grasp how isolated towns like Fairfield are, geographically, economically, and informationally. Fairfield, like my home town, is economically doomed. The jobs are not coming back and the repercussions of the reality that rural America is emptying are inescapable. It is a grim place.

    To understand the mindset of Fairfield and the part of America that embraced Trump, it is important to know that Rush Limbaugh, who urban America views as a blowhard reactionary clown, is an everyday part of rural life. Somehow, through sleight of hand and creative contracting, he has been on virtually every rural radio station in America for decades. If you drive across the Midwest through small town America, any AM radio channel you choose will have Limbaugh on during the noon hour. AM radio is how rural America still gets "information".

    Over the years Limbaugh has created an alternate reality that is relentlessly carried into rural homes. The meme of Crooked Hillary and every other right wing meme of paranoia and victimhood is spewed into homes on a daily basis. Rural America doesn't question the reality they have been sold since they've heard it presented as fact for so long.

    The people of Fairfield, who's economic lives have been in decline most of their lives, are told that their problems aren't their fault, but instead are caused by the liberal, foreign, godless "Others". Creating a bad guy out of your neighbors has been the strategy of scoundrels forever, and Limbaugh, who probably doesn't believe half the stuff that comes out of his porcine jowls, has tainted the minds of enough rural folks to get an Orange Narcissist into the presidency.

    Make no mistake about it - the dark world view of people in town's like Fairfield is a direct result of Limbaugh and his cynical, hateful world view being on every radio station in rural America.

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    1. Great point. Every so often when I'm turning my radio dial I stumble onto Limbaugh's show, and callers actually believe every word he's saying, almost bowing down to him as some kind of religious figure. The reason Trump won is because of ignorance, and I don't mean that as a slur, but as reality -- decent folks putting their trust into a false prophet, whether it's Limbaugh or Trump himself -- and Fairfield seems a perfect example of it.

      SandyK

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    2. I often wonder if I'd been saturated with Limbaugh propaganda all my life or Iranian or Russian, would I have arrived at the same stage of liberal enlightenment that I now possess. Which of course leads me to question whether I'm all that enlightened after all. Every prophet seems to decry the legitimacy of those who came before or will come after.

      john

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    3. Very interesting. Reminds me of when I lived overseas. I was not in the military but I listened to Armed Forces Radio because it was pre-internet days and that was our best English-language source of music, news, or anything. It amazed me that they carried Limbaugh, who criticized, slandered, and attacked Bill Clinton for hours at a time. Clinton was the commander in chief of American armed forces and this hateful jerk was insulting him all day on his own damn radio station. "C'mon Bill," I thought, "Fire this clown."

      I don't know if he's still on AFR, or has been spreading his hate for the last eight years against Obama there, but I would think so. Anybody know?

      Folks in Fairfield may be isolated and vulnerable to limited sources of information, but soldiers overseas are even more so.

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    4. while I'm sure its true that rush helps form many folks opinions in rural merica , i too will "stumble across" his program from time to time . he was not a trump supporter before his nomination and seemed pretty sure trump was go to lose. so even he didn't realize how many ignorant, bigoted, fools were going to vote? did you ever think maybe some well educated , tolerant people actually voted for him too? and some of them live in small towns all over america? I'm pretty sick of this narrative . the one where we are so much smarter and better than our fellow citizens that elected the new president

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    5. FME - My point in relating how Rush Limbaugh is a pervasive influence on rural America was to simply note how hearing the same narrative over and over influences a person's world view. Limbaugh's relentless meme is that a liberal isn't just wrong politically, but is morally weak, has criminal tendencies, and wants to enslave decent working people in a socialist system. This has a toxic cumulative effect on people whose economic options are so limited and who are looking in vain for an explanation on why their lot in life is so limited. Limbaugh provides a liberal bogie man to explain why they have problems.

      I find it insulting that you would suggest that myself and others look at ourselves as smarter and better than our fellow citizens. It's a straw man argument arising from your preconceived notions. Coming from rural America I know that small town folks are just as clever and able as their urban counterparts, often more so. It is laughable to suggest otherwise. Urban Americans have lots of economic options - rural America's economic options are few and getting fewer. This is why rural American’s are susceptible to the sales pitched of propagandists like Limbaugh and conmen like Trump.

      Some of my family and my oldest friends have bought into the Limbaugh world view, as they still live in my hometown, and are watching it whither away. The jobs are gone forever, opportunities non existent. It is largely because of the urbanization of America, but their is a terrible human tendency to want to make blame more personal. Limbaugh’s meme laden diatribes thus find purchase among the good people of rural America.

      But please, pat yourself on the back for not judging yourself as smarter and better than rural people like the straw man you created out of thin air.

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    6. mr. fisher, while you object to the policies and reporting that lead to the us vs. them circumstance you describe as blaming the "other". you promote this same idea that some group with members so unlike yourself and people like you are responsible for bringing mr trump to power. i know my argument has no basis in your reality because by making it ,in your mind i too become this "other". while i understand the differences that exist between individuals , please try to understand the similarities. people who think , act and hope for the same things in their lives can come to very different conclusions and make very different decisions. as you ride the train or bus each day know people who voted for trump will be just a few feet away. they are not ignorant fools any more than the rest of us. i don't think thats an accurate explanation for why trump got elected. its an over simplification. there are many factors at play beyond who people listen to on the radio

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  7. I guessing that's another area where you don't keep the young people because there's nothing there. Were there any younger people in the diner? Do those folks really think Donald Trump is going to change this?

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    1. No. The younger people I spoke to were waiting for their cases to be called at the courthouse. I decided using them would paint such an unattractive picture that it would skew the whole story. I mention the drug problem already.

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    2. In 4 yrs. they'll be terribly disappointed that Saviour Don didn't fix it all.

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  8. I'm not sure of the percentage. Of course, it's a matter of degree - a little stupid or very stupid?

    According to Cecil Parrent, “Too many are coming over here with dope. It’s pitiful. It’s ruining our kids. We got so many people now, what are we going to do with everybody. They keep coming in here. We can’t take care of the whole world.” That is stupid and bigoted.

    Perhaps Cecil is a very nice guy brainwashed by Rush Limbaugh, but that is still stupid and bigoted.

    This is the sentiment of good Americans: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"



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  9. Progressive radio hosts aren't as well known as Limbaugh, unfortunately.

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  10. About the only jobs opening there are ones at Walmart.

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  11. So for some reason I am a little late to this even though I read the blog every day. I would think religion plays a part in these conservative small towns. If Democrats ever want to get the votes of small towns they are going to have to speak to them. In this day and age there is no reason to be so misinformed.

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