I came across this Cracked article mentioned in a video by WheezyWaiter, both of which addressed Why Trump Won.
“RACISM AND SEXISM,” I can hear you say. And yes, that’s valid and fair, but let’s talk about the article and the video.
Because I think all the racism, sexism, homophobia, and bigotry of this election can be traced back to two things: drugs and jobs.
Let me tell you about my area of the country.
I don’t like to make this public, but I live in a section of the midwest called The Ohio Valley. It stretches from Youngstown, OH to Marietta, OH and encompasses West Virginia and parts of Pennsylvania by Pittsburgh. It’s largely rural and sparsely populated.
This section of America has also been affectionately nicknamed “The Rust Belt.” Because it used to be “The Steel Belt,” until the manufacturing jobs were lost.
I grew up in a tiny town close to an aluminum production plant. By the time I started attending middle school, the plant had been shut down due to faulty management practice, including poor resource management and mistreatment of the workers.
I moved out of the area and into a much larger town closer to Columbus, OH just before starting high school. We left for a lot of reasons, including,
- The fact that one of my sisters is bisexual and was bullied by the school (she and her girlfriend were also kicked out of the public pool)
- After my parents divorced when I was young, everyone started to treat us differently, because divorce was “godless.”
- Mom had to support us all and there were no good jobs in the area outside of fast food and cutting hair.
So we moved. And just in time, too, because I remember going to classes and hearing about new drug rings popping up at the high school I WOULD have gone to if we stayed in that town. First it was pot. Nowadays it’s meth.
A few months ago, someone I knew from that small town was on the run from cops because his pot cartel was busted.
Turns out, when there’s no manufacturing work, and the only work left is minimum wage, people start to turn to drugs to make money.
Why? More money without moving to the city. They don’t want to move to the city because city folks
- “dress funny”
- “don’t go to church”
- “have bisexual sex parties that spread disease”
- “talk all fancy and upper-crusty and not like it is”
- “live by BLACK PEOPLE”
Let’s make one thing clear – if there are minorities in the country, they’re usually treated fine, as long as they act just like their white neighbors.
But I was taught at a young age, by adults in the country, that black people in cities are more violent, more prone to gang culture, own guns, and sell drugs to kids. It took me many years and first-hand accounts to realize that all that was bullshit (because, in my experience, it’s white people who do that, not black people).
I was also taught that marriage was “sacred” (hence why people hated my family, because my parents got divorced), that having children was sacred (even though I knew at least one person who sexually abused his teenage daughter to the point of getting her pregnant. Twice).
Are all country people backwards? No. But their institutions and churches are. And it’s their institutions that give them these ideas of the sanctity of marriage and “family values” (code: anti-gay agenda).
However, with a lack of jobs, people lose faith. Which means fewer people go to church. Which means GODLESSNESS.
I can tell you first hand that people down here like Trump because they think he represents going back to those family values and Christian roots.
It’s hilarious to me that they think a man who’s been married four times, got all his wealth from his rich daddy, and shipped jobs overseas to avoid paying his own workers will “make America great again.”
What these people want are jobs and an end to drugs. What they need is a realization that Trump will be just like any other politician.
And the cycle will continue.
Thanks for reading.