The Economist Shines A Light On Blue-Collar Workers In Findlay

logo for the magazine The Economist

A columnist for the venerable European publication ‘The Economist’ visited Findlay before the recent Ohio election primary and did a good job highlighting the inconsistent views of a white blue collar electorate who tend to vote against their own best interests.

I’m sure some Findlay promoters would take exception to describing Findlay as “a frayed-at-the-edges town of 41,000 people” but the rest of the article seemed spot on.

A day before the Ohio primary Lexington travelled to Findlay, a frayed-at-the-edges town of 41,000 people which is home to one of Ohio’s larger tyre plants. The smell of cooking rubber hangs over its streets. Twice under Mr Obama, anti-dumping tariffs of up to 88% have been slapped on imported Chinese tyres at the prodding of the United Steelworkers union (USW), to protect jobs at plants including the Cooper Tire & Rubber factory in Findlay. Mr Obama cited the tariffs in his state-of-the-union message in 2012, declaring: “Over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tyres.”

Such tariffs are rare, making Findlay’s tyre-builders an unusually well-protected minority. Their plant offers a glimpse of what might happen if a President Trump (or Sanders) fulfils his promise to use tariffs and taxes to keep manufacturing jobs in America. Economically trade barriers are a bad and harmful idea, but what Findlay offers is a case study in the politics of trade.

An evening shift-change saw lines of men leave the Cooper plant, lunch-boxes in hand. Most felt that tariffs on China had helped them: one called them a “game-changer” that had saved jobs and prompted extra shifts. But, strikingly, praise for the president was mostly dwarfed by anger at the state of the country. Some workers said they were Democrats but felt underwhelmed by Mr Obama. Others, Republicans, expressed suspicion verging on contempt for the president. Mr Obama is “the worst fucking piece of shit in this country, he should move to China”, spat a bearded worker in a camouflage hunting jacket who declined to give his name, turning back to add, pre-emptively: “And I’ve got black friends, so it isn’t that.” Another worker, Josh Wilkerson, a Trump supporter, said that anti-China tariffs were good, but he shared his colleague’s belief that, mostly, “Obama is for the people who don’t work.”

The view from the rustbelt

The sum of the viewpoint of some of the Cooper workers is “Obama helped us keep our jobs but he still sucks….”

I understand, and have said myself, that politics shouldn’t just be a one note tune. People should take the whole of a potential leader and decide if one should support them for office.

Some people have false ideas about a candidate. If their view of the whole is so distorted then how can one make an informed choice?

Republicans play into the misinformed electorate by hyping false narratives and by stoking fears of the “other”.

The Economist article pointed out that not all blue collar workers are raving bigots.

In dozens of interviews at the tyre plant, one person backed Mrs Clinton: Rod Nelson, president of the Cooper plant’s union branch, Local 207L of the United Steelworkers, and that was in the “realist” belief that she will be the Democratic nominee. At Lexington’s request, Mr Nelson gathered ten Cooper workers for a group interview. Asked to sum up Mr Obama, the men replied variously that he was a good man, a disappointment, a “great speech-giver”, a victim of Republican obstruction in Congress and a man who had failed to rein in the super-rich and their influence over politics. The president was praised for bailing out the car sector and other industries soon after taking office. He was thanked for tariffs on China, but his support for the TPP caused baffled dismay. Mr Nelson ventured that perhaps the president is using trade as “a diplomatic tool” to win allies.

Workers at a tire plant like Cooper aren’t all stupid or bigots but candidates need to address the issues these people care about like jobs and putting healthy food on the table for the family.

Fear-mongering rants, like building a wall to keep the Muslims out, are just a side show and doesn’t speak to the real issues people care about. I wish the mainstream media here in the US would get on the same page as The Economist.

Toledo TV Stations Pimp Popepalooza In Philadelphia

image of Pope Francis

Northwest Ohio has a large Catholic population and at least two of the Toledo TV stations fall over each other promoting the Church and their events. Most of the time it seems like they act like PR agencies rather than news reporters. Both stations plan extensive coverage of Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia. Those plans made me wonder who was paying for it.

Next week the Pope is visiting the US with time spent at the World Meeting of Families Congress in Philadelphia and WTOL and WTVG are planning on having full news crews traveling with Toledo area families going to the event. WTOL also had a 2 part sit-down interview with the Archbishop of Toledo and it was so fluffy my teeth hurt from the sugar.

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Hey Media! The N-Word Wasn’t The Story

screencap of ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl being clueless again
ABC News White House correspondent Jonathan Karl being clueless again

It seems like most of the corporate media missed the actual point President Obama made when he used the N-word in a podcast interview that was released on Monday morning. Focusing on the word said rather than the President’s point is one more way the media avoids talking about racism in this country. It is even more ironic for white people to police the use of the N-word – and it proves the President’s point.

I watch the nightly news on ABC and their White House correspondent, Jonathan Karl, is on the same “Tool” level as NBC’s Chuck Todd. Karl is someone who gets a notion and forces his reporting into that narrative. It happened again when he was *SHOCKED* *SHOCKED* I tell you when the Marc Maron interview of the President was released and the President said *gasp* the N-word. Karl clutched his pearls on Good Morning America, at the White House daily briefing, and kept at it during his appearance on World News Tonight.

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Letter To The Editor Is A Teachable Moment For Religious Freedom

clip art of the Happy Humanist

On Christmas Eve, a letter to the editor in the Coloradoan newspaper caught my eye. Titled ‘Democrats force secular-humanist views’ kind of gave away the view point of the letter writer. The letter gives a good example of faulty irrational thinking and is a good opportunity to show how one can debunk such thinking.

Here is the letter that was published on 12/24 (emphasis is mine):

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