A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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Late last year, I moved home to Michigan. I did so primarily for family reasons, but also because I wanted to get back in touch with parts of the country where D.C. journalists often visit but rarely stay for long.
There exists in today’s media, as one colleague recently grumbled to me, “an institutional bias against hearing what voters have to say.”
The snow was coming down sideways as I encountered a growling pride of pickup trucks jockeying for position in what was once a parking lot, searching for a place to stop searching. Some drivers had given up on circling and sat idling in anticipation of a coming vacancy. Others got creative, dropping into low gear to mount glacial embankments where yellow lines were once visible. The one thing nobody did was speed off entirely. They had come too far, defying the elements, and now the destination was in sight: the Mid-Michigan Gun & Knife Show.
It wasn’t long ago that your average working-class white voter in mid-Michigan, be they involved in agriculture or manufacturing, was a quintessential swing voter—if not a loyal Democrat. But the party’s decade long leftward drift on cultural issues, paired with Trump’s not-unrelated ascent, pushed huge numbers of them into the GOP column in 2016. This alone would not have delivered Michigan to Trump had black voter turnout been anywhere close to Obama-era levels. But the falloff was so dramatic with Hillary Clinton atop the ticket—20 percent in parts of Flint and Saginaw, not to mention Detroit and Lansing—that the door was cracked open just wide enough.
Growing up in Michigan, guns never struck me as partisan issue, at least not in the mold of taxes or abortion or labor laws. Lots of people owned them, Democrats and Republicans alike, and those who didn’t never seemed to have a problem with those who did. No successful politician that I could recall went around campaigning on gun control.
MICHAEL SCHENK leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Wait a minute,” he said, squinting as if he couldn’t see me standing two feet away. “You think there are Democrats”—he glanced from side to side—“here?”
NATE WHITE, a 58-year-old retired military man from Auburn, Michigan, said he never votes a straight-party ticket and supports both Democrats and Republicans at the local level. “I’ll probably have to vote for Trump again,” he scoffed, “because there’s not a Democrat worth a shit.”

White then corrected himself: “Except Tulsi Gabbard. But they won’t let her on stage.” What about any of the others? Bernie Sanders? Elizabeth Warren? Joe Biden? “Biden?” White howled. “He’s a bigger crook than Trump!”
MELISSA GILLET, a 53-year-old social worker who lives in Birch Run, described herself as politically independent. She rarely voted prior to 2016. The reason she came out for Trump was because he spoke to her concerns—specifically the threats facing her kids, 18 and 20, in terms of “the crime, the drugs, the jobs leaving, everything.” Like many of the people I spoke with, she disapproved of the president’s antics. “Should he be more professional, more president-like?” she asked. “Yes.” And unlike many of the people I spoke with, she said Trump’s presidency hasn’t helped her bottom line. “Things aren’t any better for me,” she said, “but then again, they’re not getting any worse, either. So I guess I’ll take that.”
I spent all day at the gun show. Seven hours. Interviewed people until my hand cramped up from writing. And Schenk was right: Not one of them identified as a Democrat.

There was another level of uniformity that surprised me. Of the roughly two dozen Trump supporters I ended up speaking with, they were evenly split in terms of their certainty on Election Day 2016. One half recalled holding their noses in voting for him; the other half swore they never had a second thought. But when I asked the members of the former group how likely they were to vote for him again, every single person said their reluctance had vanished. There were no more doubts, no more concerns. He had passed—well, if not every test, the most important ones.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... ers-102790
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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senorgrand wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:28 pm Apparently gun owners aren't just republicans and they vote. shock.
Yep. Couple the Dem candidates' assault weapon ban flapping with the Trumpicon's circling the wagons regarding impeachment and I think it's almost certain Trump will win. Makes me sick, but there it is.

We need Miracle Max to produce a pill that helps Dems realize that an awful lot of moderates are gun owners. It'll take a miracle.

Re: A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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We can only do what we can do about Trump (Unleashed) Seasons 5-8. The Midwest is growing Trumpier and the South is growing younger and browner. No one has any idea what will happen in November.

Focus on your state house or governor. Or help a gerrymandered red state get some justice and representation.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Re: A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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November is too hard to predict. Bernie winning the nomination could change everything. They both speak to the frustration and anger of the working class, the difference is Bernie is genuine and actually knows what he's talking about.

It's also going to be interesting to see how this coronavirus continues to effect the markets long-term. Trump won't recover from a recession. But then again I've been wrong before.

Re: A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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featureless wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:18 pm
senorgrand wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:28 pm Apparently gun owners aren't just republicans and they vote. shock.
Yep. Couple the Dem candidates' assault weapon ban flapping with the Trumpicon's circling the wagons regarding impeachment and I think it's almost certain Trump will win. Makes me sick, but there it is.

We need Miracle Max to produce a pill that helps Dems realize that an awful lot of moderates are gun owners. It'll take a miracle.
Some of the far left as well.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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kronkmusic wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 9:02 pm November is too hard to predict. Bernie winning the nomination could change everything. They both speak to the frustration and anger of the working class, the difference is Bernie is genuine and actually knows what he's talking about.

It's also going to be interesting to see how this coronavirus continues to effect the markets long-term. Trump won't recover from a recession. But then again I've been wrong before.
Bernie might have a chance, but a slim one if he keeps to the democratic gun control agenda. The money bloomberg is pouring into the anti gun side will not help.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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featureless wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:18 pm
senorgrand wrote: Mon Jan 27, 2020 6:28 pm Apparently gun owners aren't just republicans and they vote. shock.
Yep. Couple the Dem candidates' assault weapon ban flapping with the Trumpicon's circling the wagons regarding impeachment and I think it's almost certain Trump will win. Makes me sick, but there it is.

We need Miracle Max to produce a pill that helps Dems realize that an awful lot of moderates are gun owners. It'll take a miracle.
Yup. Scary times...

Hopefully the Dems pull their heads out of their asses, and realize that gun control is one of the big reasons why Clinton lost. It's a failed strategy, but as long as Bloomberg keeps demanding that the party take that stance, I'm worried that his money will have a very negative contribution to our elections.

Re: A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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Konraden wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 8:27 am Birch Run is a podunk town in the middle of Michigan. I feel like the author would have had an easier time finding a Democrat in say the Novi Gun Show or Grand Rapids Gun show--you know, more major metropolitan areas.
Did he say he grew up in the area? It might just prove the points the democrats have lost the working class. The DNC positions on guns smack of elitism and privilege.
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"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated!" Loquacious of many. Texas Chapter Chief Cat Herder.

Re: A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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Beto screaming, "Hell yeah I'm taking you guns".
Virginia Dems running amok.
Bloomberg literally attempting to buy the Dem nomination with his own brand of " I will bring NYC order to these barbarians."
CNN mocking Trump voters

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... his-point/

Conservative voters both loath and fear a liberal takeover so much that they would vote for Trump even if he was sacrificing virgins to Satan on the White House lawn.

Re: A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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featureless wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 11:06 am
sikacz wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 9:17 am It might just prove the points the democrats have lost the working class. The DNC positions on guns smack of elitism and privilege.
You can say that again!
It's political parties which whip up their base and frenzied followers get on the internet and it's downhill from there. Facts become meaningless. The physician's article in DM's thread is the opposite side of Reps at this gun show.

The Democratic Party takes every group that supports it and buys into their agenda like Everytown without question. They never seem to evaluate if these groups agenda then makes Democratic candidates toxic to voters especially in swing states. To them urban areas rule, to hell with suburban and rural parts of states. Living in an urban area with a fifteen minute police response time is very different than living in a rural area where response times can be 30 to 60 minutes.

Yes Dems appear to have lost the working class especially in swing states.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: A reporter goes to a MI gun show

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highdesert wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 12:42 pm
featureless wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 11:06 am
sikacz wrote: Tue Jan 28, 2020 9:17 am It might just prove the points the democrats have lost the working class. The DNC positions on guns smack of elitism and privilege.
You can say that again!
It's political parties which whip up their base and frenzied followers get on the internet and it's downhill from there. Facts become meaningless. The physician's article in DM's thread is the opposite side of Reps at this gun show.

The Democratic Party takes every group that supports it and buys into their agenda like Everytown without question. They never seem to evaluate if these groups agenda then makes Democratic candidates toxic to voters especially in swing states. To them urban areas rule, to hell with suburban and rural parts of states. Living in an urban area with a fifteen minute police response time is very different than living in a rural area where response times can be 30 to 60 minutes.

Yes Dems appear to have lost the working class especially in swing states.
Funny how "working class" always seems to be a description used to mean WHITE working class. Dems have not lost the POC working class, GOP has. Too bad the white working class doesn't seem to realize they are being conned.
It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

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