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Middle America Is Dying Hard
Hot Air ^ | February 27, 2024 | Salena Zito

Posted on 02/27/2024 11:30:04 AM PST by george76

WEIRTON, West Virginia -- Most people in this town will tell you they'd rather have taken a physical punch to the gut than get the news they received yesterday when Cleveland-Cliffs Steel announced it was idling its tinplate production plant, a move that directly cost 900 people their jobs.

..

It isn't just those workers who face catastrophic uncertainty; this closure also jeopardizes the jobs of thousands more people whose businesses supported the plant: the barber shops, gas stations, mom-and-pop grocery stores, the machine shops that make the widgets for the steel industry. And there's also the demise of the tax base, which affects the school district and the quality of the roads.

Thirty years ago, more than 10,000 people worked here at Weirton Steel. Now, the last 900 workers left have just lost their jobs.

"It's just another scar to add on what people in power have done to our lives and our community over the past 40 years," said one employee who declined to give his name, adding, "Honestly, how many times does this story have to be told before someone in power cares about our lives."

He points to different buildings downtown, and all of them for him were "used to be this" and "used to be that."

Ryan Weld of Wellsburg, 43, grew up in downtown Weirton right behind the local funeral home.

"When I was growing up in the '80s, the mill was still going at full tilt with Weirton Steel employing 10,000 people, including my grandfathers," he said.

The Republican state senator said things started to slow down here in the mid to late '90s after the North American Free Trade Agreement was enacted: "That dramatically changed the landscape of downtown, went from a bustling the last age group that remembers the shops and stores and restaurants of downtown."

..

He believes NAFTA, signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, essentially made it hard for companies like Weirton Steel, which had to follow strict and expensive Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, to compete with places like Mexico. The towns all up and down the Steel Valley died hard.

"The legacy of the federal government and its refusal to properly enforce trade laws is nothing but empty mills and unemployed workers," Weld said. "That was true in the '80s and '90s, and that is true today."

Forty years ago, the Democratic Party started to slowly shed its working-class base, but not quickly: Democratic officials would still show up for decades at union rallies, putting their arms around workers' shoulders and telling them they have their back while at the same time enacting regulations and trade agreements that stripped them of their livelihoods and dignity and made ghettos of their once beloved communities.

By the 2012 Obama reelection, they traded their New Deal Democrat legacy voters for ascendant groups: minorities, young people, college-educated elites and single women, all done without so much as a Dear John letter.

The Republicans inherited them, but most of their strategists running messaging and campaigns had no idea what to do with them, at least on the national level.

And then there is the press covering the voter who will decide the next president: Few if any of them come from places like Weirton or Youngstown, Ohio, so they have little understanding of their worldview. Things that give people from here purpose, such as living close to extended family, are not as valuable to someone who has been transient for most of a career.

..

In short, we are heading once again into an election where very few people in Washington truly understand how remarkably devastating this mill closure is. Instead, it is a wire story at best, soon forgotten if measured at all. They truly do not understand how much the loss of the dignity of work has changed American politics. That this tone-deafness is still happening 14 years after Barack Obama was given notice in the 2010 midterm elections and eight years after Donald Trump won the presidency is pretty staggering.

The Democrats once attracted these voters, but they've moved on to the social justice crowd and don't appear to want to anymore. I'm not sure if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., does, the press does not, and the new "very online right" is certainly not the reflection of a center-right voter in middle America. The online right just seems hell-bent on making them seem like Taylor Swift conspiracy theorists. (P.S. They're not.)

Jeff Brauer, a political science professor at Keystone College, said Washington elites on both sides of the aisle, media elites and now online conspiracy elites just don't get Middle America even after this recent economically and politically difficult decade.

"Few things bond people/citizens together like trying to make a living in the real world, the dignity of work and raising a family," he explained, adding these bonds cut across all divides -- geographic, racial/ethnic, religious, gender, ideological/party, and even at times socioeconomic.

..

"If there is one thing we have learned over the past decade, it is that this bond over the difficulties of making an honest living can and does create unlikely coalitions of voters," he said. "Even disparate voters from the likes of Bernie Sanders supporters to Trump supporters can agree on this."

Indeed, economic dignity and survival make strange bedfellows.

Brad Todd, founding partner of OnMessage and co-author with me of "The Great Revolt: Inside the Populist Coalition Reshaping American Politics," said one thing is for certain about 2024: "We are about to read a million new stories that quote zero people who are actually going to decide the election."

Brauer said the dignity of work is at the very core of the American experience, "Yet the elites of this country still just don't understand, while average Americans just keep getting financially squeezed more and more."

Weld said it is incumbent on local elected officials such as himself to be the advocates of Middle America.

"I do what I do because of that. The empty buildings were already there when I was in college and high school, and it pisses me off," he said. "I don't think anyone fought hard enough for that from happening. We shouldn't keep having to read again, again, another story about a town dying hard and a vacancy of no one caring."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Colorado; US: Ohio; US: Pennsylvania; US: West Virginia; US: Wyoming
KEYWORDS: colorado; economy; industry; manufacturing; ohio; pennsylvania; westvirginia
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To: cymbeline

That’s a change in technology. Greater ability to ship products world wide.


21 posted on 02/27/2024 12:13:35 PM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: PermaRag
But urban racist ghettos/barrios are not just dying, they’re already dead in the vast majority of cases. So what does that leave?

Lol, they're "dead" in the way that zombie hoards are "dead."

22 posted on 02/27/2024 12:15:43 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman)
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To: Trailerpark Badass

What’s the point? That it’s sad for these towns? Yeah, this sad story has been happening to towns for over a 100 years. There’s really not much we can do about it. The company went from 10,000 employees to 900 to 0. There’s no 1 factor, even no 1 factor anybody can change, that causes that. That’s a company that wound up on the wrong side of some curves, trade, technology, mobility. It sucks for the town, I feel bad for the people. But this trend has existed for longer than any of them have been alive. If you are in a company town you need to recognize that and either try to get the town to expand its foundation by voting for or even becoming smart candidates. Or get out. Because the handwriting has been on the wall for every single company town in the world for a long time: the bottom WILL fall out. Plan accordingly.


23 posted on 02/27/2024 12:19:53 PM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: discostu
There’s really not much we can do about it.

BS. We need a 20% across the board import tariff. Sorry if Free Traitors don't like that.

24 posted on 02/27/2024 12:27:37 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: discostu

Scumy Free Traitors are what ruined America. We can’t even make a tin cans.....


25 posted on 02/27/2024 12:28:38 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: central_va

That would only be one factor. NAFTA went into place 30 years ago. The town had an opportunity to expand, lure other companies. Other industries. Not be a company town. Sorry if your addiction to insults keeps you from seeing basic reality.


26 posted on 02/27/2024 12:38:12 PM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: Trailerpark Badass
You’ve managed to be 100% correct, while missing the point completely.

Shouldn't there be some sort of medal or badge for that?

27 posted on 02/27/2024 12:55:04 PM PST by BipolarBob (I identify as a Christian Nationalist. Joe Biden hates me.)
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To: discostu; central_va
There's a major disconnect between "The American Dream" and "A Free Market leading to Creative Destruction".

The one idea would lead someone to train for a career, get a job, buy a house, get married and start a family, and set down roots.

The other idea would lead someone to remain mobile and agile, i.e. stay single, rent, and be ready to move where the new opportunities await.

Maybe it's the pace of change. Before, someone could work for the same company his entire career because even though creative destruction was happening, it wasn't happening so fast that he had to move on. Maybe it only meant that his sons had to change professions and locations.

Maybe it's a good thing that wealth is being transferred from the West's Middle Class to the Third World's desperately poor due to unequal enforcement of environmental and labor laws. Since the fabulously rich will always be with us, it naturally follows that the great equalizing of standards of living will happen among the Middle and Lower Classes.

Adam Smith's notion that free trade allows countries to focus their efforts on creating those products and services that they are best at, and buying the rest from other countries doesn't make sense anymore. Since most wealth is generated either in factories or offices, and since central AC and heat is available across the globe, the only thing that distinguishes one country from another is the cost of the workforce and regulations. Two attributes in which poorer countries will always excel.

Since politicians are selected to help THEIR citizens, and not the citizens of the World, if tariffs are needed to even the playing field so that American workers can keep their jobs then sobeit, even if this somehow increases the overall inefficiency of "The Market".

And as far as towns not becoming "company towns". Many of the rust belt states made major efforts to lure companies in with tax breaks, etc. There were some success stories, but there were also massive failures that put those towns into even greater debt. Corporations are very nimble and can start-up, shut-down, and relocate factories and offices more quickly that established communities can respond.

Maybe we should listen to our masters at the WEF, own nothing, always have a packed suitcase at hand, be ready to relocate at a moment's notice, be single, be childless, and be happy... oh so unbelievably happy.

28 posted on 02/27/2024 1:24:57 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear (What is left around which to circle the wagons?)
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To: george76

And yet, how many of those people voted for the people who are forcing the closures by their policies?


29 posted on 02/27/2024 1:27:16 PM PST by ducttape45 (Proverbs 14:34, "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.")
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

I don’t think there is any disconnect. You just have to remember that while one group of people are achieving the American Dream they are changing the marketplace. And some of that is going to destroy other companies. And internationalization doesn’t play as big a part of it as people like to think. Competition is competition.

And there’s nothing new in any of this. Look at what happened to the textiles industry in the North of England in the late 19th century. New technology came to be, more fabric could be made faster by fewer people. But demand didn’t climb as much as supply COULD. Mills started slashing output to prop up their market, which meant slashing hours, but even with that a lot of mills went out of business.

I’m seeing another one of these cycles happening now. A chunk of my roof blew off, once all the insurance stuff got settled out my tarpaper roof got replaced by a foam roof. And I’ll tell you right now foam roofs are going to replace tarpaper and probably even shingle. It took them half as long to put the new roof on as it took them to take the old stuff off. It’s supposed to be easier to repair (cut out damaged chunk, spray a little foam), and it’s slashed my utility bills. Right now the foam costs about 30% more than paper (really not sure how we got the insurance company to be cool with that), but that will come down. And meanwhile it’s dramatically better insulating so my utility bills have dropped by a 1/3. And it’s guaranteed for 25 years.

So that’s the future, and everybody in the tarpaper and shingle industries needs to be ready for that. I don’t think it will effect the more decorative roof options cause it ain’t pretty (it gets coating so it’s plain) but the “I just want my roof to keep the outside out” section of the industry will be foam. Which means everybody in the industries that make and support tarpaper and shingles are on the clock. Might be 10 years, might be 20, not sure how fast the price will come down and regular people will be able to do it. But at some point, those classic plain roofs most of us probably have and we all see all over will be foam. And if there’s a town whose sole industry is making tarpaper they’re hosed.


30 posted on 02/27/2024 1:48:32 PM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: discostu

“Greater ability to ship products world wide.”

Yes, and that includes packaging massive amounts of goods, concentrating them on the ships, and then distributing them at their destination.


31 posted on 02/27/2024 2:10:15 PM PST by cymbeline
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To: george76

“Three months before his last visit to this country, Nikita Khrushchev said, ‘We can’t expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of socialism, until they awaken one day to find they have communism.’”


32 posted on 02/27/2024 3:14:47 PM PST by DaiHuy (I support LGBTQ. (Lets Get Biden to Quit.))
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To: who_would_fardels_bear
Maybe it's a good thing that wealth is being transferred from the West's Middle Class to the Third World's desperately poor due to unequal enforcement of environmental and labor laws.

That is NEVER a good thing!! MAGA!!!!

33 posted on 02/27/2024 3:29:07 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: BipolarBob; discostu

Lol, he’s won a chest-full.


34 posted on 02/27/2024 3:52:49 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman)
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To: discostu

Asphalt shingles in the northeast look horrible after a few years—black streaks that the shingle industry attributes to blue green algae. They’re adding copper granules to combat this but that is incompatible with aluminum gutters which eventually are destroyed with the runoff from the copper granules. In fact, the shingle warranties warn, in tiny print, that they will not be liable for any damage to your aluminum gutters.

So, my family has installed EcoStar which is a composite shingle that looks like slate and can be recycled. It’s made out of different materials including, believe it or not, baby diaper materials. It looks wonderful and is so tough hail won’t damage it and a truck can run over the slates without any damage to them. So far, we’re very pleased with them.

EcoStar is an expensive roof, but it is made to last much longer than asphalt shingles so we shouldn’t have to replace the roof ten years from now. The asphalt shingle industry is on its last legs. According to several roofers we talked to, the warranties are a joke and the quality of asphalt shingles has deteriorated significantly in the last ten years. Good riddance.


35 posted on 02/27/2024 5:30:25 PM PST by PA Presbyterian (Never Surrender!)
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To: ducttape45

Well, West Virginia has been voting Republican lately. I believe every county voted for Trump. And Weirton Steel was one of the steel companies that produced steel for the weapons for the arsenal of democracy FDR wanted the U.S. to become. My dad was an Army liaison officer at Weirton Steel during WWII. He earned a medal for expediting the production of weapons at Weirton, specifically a trench mortar bomb for Great Britain.

I deeply admire the towns and the people in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia who worked in the mills that made our weapons. I despise anyone who diminishes their contributions to our country and who looks down on their descendants as relics unworthy of our interest or compassion.


36 posted on 02/27/2024 5:43:15 PM PST by PA Presbyterian (Never Surrender!)
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To: Trailerpark Badass

Lol you use insults because you know you don’t have facts. Thanks for proving me right. Again


37 posted on 02/27/2024 6:27:21 PM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: discostu
Didn't see any facts, just opinions.

And no insults from me, just observations.

38 posted on 02/27/2024 6:36:36 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman)
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To: discostu
Oh, please.The largest cost increase in cost of textile production was the cost of labor, which led to relocation from New England to non-unionized, right-to-work states like North Carolina.
39 posted on 02/27/2024 6:48:25 PM PST by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman)
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To: central_va

Wrong. Freepers do not care for your assessment of a burger going up 25cents, care to revisit?


40 posted on 02/27/2024 7:07:25 PM PST by eyedigress
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