I work in an industry that serves the poor working class. I am in personal contact daily with what can be described as Mitt’s 47 percenters. They have Obama phones, receive food stamps, pay no taxes. They are actually recipients of tax transfer payments-AFDC payments, Pell grants (THAT’S a story you really don’t want to hear), housing assistance, etc. They have jobs, but many of their family members are unemployed. They’ve been receiving these benefits since before Obama.
These are good people, living pay check to pay check, just don’t pay their bills very well. About half are black. White half voted for Obama too.
I’m here to tell you the Democrat party has really ticked them off. I cannot put my finger on the cause, but the pivot is overt and real. Obama is spared most of the ire, but a minority aren’t afraid to bash him either. It is absolutely amazing to watch. I began to notice a change during the Zimmerman/Trayvon affair, don’t know if there’s a connection, and as Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore, and then Charleston came to pass, got really serious.
I’m here to tell you the 47 percenters are just as angry as the rest of the country. I don’t hear much Trump bashing, and haven’t heard much one way or the other about Bernie.
I realize this is completely anecdotal evidence, but I’ve been doing this 12 years now, and there’s been some sort of about-face, an epiphany perhaps. I sense that Trump has a chance to capture and harness some of this anger. Can’t say for sure, but there’s definitely an element of revulsion there for the status quo, that was not present in 2012. I predict the 47% will largely stay home in 2016. Just my $.02.
I was with the state unemployment office for decades, mostly as a veterans career counselor but sometimes assigned to teach job-seeking skills classes to AFDC (now TANF) and food stamp recipients, so I’m pretty familiar with the demographic. That was during a period of very low unemployment, when office workers could go to lunch break and snag a better job instead of eating.
It could be Obama Care.
Friend of mine said they can’t afford it and they now get fined for not buying it.
Obama care is starting to bite the poor.
Wayne, the must ethereally sense what we all do, it just took them longer on their journey. We listened to Trevor Loudon in 08' and Knew his background and mentors, they didn't. But back to the subject at hand. They maybe on every form of assistance imaginable, but in all our hearts as Americans I'd say most of us see the big house, the Ferrari, the "Trump-Force-One" and say to ourselves, how did that guy do that? Nevermind, how can I do that?
It is funny and not funny, the guy who campaigned on Hope and Change has given the 47% No Change, and No Hope. They can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps he has taken away their boots, they didn't build them....
Trump possibly signifies a cultural change that I can do it, not uncle sugar. Maybe he should be emphasizing it on his campaign trail. Maybe the folks you are meeting are sick and tired of being sick and tired and want the job that makes them stand up straight and helps get rid of the sunken shoulders syndrome...