Posted on 10/05/2018 11:57:49 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A Pennsylvania county has become the example of how Trump took the nation by storm with a conservative rhetoric that reached the forgotten corners of America in the 2016 cycle.
Ben Bradlee Jr., a former Boston Globe reporter who led the Pulitzer-Prize winning team featured in the movie "Spotlight," sat down with ABC’s Political Director Rick Klein this week for the Powerhouse Politics Podcast to discuss his book, “The Forgotten: How the People of One Pennsylvania Country Elected Donald Trump and Changed America.” His book takes a deep dive, through the lives of 12 characters, into how Luzerne County became a red stronghold. Obama won the county by eight points in 2008 -- Trump won by nearly 20 points in 2016.
Without the votes from Luzerne County, Trump, Bradlee suspects, would not have won Pennsylvania, or perhaps the presidency. Bradlee's hunger to know more about the Trump base took him to Pennsylvania, where, in extended and probing interviews with Trump voters, he was able to detail just why they supported him, getting below the surface of what the elections returns reflected: that rural voters were angry. They felt abandoned and unheard by Democrats, which helped cause their quick shift from blue to red.
“They felt unacknowledged, they felt underappreciated, isolated by liberal culture that often mocked them,” Bradlee said. “Trump came along and they identified with him. They felt that he heard them. They felt listened to. They felt that Hillary made them ashamed.”
“I think we all learned some lessons here. You can’t deny that Trump drew, and still draws, big crowds. They are enthusiastic and I think a lot of the press assumed that was not going to translate to votes. And it did,” Bradlee said....
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Nice post, from a fellow Westmoreland County resident.
i can’t wait for Bradlee to die...wasn’t he the one that gave his sister in law’s diary (you know, the one sleeping with Kennedy) over to the CIA after she was mysteriously murdered right after Kennedy was killed in Dallas?
Luzerne was the biggest flip from ‘12 to ‘16.
I was born in Luzerne county and went back prior to the election. There’re Trump signs everywhere. I know the Barletta family and he’s a good man.
The other day someone from PA said the new Governor (Wolf) did a redistricting scheme that prevents PA from getting enough electoral votes for a republican President.
Can anyone else from PA confirm this?
In 2011, Pennsylvania also came very close into adopting the congressional district system used in Maine and Nebraska to allocate electroal votes. The GOP had the governor's office plus substantial majorities in both houses of the legislature and a bill ready to pass. The @$$hat GOP chairman sabotaged it because he felt his nationwide influence might be diminished with split electoral votes. In reality, I still think it would be a good idea since only 4 of 18 districts are solid RAT, 7 are solid GOP and the remaining 7 are up for grabs.
Trump won Carbon County where I live. The Times News of Lehighton ran a story a few weeks ago, registered Republicans now outnumber registered Democrats for the first time ever.
I think when Democrats loose the both the soft and hard coal regions then it’s basically over as far as the working man is concerned.
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