To get a real sense for how this election is going, you need to ignore the national polls in establishment media that have Joe Biden poised for a decisive victory.
Look, instead, at the enthusiasm on the ground for Donald Trump and the economic optimism he represents.
Try driving from Manhattan through the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania to Weirton, W. Va., and talk to voters who have driven from three states to join a grassroots “Trump Train” car rally.
It only takes about seven hours, but the journey takes you from the capital of Trump Derangement Syndrome to a place where people proudly dress head to toe in clothing with the president’s face emblazoned on it.
Weirton, over the border from western Pennsylvania, and Steubenville, across the river in Ohio, are ground zero of the deindustrialization of America. Rusting factories on the banks of the Ohio River give the place a dystopian feel.
When steel and auto jobs were shipped off to China, despair turned into opioid addiction.
But under Trump’s “America first” policies, steel furnaces re-started, manufacturing jobs began to come back, and oil and gas boomed. A giant ethane “cracker” plant sprang up outside Pittsburgh, with more to come in Ohio and, locals hope eventually, if the greenies can be stopped, in West Virginia.
This re-energized economy, albeit with a pandemic pause, accounts in large part for the loyalty many former Democratic voters feel toward the president today.
“I support Trump because he’s pro-life, he supports the right to bear arms and because he supports my livelihood, which is oil and natural gas,” says Ohioan Jason Laster, 44, a maintenance foreman for Southwestern Energy who joined the Trump Train in Weirton.
“I just I feel like he’s done great things for the country already. And, four more years, if we can get [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi to quit trying to impeach him, then I feel like he’s gonna do a bunch more great things.”
Ohio Hog farmer Ross Miller, 39, who brought to Weirton his farm truck festooned with Trump paraphernalia including two life-sized wooden carvings of the president, is confident of victory.
“He’s done everything that he said he would do when he was campaigning. So everybody’s saying, you know what, this guy did this for the first 3½ years. Let’s see what he’s going to do for another four years.”
A Biden win next week is not the impression you get from the anemic turnouts for the former VP’s occasional forays out of the basement where a dozen people stand dutifully inside social-distancing circles or in cars feebly honking their horns.
In fact, when Biden does venture outside Delaware, he’s likely to find exuberant flag-waving Trump supporters lining the route of his motorcade, drowning out his remarks with chants of “four more years.”
A Biden win is not the impression you get from the thousands of ecstatic supporters at airport rallies the president is doing up to three times a day.
The Link LonkOctober 29, 2020 at 09:57AM
https://nypost.com/2020/10/28/forget-the-polls-these-rust-belters-offer-real-election-insight-devine/
Forget the polls, these Rust Belters offer real election insight: Devine - New York Post
https://news.google.com/search?q=forget&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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