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FOR SOME VOTERS, Democrat Hillary Clinton in November is the clear choice for the White House – after all, she certainly has more political experience than Republican rival Donald Trump.
But a trip through the American Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania and Ohio quickly reveals that for others, such logic doesn’t hold much sway.
“Like anyone else, I have my misgivings about Trump,” admits Alex Morton, a 67-year-old real estate lawyer who voted twice for Democratic president Bill Clinton.
So, isn’t Hillary the natural choice? No, says Morton. As it turns out, family values matter.
“If she had been an honest woman, she probably would have left him when she found out that he was a philanderer,” Morton said.
I would have had more respect for her if she had left her husband, but she didn’t, so she’s basically a completely dishonest person.
Key battleground
In Barberton, a small town not far from Akron in Ohio, one of the key battleground states in the 8 November battle for the White House, there are certainly some Democrats.
Pamela Mignano, who is 61, unemployed and on disability, came with her partner Alan Buckley to the town’s Labour Day parade in early September.
“Mr Trump sucks, just like his hair,” Mignano said. “Out of the two evils, she’s the least.”
“Hillary pretty much ran the country when Bill was in office, because he was too busy out with his cigars and his whores,” she added.
Buckley, a 66-year-old artist who carries a gun, interrupts her to say, “I don’t care for either one.”
Mignano replies: “Me neither. We’re in trouble either way.”
This rejection of both candidates shines through in opinion polls, which show that a majority of Americans have a negative view of both Clinton and Trump, and in the struggling Rust Belt, where many have fallen on hard times.
In southern Ohio, which is more rural and conservative, many Republicans shrug when asked what they think of their billionaire White House hopeful.
“I wish he was a little more couth. If my husband did that, I’d be whacking on him,” Tracy Pierson, a 61-year-old cook at a golf course, said of Trump’s brash campaign style.
“We have nothing to lose to go all in a different direction,” she however added.
Gloomy mood
In this part of Ohio, the population more or less looks the same: Everyone is white, lawns are immaculately maintained, the Stars and Stripes adorns most homes, and SUVs or pickup trucks are the norm, parked on gravel driveways.
Some Trump signs are on lawns – there are never any Clinton signs here.
Don Krepps, a retired construction worker who lives alone with his dog, is one who is making his support for Trump known.
Krepps says he has always considered himself a Democrat but now considers himself an independent. He has never voted in a presidential election, though he says he liked Ronald Reagan, the Republican president in the 1980s. But this year, he will head to the polls.
“Just because of Hillary – that’s why I’ve decided to vote for Donald, because I just don’t want Hillary to get in,” he told AFP.
At his house, Fox News – the network of choice for many conservatives – blares in the background.
Why is he changing sides this year?
Too much crime, too many immigrants who come to the US and “kill innocent people” he says.
The neighbouring town of Carrollton only sees a handful of crimes a year, but Krepps isn’t swayed by the statistics that run contrary to his view.
Krepps’s sister and brother-in-law live nearby, atop a hill. Mary Madison doesn’t say much but her husband Jim says this election is the first time in his life that he doesn’t know who he’ll vote for.
“This is a sad commentary on us as Americans,” he says.
Jim Madison doesn’t believe in Trump but he is angry about what he sees as Democratic President Barack Obama’s costly health care reform – and by extension he blames Clinton.
In Steubenville, Marc Barnes, a 23-year-old professor of philosophy, says he finds the whole campaign rather comical.
“It’s like the two people that no one would want at a party decided to run for president, and the nation is looking on awkwardly, wishing they would leave the room, but they won’t,” Barnes said.
Barnes, who is a staunch Catholic, supported Clinton’s one-time rival Bernie Sanders but says he cannot vote for Clinton because she is pro-choice on the issue of abortion.
Pulling no punches
He says he may consider a third-party candidate.
In town after town in the Rust Belt, the story is the same: people pull no punches in criticising the former secretary of state and first lady.
Liar and criminal are among the choice terms they call her. Complaints about her use of a private email server while secretary of state, and her handling of the deadly attack on the US mission in Benghazi are common. Sometimes, people use more vulgar language.
“Lard-ass bi**h. She should be in prison,” said Milan Davich, 66, in Central Park in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a onetime Democratic stronghold.
“One’s a crook and the other one’s a bragger,” said the retiree, who nevertheless plans to vote for Trump.
This country is full of morons, Americans are getting dumber by the day. Because all they want to do is look at their cellphones, and search for Pokemons – they’re just silly. All they want is to see what their friends ate for dinner on the internet.
Even Democrats are less than excited about Clinton.
Ryan Arnold, 29, a stay-at-home mother, loves Obama and was going to vote for Clinton.
But, she says, “all that stuff came out in the media” – and now she doesn’t plan to vote at all.
The father of her child, Raymond Garcia, offers a grim summary: “I think we’re screwed either way.”
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When is the film version of this story coming out?
@Alex Falcone: at the rate this story is getting milked, it will be a trilogy
It’s a sad state of affairs when an ordinary good deed gets such media coverage not once but twice. Talk about flogging a story to death.
@Pablo: “and what about the tiresome cynicism back home by Some?”
Welcome to the comment section of the journal
Tyresome I see what you did there
It’s been a GoodYear for these type of stories
Deadly act of kindness completely overcooked and personified by the self praising “we’re better than England” bollox that came with it.
Fairplay lads
Tbh, id like to think if most ordinary joes had come across elderly people trying to change their flat tyre, wouldnt hesitate to help out.
Now fair play but its not exactly jumping on top of a suicide bomber to muffle the bomb blast to save everyone.
More than a bit cringing to bring english fans into it? Best fans in the world, did you know that?
Sat in key West with an Irish family and to be fair it’s a pleasure to be Irish.. They are manic but fun and friendly plus living life.. Proud to be Irish
This is more self congratulatory than the IFTAs.
The difference between Irish and English fans – nobody scapegoats Irish fans for violence even when they suffer uprovoked attacks.
Hardly unprovoked, English fans have a history of violence at these tournaments, the last time they were in Marseille they attacked the locals so violence was predicted. I’d have more respect for them if they took their beatings on the chin but their still shocked and amazed at how a team like Iceland managed to beat them on the pitch and still crying about been beat at their own game of hooliganism off it.
Then you clearly aren’t familiar with how hooliganism is dealt with here. Our ‘ultras’ are all known to the authorities and typically have their passports confiscated before major tournaments. The fans who were left in comas after being beaten with chairs and iron bars were precisely that – ordinary fans. NOT hooligans. Neither were the fans who were attacked by local French gangs in Marseilles – you might react badly too if some local yobs attacked you purely for wearing Ireland shirts. It’s also pretty clear the French authorites were extremely slapdash in their handling – remind us who allowed Russian ultras to smuggle a FLARE GUN into a packed stadium?
Harry… The fact that hooliganism is dealt with says it all…
Does it though? If the UK spent a load of money and effort into dealing with England’s hooliganism, it says more about other countries’ willingness to attribute blame even when the actual evidence suggests England fans were not acting without provocation.
Provocation? They don’t have to fight you know…. They are generally grown adults….
As I said to Phil, think (realistically, mind) how you might react if some local yobbos start attacking you as you were sat outside having a drink with friends/family. I’m sure it’s mighty comfy preaching from that high horse of yours.
I don’t know about you but I’d do a runner
I thought the country was broke ?
We really need to grow up, in this country, all this need to be liked and thought of as `great craic`, and the `best fans in the world`, borefest at best, smacks of inferiority complex and narcissistic navel gazing. Newsflash; The rest of the world do go about thinking and talking about ` how great the Irish soccer fans are because they changed someone`s tyre`. People have important and interesting things to think about.
‘We all had a drink in our hand’ – how typically Irish and further driving home the stereotype….
The behavior of our fans does more for tourism to this country than money ever could.
have your say