Youngstown, Ohio used to be a Democratic stronghold, but it has since become one of Republicans’ most reliable towns in the Buckeye State, with President-elect Donald Trump carrying it by 13 points in November.
The Guardian recently asked several Youngstown residents why the Mahoning County seat — with a median annual household income of less than $35,000 and a 36.2% poverty rate (roughly three times the national average) — why their city was so eager to vote for a billionaire convicted felon who has publicly bragged about stiffing workers.
Brian Acierno, who is the owner of the Cigarettes 4 Less convenience store in Struthers, Ohio (a suburb of Youngstown), recalled how the town went from being controlled by the local mob to now having “a corner gang on every street” with people getting “shot and killed wherever.” Guardian reporter Andrew Gumbel noted that Youngstown used to be represented in Washington by former Rep. James Traficant (D-Ohio), who was connected to the mob and ultimately served a seven-year prison sentence for tax fraud, bribery and racketeering after being formally expelled from the House in 2002.
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A railroad worker who identified only as “Joe” said that Traficant’s corruption was secondary to his hard-hitting style of politics in which he eschewed the rules of traditional decorum to disrupt the political establishment on behalf of his constituents. He quipped that Youngstown residents had “the best politicians money can buy.”
“The Democrats and the Republicans are all a den of crooks. Only one side lies about being crooks, and one doesn’t,” Acierno told the Guardian. “If you’re going to be a crook, I’d rather know it than be lied to.”
Gumbel suggested that Trump could be viewed in a similar manner to Traficant in his ability to convey the image of an anti-establishment crusader upsetting the traditional order in Washington. Ohio Republican state representative Tex Fischer, who represents a district that includes areas south and southwest of Youngstown, said the president-elect was decidedly different than conventional Republicans, like 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
“When Romney came to Youngstown, he wore blue jeans and rolled up his sleeves, and nobody bought it,” Fischer told Gumbel. “Trump doesn’t pretend – here he comes in his suit and tie and gold jewelry, and people respect that.”
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Former Mahoning County Democratic Party chair Dave Betras sympathized with the view that the Democratic Party was out of touch with eastern Ohio’s working-class population. He lamented that his party neglected to address the exodus of blue-collar jobs from cities like Youngstown after the passage of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s, and noted that they failed to hold accountable the financial institutions responsible for the 2008 financial crash. He insisted Democrats now have to rebuild their brand from scratch to stay competitive.
“American voters have a unique ability to smell bulls—, and they smell bulls— with the Democrats,” Betras said.
“Most Americans think the system is rigged. And Trump shuffled the deck on us,” he added. “Not only does Trump say this thing is rigged, but he says: ‘I know, because I rigged it. I was part of the rigging.’”
Click here to read the Guardian’s article in its entirety.
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