Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Stories from a Swing State (Part 2)
Yvonne K, age 62, was born and raised in New Jersey. She married a farmer and moved to Ohio 40 years ago.
“I feel fear about some of the liberal ideas — that they’ll ruin the country. The government is putting their hands in every single thing, from churches, to education, to banking. The government is growing, growing, growing and pretty soon we’ll be a communist state.
I don’t want to see the Democrats get in because I don’t want this to become a socialist nation. I’m going to be old and vulnerable. And things could get really hard, really bad.
The election has this high drama going on, there’s the jesters, there’s the people who come out in the middle with the comic relief. It’s like this huge big show. It’s a three ring circus. It’s stupid! It’s these intelligent, educated people just saying all these ridiculous things and ripping each other apart.
Trump didn’t seem quite as vicious as the other ones. He’s using a different tactic. He’s drawing people in with a magnetic thing that’s very subtle. Very powerful.
I don’t trust Trump, because the things he’s promising are the things in people’s hearts. Especially people over forty. They want America to be what it was thirty years ago, safe and happy and wonderful — except it wasn’t — although it was safer.
People really want to hear that and really want to believe it. They just want to believe that we can go back to the time when kids could play outside and folks could trust their neighbours. It’s the moral compass inside the hearts of men and women that is askew, and no one is going to bring them back.
It’s arrogant to say ‘I’m gonna bring America back.’ America doesn’t want to go back. America’s going where America is going and one person isn’t going to change that.
I really think Hillary’s gonna get elected, I really do. But I don’t know. It’s just that the Clintons have been building and building and building for decades and they’re still in power in a lot of ways. The Clintons and the Bushes are all in cahoots too, all in bed with each other. It’s insanity!
People don’t want an elder statesman. They want an entertainer.
Whenever something’s really popular, and it seems like “This is it!”, then you’d better ask the question, “Is this it?” People are all going crazy after him, waving their hands, crying out “Trump, Trump!” like they’re all heading down the river in their inner tubes. It’s the thing to do. If everyone is into it, then it raises a red flag and needs to be examined.
Economically, we are so in debt. These big promises from Trump — it’s like the guy you’re dating who tells you that you’re the one, and then he disappears, that’s sort of how it feels… I don’t trust that.
I don’t know who I’m going to vote for. I’ve got one day. I’d better figure it out.”
