The last time Donald Trump was president, he travelled to Youngstown, Ohio, among the most depressed of America’s rust belt cities, and promised voters the impossible.

The high-paying steel, railroad and car industry jobs that once made Youngstown a hard-living, hard-drinking blue-collar boom town were coming back, he said. “Don’t move. Don’t sell your house,” he crowed to a rapturous crowd in 2017. “We’re going to fill up those factories – or rip ”em down and build brand new ones”.

None of that happened. Indeed, within 18 months, General Motors (GM) announced that it was suspending operations at its one remaining ­manufacturing plant outside Youngstown, throwing 5,000 jobs into jeopardy in a community with little else to cling to. Trump’s reaction was to say the closure didn’t matter, because the jobs would be replaced “in, like, two minutes”.

That, too, did not happen. People moved away, marriages broke down, depression soared and, locals say, a handful of people took their own lives.

“The Democrats and the Republicans are all a den of crooks. Only one side lies about being crooks, and one doesn’t. If you’re going to be a crook, I’d rather know it than be lied to.”

  • DancingBear@midwest.social
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    1 month ago

    They aren’t wrong. The dems keep refusing to follow through with their broken promises. People are fed up with the establishment. I wish they had a different choice than Trump, but the DNC refuses to listen to their base and keeps propping up neoliberal center right candidates who only listen to their donors.

    This is not the voter’s fault, it’s 100 % Kamala and the DNC.

    Almost as if the DNC prefers a candidate like Trump over an actual left of center candidate who will follow through with the economic platform of the dems.

    • ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 month ago

      They are wrong. The Republicans lie constantly about being crooks. They literally call themselves the “law and order” party all the time.

      It’s bullshit motivated reasoning by someone who doesn’t want to admit the real reasons they went for Trump.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      1 month ago

      dems keep refusing to follow through with their broken promises

      Dems have faced blockades from a GoP-dominated legi branch for something like all but 4 months of the last 40 years. Despite this, they offer a plan that can help and hope for the legi support to make it happen.

      GoP has been united in fucking over the 99% and lying about it; Every fucking time since prez Reagan.

      Blame the Dems, though.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      That’s called cutting off your nose to spite your face. There are a lot of things to legitimately criticise about the Democrats. But on every single one of those issues the Republicans are far far worse.