Trumbull County, Ohio, shifted 30 points to vote Trump. That didn't save its car plant.

[workinclasszero]

By Philip Bump November 26 at 1:17 PM

The story of the 2016 presidential election, to some extent, can be told by what happened in Trumbull County, Ohio.

In 2012, the state voted narrowly for Barack Obama. When Ohio was called for Obama on election night, his reelection was all but ensured. But four years later, the state backed Republican Donald Trump by eight points. That was in part because of shifts in places such as Trumbull, a perfectly square county near Youngstown. Obama won Trumbull by 23 points. Trump won it by more than six.

Why? In part because Trump’s pitch was tailored very specifically to places like Trumbull County.

On Monday, General Motors announced that it was shuttering the Lordstown plant, along with others in Ontario, Maryland and Michigan, by the end of next year. Trump flipped Macomb County, Mich. — one of those Midwestern counties that was seen as a bellwether for Trump’s pitch on the economy in 2016 — from blue to red. GM will stop production at its plant there next year, as well.

“People of the Mahoning Valley, and of Ohio and the Midwest — we have to talk about Macomb County, as well — voted for Donald Trump because I think they saw someone who was going to put their money where their mouth was on issues of trade and leveling the playing field for working men and women,” she said.

Cafaro compared the GM move to Trump’s late 2016 push to keep the Carrier corporation from moving jobs out of Indiana. It worked — for a short time.

“They may not blame Trump for it closing specifically,” she added, “but they will blame him for not saving it.” Blame him in the 2020 election, that is.

How important could that be? Trump won Michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes. In Macomb County, which Obama won by 16,000 votes, Trump’s margin was nearly 50,000 — more than four times his margin statewide.

GM’s stock soared after the announcement of the planned closures.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/26/trumbull-county-ohio-shifted-points-vote-trump-it-didnt-save-its-car-plant/

[beachbum bob]

1. with GM plant closures in Ohio, Michigan....we may see those states go back to solid BLUE

as it has everything to do with trump and GOP not standing up to him.


Another issue we may have to thank trump for

[workinclasszero]

3. They better

Any fool who actually thought ANY republican was EVER going to help out working men and women just got educated by Trump and the GOP, and that lesson is going to last for the rest of their lives!

Notice from the story that the GOP corporate raiders on Wall Street LOVED the news of thousands of high paying American jobs dying!

[Iliyah]

2. The con man

con them into voting against their own interest. Now, as usual with GOPers, Indies and others, it came back to bite them extremely hard. Do I have any empathy for them . . . . the verdict is still out knowing that the GOPs tend to steal elections.

[dembotoz]

4. Understand the desire to save ur job. But they should have known better

Factory worker trust gop??? Lol

[NewJeffCT]

5. Trump throws a lot of BS out there

and, hearing that tariffs and moving jobs back to America are going to work played well with too many of them. Most people don't realize that historically, tariffs generally don't work and often make things worse.

The problem is, "Tariffs on China" sounds good as a soundbite, but the factual counterargument is usually too wordy to sink in and make an impression.

[workinclasszero]

6. "Factory worker trust gop??? Lol"

IKR?

How damn stupid does a person need to be to believe that shit??

But...but...the fox promised that he was going to help us, not hurt us said the chickens/factory workers/soybean farmers in the hen house!

[dembotoz]

14. Don't think folks realized just how much a liar trump is

I mean we knew he was a fraud...
But his levels of deceit has surprised even the most partisan of us

[Hugin]

29. No surprise, here.

In fact, I believe his low still has a ways to go.

[allgood33]

7. Even though Obama bailed the auto industry out from going completely under...

I think they believed they had it made in the shade with Trump. They could stop being nice people because they didn't have to be to get what they wanted.

Maybe Trump will build a coal mine for them?

[workinclasszero]

9. That to me was the ultimate betrayal/idiocy

Obama saved the entire US auto industry when the republicans were screaming to let it die!

Democrats saved their asses and they turned around and kicked us in the nads for it!

Well now they will see how much the **cking GOP loves their working class asses! See you in the unemployment lines guys.

Oh and your friends in the GOP will be harassing you and drug testing you every second you are there struggling to survive, count on that!

[Botany]

15. "Obama saved the entire US auto industry ... "

But once they got their good jobs back the real nature of their personalities
came to the surface.

[workinclasszero]

17. Looks like it right?

Fat, happy and well paid once again, it was time to turn on the libs/gays/women and PoC.

People need to realize their hate will destroy them in the end. The democrats offered them a helping hand and got kicked in the ass for their troubles. In Michigan, Ohio and coal country as well.

Now these workers will see just how much the ****ing GOP and Trump care about the working class a lesson that should have been learned well decades ago, just damn!

[Botany]

18. They have been fed a steady diet of lies for years. I wonder how many showed up for Trump's ...

... "Bund Rallies?"


https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11478448

[LiberalArkie]

37. A quote from Bernie that seems to always sum it up

“For many years in this country you have had politicians, and I’m old enough to know this, who played blacks off against whites. They told white workers who were earning pennies an hour, they said ‘Hey, you think you’re in trouble, but you’re better off than the blacks who can’t drink at a water fountain or go to your school ‘” he said. “And they told straight people, ‘Well, you think you’ve got problems but you’re better off than those gay people, right?’ And they pitted men against women. They played one group off against the another. The rich got richer while everybody else was fighting each other. Our job is to build a nation in which we all stand together as one people.”

[ooky]

49. Fat, happy, well paid, with great health care

They had theirs, so they happily joined into the narrative "I don't want to pay for someone else's health care."

You would think they have learned how fragile their existence is, but no, they are fools. A lot of them are going to be very glad now that the Rs they voted for were unsuccessful in dismantling the ACA because they are damn sure going to need it now.

[workinclasszero]

69. Yeah they will be thrown to the dogs in the GOP

systems set up to harass unemployed people. I just hope the Trump voters remember they begged the GOP to destroy their jobs, homes and families so they took them up on the offer. DUH

I feel sorry as hell for the ones that didn’t fall for Trumps lies.

[Ohiogal]

8. I live in Trumbull Co.

I grew up here. We are absolutely reeling over this news. A couple months ago, one of the two hospitals in Youngstown announced it's closure after being operational for many decades.

I have yet to understand how anyone at that plant could be so brainwashed by Trump and his rosy speech during his campaign when he came to the Covelli Center in downtown Youngstown in 2016. It's a union plant, but there is a considerable number of Trumpers there, too.

I get that this is a business decision -- Americans just aren't interested in small, fuel-efficient cars, like the Chevy Cruze, and prefer to drive large mountains of metal that guzzle gas, and pollute the air, which is unfortunate. Trump's tariffs have done nothing to help the auto industry here, and a place that manufactured a product such as the Cruze with such a low profit margin seemed to be targeted for closure.

But Don the Con filled their heads with his nonsensical promises just to get their votes, and as usual, many sheep voted for him and against their self-interests. Now we have de wine for the next 4 years as Gov. and I doubt much will change here. We're going to see a brain drain like we've never seen before. The only good thing that could possibly come of this would be that Ohioans get smart enough to vote Trump out in two years. That remains to be seen.....

[DFW]

10. Good thing you said "possibly"

These people also all watch Fox Noise, which will inevitably find some hokey narrative explaining why this is all Obama's fault (or some such ridiculous message), and explain to them why they need to vote Trump again to make American even greater and bring their jobs back.

And they will believe it, and vote accordingly. These are voters who have not only been convinced to vote for their own firing squad, but willingly contribute money for the ammunition being used on them. We can shake our heads in disbelief, and try to convince them how wrong they are, but they will believe Sean Hannity before they believe any of us, and there is little we can do about it. They will come begging to us for food, and we will give it to them, and they will STILL blame us for their being hungry even as we save them.

This will not be an easy nut to crack. Facts are not weapons of persuasion that have much effect on people like this. They will believe Fox Noise and their favorite internet sites before they believe reality.

[Botany]

16. And many of the GM workers in Trumbell County, OH are and were very racist except for ....

.... Cleveland Browns and Ohio State Football players.

[Auggie]

44. Trump was the first Republican to win Trumbell County since Nixon. It's rep is Tim Ryan-D

in the south (Ohio 13th) and Dave Joyce-R (Ohio 14) in the north (both districts are heavily gerrymandered). The county as a whole leans Democratic according to Wikipedia.

And I think it's a stretch to label the entire GM workforce in Trumbell as racist.

[exboyfil]

32. One observation about the GM plant

They made Cruzes there, but the parking lot was filled with pick up trucks and SUVs. What gives? You would think the work car would have been a Cruze or a small GM car precursor.

[Auggie]

38. Exactly. It was consumer demand in general for SUVs and trucks that doomed the Lordstown plant ...

though why they can't shift some assembly from CANADA to Ohio is beyond me.

VW is killing the Bug because of slow sales. I guess Ford is or will follow suit.

My dad worked for a GM division back in the 60s and 70s. I was always amazed at the amount of non-GM cars in the parking lot.

[luvtheGWN]

46. There are some things that don't make sense regarding GM's decisions.

While more and more people are leaning towards SUVs and pickups, the Oshawa, ON plant has a sophisticated assembly line that can easily switch from cars to trucks. Some 2,500 people will be out of work by the end of next year, and it was only functioning at 1/3 capacity with an outstanding record of quality -- not to mention universal healthcare.

The Oshawa plant started 100 years ago, producing the McLaughlin Buick (my grandfather purchased the first one off the assembly line -- for my father to drive!) McLaughlin sold to General Motors some years later and became a highly regarded philanthropist. So Oshawa became the Canadian "Motown" without the music.

But perhaps Oshawa is in a better position than many of the US plants that are closing. It has a huge hospital, a university, a community college, and other assets which will see it through this increasing knowledge/high tech economy.

[Auggie]

47. Universal health care? Do you know if that's covered by Canada or augmented by GM?

Could be the story right there -- GM saves money because Canada offers health care.

As for Lordstown, I remember my Dad saying there was bad union/management relations from the day it opened in 1966. He didn't work there, but word spread among the GM ranks, particularly among salaried employees like my father. It was ugly according to what he heard -- no one at his supervisory level or beneath him wanted to be transferred there. Yeah -- late 60s was a while ago. But you wonder if "problems" still existed, or if GM management never forgot? If GM threw a lot of money into Oshawa, how much did they invest in Lordstown?

I'm very sorry to hear what's happening in Ohio. I grew up in that neck of woods -- knew Niles and Youngstown a bit.

[luvtheGWN]

54. Correction: GM "saved" money with the Oshawa plant.

Yes, because of universal healthcare, although I'm fairly sure the union negotiated for supplemental insurance to cover dental, physio etc. And the union also negotiated excellent wages for the workers, which is why generation after generation of men and women worked there.

But even Canada's healthcare couldn't compete with the plants in Mexico.....However, GM is not the only vehicle manufacturer in Canada. Toyota invested heavily several years ago, and Ford has been here from almost the beginning.
So, maybe the GM plant in Oshawa will be taken over by another, better managed car company. One can only hope that the same might happen in Ohio and Michigan.

BTW, an article in today's Globe and mail suggested that, even though the Oshawa assembly plant was easily adaptable to switching from sedans to trucks, the decision to close it was political -- Mary Barra didn't want to face the wrath of the wretched tRump if the US plants were closed and the Canadian one wasn't. And, just as the US poured billions into saving the auto industry (GM a huge beneficiary) so did Canada. And then along comes the tRumpian wrecking crew.

[Squinch]

57. But that demand is created and funded by an oil industry

that will become obsolete if cars become efficient.

No one was demanding them 15 or 20 years ago. Then a "sporty" car was a very small car.

This is an astroturf fad, and everyone has fallen for it

[Hermit-The-Prog]

39. tv flooded with SUV and truck ads

Advertisements work. 'Consumers' have been watching a barrage of advertisements for trucks and those trucks-but-called-cars for a couple of decades. Facts don't matter; profit margins are king.

What amazes me is union people voting for union busters since Rotten Ronnie.

[exboyfil]

42. Are people really impacted by ads?

I remember falling in love with the Buick Skyhawk in the early 1980s because of the ads (I graduated high school in 1981).

Well I graduated college in Dec. 1984, and i went looking to buy my first car in August of 1985. i remembered the Skyhawk ads and started there first. I also looked at the Chevy Cavalier (which is just a rebranded Skyhawk). I ended up with the Cavalier and saved $2K.

I thought the engineer who was making the same amount as me buying a Corvette was simply insane. He was really proud of that car though.

[Auggie]

48. No. People buy trucks because they want trucks. They are best-sellers.

The reason they're advertised so heavily is because it's a cutthroat business for market share.

[Squinch]

55. They want trucks because they think a truck makes them look macho.

I have a friend who is a landscaper. He went to buy a new working truck and had to buy a used one because the new ones are all geared toward weekend warriors who want to feel like cowboys when they go grocery shopping.

People want trucks because they have been told to want trucks. And they don't even realize it.

[Auggie]

59. Advertising creates a brand image but it can't make people sign on the dotted line ...

You are giving advertising way too much credit.

[Squinch]

60. If it can make people feel something they want to feel about themselves, it absolutely CAN make them

sign on the dotted line. If you think about it, there are very few things that we buy out of need. Most things we buy because of how we think they will make us feel.

I am guessing you are thinking you are immune to advertising, and therefore it is unlikely that it can influence the behavior of others.

You may be less susceptible than others, but I guarantee you that you have bought something purely on the basis of advertising, and most Americans are extremely susceptible to it.

[Auggie]

62. I've worked in the ad business for 40 years. I have practical experience.

It doesn't quite work like that.

[Squinch]

63. And I worked in it for 20 before I changed careers. In my experience, yes it does.

[Auggie]

67. You should have kept at it another 20 years

[Squinch]

68. Maybe I just did it better.

[Squinch]

52. Another observation: every time I turn on the tv I see a dozen ads for

SUVs and huge trucks. I don't think no ever saw an ad for a Cruz.

[BannonsLiver]

56. Americans still want fuel efficient cars

They just don’t necessarily want those made by American companies. I’m seeing more Toyota, Kia and Honda’s on the road than ever before. No Chevy Cruze buyer drops that car so they can get into a giant SUV.

[Demsrule86]

65. Ohio went for Pres. Obama with high hopes...but things didn't change much. My neighbors say

politicians come ever four years to Ohio...but nothing ever gets fixed. I can understand why they took a chance on Trump. I lived in Connecticut and knew what an asshat Trump was...tried to warn folks but...many are desperate. I lived in Trumbull for the last 12 years and recently moved to Cleveland area for a job. Hubs lost his job at Delphi last year and he had one interview in Youngstown. There are more jobs in Cleveland but now Parma GM and Ford are endangered here as well so who knows? This is much like 07 going into 08 with a volatile market and auto layoffs. Other non-manufacturing companies are also laying off... The Auto industry is important not only to Ohio but to this country. Once an industry is lost...it doesn't come back.

[onethatcares]

11. when do the plants close?

is it going to be in time for xmas or a not so happy new year?

[Ohiogal]

19. They are saying March of 2019.

[Hugin]

30. Just in time for the freshly sworn in Democratic House to take the blame.

Just watch.

Along with, "The fact there was a blue wave proves no collusion." <--- Look for it on Faux & Frauds, very soon.

[DinahMoeHum]

12. Womp womp suckers.

[Botany]

13. Many of the voters who voted for Trump from Trumbell County, OH voted for him because of 3 things:

Last edited Tue Nov 27, 2018, 10:49 AM - Edit history (2)

1) Racism. They didn't like that a n****r was President. Never mind that black guy
saved their auto industry jobs.

2) Hillary. Is a d**e b***h.

3) Guns. That b***h is gonna take my guns and if they do how can I protect my freedoms.

Trump voters at the time were doing finically OK and were lashing out because Fox News,
Rush, the NRA and their right wing Jesus stoked generational ignorance to a fever pitch.

[Ohiogal]

20. Spot on, Botany.

[Botany]

22. Fun fact in 2004 more people in Trumbell County voted by absentee ballots then the # of ballots ....

.... were issued. One of Ohio's problem is the dirty electoral systems have allowed the republicans
to retain unchecked power.

BTW tell me why 200,000 + voters in OH can vote for Sherrod Brown but then turn around and vote
for DeWine andcompany?

[DeminPennswoods]

25. Brown's a protectionist

that's why.

[workinclasszero]

21. Yeah

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Lots of "economic insecurity" as Fox noise likes to call it.

[llmart]

23. This is exactly why they voted for Trump.

I am very familiar with Trumbell County and I now live in Macomb County, Michigan. These three reasons are exactly why Macomb went for Trump, with racism being the #1 reason.

However, in the mid-terms Michigan showed Ohio how to make a comeback. Ohio will be stuck in some time warp until the residents see that the GOP has done nothing to help the state.

[underpants]

26. spot on

[Hortensis]

24. Learn by experience: Step one, experience. Step two,

understand the lesson of the experience.

Step three for hyperpartisans, who by definition "can be fooled all the time," repeat from step 1.

[C_U_L8R]

27. When you go Trump, you lose it all.

These voters should have paid attention. The same sad tale repeats itself over and over. Year after year. Trump creates nothing but bankruptcy and ruin.

[awesomerwb1]

28. Someone should start

running ads do expose the grifter: What he said would happen, and what is really happening.

[Lucky Luciano]

31. Womp womp whaaaa....

[NCjack]

33. Trumbull County: Sorry, there are no Trump victory rallies scheduled for you. nt

[LonePirate]

34. The media needs to stop framing economic anxiety as the force behind 45's voters.

The economy was humming along fine in 2016. Those voters were motivated by racism plain and simple.

[duforsure]

35. trump knew what he was doing to them

With his tariffs, and to the farmers and others too , but did it anyway.

[bitterross]

36. They bought the story of an known, obvious con man. Got what they deserved

I don't have a bit of sympathy for any of these people and places. Anyone with sense could have seen Trump was a lying con man during the election cycle. Why they thought he'd change in office is beyond me. The Tiger does not change its stripes.

[dalton99a]

58. +1

[Horse with no Name]

40. But you know who did save their car plant?

Obama.
Then they elected trump.

[workinclasszero]

66. Right

Now why would a group of people that owe their high wage awesome union jobs to a black democrat and his party do a 180 and vote for a white GOP well known lying con man?

I mean it seems very clear to me.

[JohnnyRingo]

41. I worked the polls there that year.

During the primary the mostly white precinct I was working was a harbinger of what was to come that fall. I would ask what party ballot they wanted and noticed scores of previously registered dems asked for the republican card. A couple of them asked me what party Hillary was first.

I missed working the election because I had a heart attack the Friday before so I watched the election on a hospital bed with a nitro drip and paddles on the table next to me. Good thing as it turned out.

The next day a young Asian male nurse argued with me that the union was the downfall of GM and told me Trump would fix everything. I'm a UAW retiree so that was my first stress test.

[workinclasszero]

50. Damn. This is what happens to people lost in the Fox/hate radio bubble!

"The next day a young Asian male nurse argued with me that the union was the downfall of GM and told me Trump will fix everything."

F***ing idiots! Trump is gonna fix you for sure!

I mean the GOP stands for worker rights, high wages and great benefits for workers right?

What the hell is wrong with these people?

[Moostache]

51. The answer is that they are dupes, easily manipulated by hate and fear.

There can be as much gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes as people want to make themselves feel better, but ultimately there is the cold hard truth to confront and come to terms with and that is this: these people, who voted against their own interests, in either a misogynistic fit of pique against Hillary Clinton, or as a tacit approval of the racist dog whistles of Trump are ALL guilty of sending this country into the territory we now find ourselves...

An incompetent, petulant child with no qualifications and no moral center to guide his decisions in charge of an aging economy and infrastructure that is ill-equipped to handle the coming realities:
1) the automobile culture of the 1960's through the 2010's is dying and eventually will pass into history completely, and
2) this sea change is part demographic (younger people not even WANTING cars) and part geographic (larger urban centers making cars superfluous) and part geopolitical (climate change is REAL, it is happening faster than anyone dared to publish even 10 years ago and it does not care if you "believe" in it or not).

As far as electoral politics go, I suspect that by 2020 we will be in the midst of a very deep and very difficult recession and that the GOP "plan" for such eventualities - MORE TAX CUTS and MORE DEREGULATION - will be seen as hopeless platitudes...the problem is that many millions of people are in for a very rough time and the blame will be misplaced and allow Trump to escape the condemnation that he so richly deserves...

[blueinredohio]

53. I'm also a proud UAW retiree and even though she said the union

was the downfall of GM you can bet your sweet ass she's a union member. The majority of nurses are union members just like teachers. Teachers in my red area are union members but this area votes republican by seventy percent.

[inwiththenew]

43. Do people still buy that canard that it was economic issues that pushed people to Trump?

If you do I have a bridge to sell you.

With that said, this decision from GM was coming one way or the other. They are following what Ford did last year. The American auto buying public has made it clear that it prefers trucks, SUVs, and Crossovers to cars when it comes to the Big 3. People just aren't buying cars like they used to.

"By 2022, LMC Automotive estimates 84 percent of the vehicles General Motors sells in the U.S. market will be some kind of truck or SUV. Ford's ratio of domestic SUV and truck sales will hit 90 percent; Fiat Chrysler's will notch a whopping 97 percent."

[link:https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/06/the-steadily-disappearing-american-car.html|

[beachbum bob]

45. don't forget all the FORD PLANT closures that were announced earlier

[pecosbob]

61. Having driven used cars and trucks all my life

Last edited Tue Nov 27, 2018, 07:15 PM - Edit history (2)

I can honestly say that GM has been making really, really bad cars for thirty years...there are a couple of exceptions, but it is what it is. This is not a slam of the UAW in any way, but of the corporation itself. So it's not surprising that they would discontinue sedan and coupe production here, because people mostly didn't want to buy their crappy cars. This really isn't just an indictment of GM but of the other 'American' auto maunufacturing corporations as well, if there is still such a thing as an 'American' auto company in the global economy. I also try to remember the fact that it was GM and Ford that made many of the trucks the Nazis used to roll into Poland.

In this case Trump is simply a broken clock. I shed no tears for GM, only for the workers of Michigan and those displaced by the factory in the first place.

[Demsrule86]

64. For you to have a used car someone bought a new car at one time...as for American cars. Toyota

has the worst quality of any cars...they don't even test their cars physically anymore but use computers and there have been some massive failures...why bash you own industry...autos are important to the economy and almost single handedly pulled us out of the 2008 recession.

[Coventina]

70. I'm sending them thoughts and prayers.

And this:

[budkin]

71. This is going to wreck Trump in 2020

No wonder he was so pissed today when asked about the closings.

[workinclasszero]

72. Yeah this and lots of ex soybean farmers

that are gonna lose everything they owe including their land to Trumps tariffs.