The Spirit of Trumpism in a Small Town

I was recently spending some time with an older man from a nearby town that I've known for many years. I've mentioned him before in other articles. He's one of those old blue-collar types that really has only one religion - America. He worships the flag, troops, firefighters, and law-enforcement. When I first knew him back in the 1990's, he liked Bill Clinton and supported Gore in the 2000 election. He's lax when it comes to morality in terms of things like homosexuality and abortion and yet takes a pretty hardline view when it comes to work ethic, foreign policy, and the like. He's pro-union if that even matters any more.

But then as I've previously told I hadn't talked to him for awhile - more or less during the Obama years, only seeing him on occasion. When I started working with him again on some projects about 2015 I noticed a significant shift. He had become bitter, angry, and there was a racist streak in him that hadn't been there before. When Trump descended the escalator that year, he was all in and has been ever since. He doesn't understand what has happened to the country he loves and he's frustrated.

Driving around the small town (which I used to live in) we talked about its decline and its problems. He's been on some of the local councils for years and has his finger on the pulse of town life and events. He lamented the changing culture and how people are wound up too tight - lots of blow ups and shouting at town meetings, people coming in and screaming at the office ladies who run the day to day operations of the town.

In an attempt to clean up some of the problems at one point the town started citing people for zoning violations - junk piles in yards and derelict properties. This earned the enmity of one who continues to file lawsuits against the town government and can no longer attend meetings without a police escort. There's some kind of ordinance (maybe even a state law) about posting the agenda of upcoming meetings and the minutes within a certain time-frame afterward. One of the office ladies forgot and this guy immediately filed a lawsuit once they passed the deadline - literally the next morning. He has plenty of money it would seem and doesn't mind throwing it around in order to generate grief - he sues everyone and hangs up nasty obscene signs denouncing people he doesn't like. The growing use of obscenity in public has been noticed by many but everyone seems to be paralyzed. It's simply tolerated.

The town workers/public works guys put up and take down the holiday lights by standing in the bucket of a front-end loader (the bigger end of a back-hoe). Another man in town raised a fuss and said they were violating OSHA guidelines (which they admittedly are) and that he would report them if they continued to do so. The thing is they've been doing it for years and as we all know a lot of OSHA-related rules are ridiculous and prohibitive. Now the town is going to have spend a bunch of money to rent a bucket truck to get the lights down. Why is this man raising the issue and issuing threats? No one knows apart from he wants to show everyone how important he is and that he knows all. He's certainly no liberal - just someone on an ego trip it would seem.

In another instance a review revealed that a small back lane in town is in fact a private drive and the town which has been plowing it in the winter should cease from doing so. It wouldn't be right to spend taxpayer resources to plow and salt what is essentially a grand or extended driveway. The homeowner blew up, screamed at the office workers and threatened to sue.

In another instance, a local man who is also a well known Christian shows disregard for neighbours by piling equipment, construction materials, and debris everywhere. This is in town itself - in the midst of a neighbourhood and not out in the country. He has a kind of libertarian ethos and during Covid refused to comply with any of the attempts at mitigation. He bought another property, burned down the garage/shed without a permit or any kind of consideration, and he has the neighbours all upset as he's tearing up the yard - it looks like he's creating a new staging area for all of his junk. He thumbs his nose at local regulations. Sadly this has engendered no small degree of bitterness and cursing regarding his 'religion' and rightly or wrongly the label of 'hypocrite' seems to be commonly applied.

My old blue-collar Democrat turned Trumpite friend seemed baffled by it all. What's wrong with people? Why is everyone acting like this? They seem to act like everyone in the local government is the enemy and they can just do whatever they want and behave how ever they want - with no fear of the consequences. They cuss and scream and threaten anyone who questions them. What's happened?

I suppressed the urge to laugh in his face. I composed myself and said two words - Donald Trump.

He didn't make the connection and so we talked about how Trump has shifted the ethos of large segments of the country. These people are behaving just like Trump - another unfortunate consequence of his tenure. This would include all the filthy signs everywhere. My friend still couldn't make the connection. That in itself is something to think about.

In the meantime businesses continue to close down and the only thing new in the area are the dollar stores.