"More Than a Feeling": Addendum

For folks who are like, "How in the world could this presidential race be in question?!!"

I know!

I don’t write for months, and then here comes a second post in two days. This one will be quick, though. (I know I’ve said that before and lied but this really will be quick…)

I just listened to the Tuesday, October 8, 2024, edition of The New York Times’ The Daily podcast, and it’s the most impactful Daily I’ve ever heard (and I’ve heard most of them). The Daily is the most-listened-to news podcast out there; Tuesday’s show provided a stunning a-ha moment for me.

I’ve never thought Trump voters—even the mega-MAGA ones—were bad people. Well…some of them are definitely bad people, but the percentage of bad MAGAns to bad liberals is pretty similar, I’d bet.

But the below episode, called “How NAFTA Broke American Politics,” explains exactly how working people decided—and still decide—to vote for Trump, his hellish intentions be damned.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: I guess if his intentions are already hellish then they’re likely well on their way to being damned already. You know what I mean STOP DISTRACTING ME GEEZ…]

Anyway. Why do so many blue-collar workers vote for Trump? Because his rhetoric sounds like (and feels like) he’d be more likely to keep what happened to Milwaukee’s Chancie Adams from happening to them.

I’d guesstimate that Chancie cares about his second-biggest political issue (if he has one) about 345 million times less than his biggest issue, which is finding a good-paying, secure job again—like the one he worked his ass off for many years to get at Master Lock.

I know the basics behind the North American Free Trade Agreement, and (although I’m far too young to have witnessed it myself, of course [insert nervous laughter here]) I even know how consequential its potential passing in Congress was to the 1992 presidential election between President George Bush (later known as George H. W. Bush thanks to his annoying son George W. Bush insisting on becoming president himself), Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and super-rich pint-sized Reform Party candidate Ross Perot.

Not to give too much away, but we can probably trace all our problems in 2024 back to New Year’s Day 1994, when NAFTA went into effect.

Of the three dudes seeking the White House in ‘92, it’s hard to settle on who the baddest bad guy was when it comes to NAFTA. But it’s clear who the good guy was.

Please listen and let me know what you think at dean@ceegees.org…