I live in a little red town in a little red state (Tennessee). It’s the kind of place where you seriously wonder whether your car will get keyed because of the Clinton/Kaine bumper sticker… where you’re afraid your house will get egged because of the Hillary sign in the yard (my neighbor threatened to.. she was kidding, I think). You know… ‘Murca!
Nonetheless, I’ve been trying to do my part by volunteering for the local Democratic Party, lately by working in the campaign HQ, when I’m not making phone calls, knocking doors, you know the drill.
As you may guess, it’s not generally a stressful gig… loneliest guy in town, ya know? But it’s been picking up here lately, especially since the first debate. Most of the people who come in are either (a) disabled and worried about SSDI (as am I) or (b) ex-Yankees who live in a prosperous retirement community down the road. (Go figure). They all hit the door positively railing about The Donald, though, so Yankees or no I’m happy to see them.
But today about lunchtime a fellow came in who, shall we say, didn’t match the profile. He was a big guy wearing dirty jeans and a t-shirt, all dirty and sweaty. He went over to the merch tables and started grabbing Hillary buttons and stickers. We got to talking and he mentioned that he works construction building houses, mostly. So I asked him, “So how many of your buddies are voting for Hillary?” His answer about floored me! “Well,” he said, “most of the guys I work with have never voted in their life. But they’re going to this year ‘cause their scared of what Trump will do if he gets in there!” I was surprised (shocked) to put it mildly. I mean, this man was the picture of who we all think about when we think the phrase “Trump’s demographic”.
If this is happening in TN-2, one of the most Republican places on the planet, where else is it going on? Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but this is really unusual around here. I’m choosing to regard it as a very hopeful sign… is Hair Furor really starting to scare these people, too?