With excuses for Trumpists, the press condescends

Without foreign immigrants, we will wither

Ever since Donald Trump began his run for president in 2015, the dominant attitude in the national media toward his supporters has been condescension, expressed through various excuses for and explanations of their behavior.

This same condescension has inspired outfits like the New York Times to send reporters out to rural areas like the ones around here, where they can pump the locals for quotes about how they feel overlooked and unappreciated.

The subtext of the stories is that these are upstanding folks who have been driven by hard circumstance to support a man who lies as easily and often as he breathes, mocks people with disabilities, rips off customers, stiffs contractors and has been credibly accused of sexual assault by a score of women.

Any blame they might bear for supporting this reprehensible man, the storyline goes, is ameliorated by their personal hardships and the uncaring attitude of the elites. They have been driven to this. 

That false and insulting narrative, which infantilizes Trump supporters and stereotypes rural residents, has been offered by the mainstream press over and over for nearly a decade now.

Just this past Thursday, a column by Sergio Pecanha in the Washington Post bolstered these stereotypes while purporting to pierce them. Pecanha discussed his trip to a conservative congressional district in Georgia, where he found — can you believe it? — nice people. He avoided talking about politics. But, in friendly chats with strangers on the street, he heard about their families and their dreams and their jobs and hobbies and other quite normal things. One man was even gay!

The column came with charming drawings to help readers get the picture: Trump voters are people, too.

That is not news, and only newspaper editors in large, liberal cities could think it was.

If Trump voters were monsters, they’d have an excuse for backing a man of low morals for president. But they’re ordinary people, and they have neither been placed under a spell nor living in caves for the past nine years.

They know Trump is vulgar and mean, racist and misogynist, a bully with dictatorial dreams. He is crude and cruel, and they embrace that. They want more of it.

What we need

Conservatives in New York have for years recognized the link between population and prosperity and used our state’s slow population growth, which dipped into negative territory in the past few years, to attack its Democratic leaders.

Taxes in New York are high, the cost of living is high and that’s why more people have been moving out of the state than into it, they argue. 

They’re right, and the situation would be much worse if it weren’t for foreign immigration. Foreign immigration, especially into New York City, balanced domestic out-migration and then some from 1980 to 2020, pushing the state’s population into modest growth.

The last few years have been especially rough, however, as the effects of the pandemic led to a population loss of just over 3 percent statewide.

Communities need a steady flow of young people for their energy, creativity and labor. When that flow decreases, the community declines, whether in a village, a state or a country.

Unfortunately, although New York Republicans understand the dynamics of demographics when it comes to their own state, they and other members of their party grow suddenly ignorant when talking about the country as a whole.

They think we’ll be fine — better, even — if we elect Donald Trump and JD Vance to do as they’ve promised and not only deport millions of immigrants who came into the country without the required documentation but restrict legal immigration as well.

We won’t be fine.

The replacement fertility rate in developed countries is 2.1 — that is the average number of children needed per woman to keep the population the same.

In the U.S., as in numerous other developed countries, the fertility rate is well below replacement, but, although China and Japan and Russia and various European countries are losing population, the U.S., because of foreign immigration, is continuing to grow.

If we decrease that foreign flow to the point that we, too, begin to lose population, then our country’s prospects will be grim — an aging population with a growing need for care that the country, robbed of its youth, will be unable to provide.

The Post chickens out

With less than two weeks to go before a critical presidential election, as one candidate talks about her plans and her hopes and the other spouts hate and expounds on the size of  Arnold Palmer’s penis, the Washington Post has decided to not endorse a candidate. The editor provided a weak explanation for this retreat — the paper is giving readers the chance to make up their own minds, blah, blah, etc. What a show of cowardice from the paper of Woodward and Bernstein! I await Mark Frost’s praise for this turn toward timidity on Thursday in the Chronicle.

A happy customer at a previous Repair Cafe holds up her mended chair.

Repairing

If you want to save money and get more life out of an appliance, piece of furniture or even a broken necklace, you can bring it to the Repair Cafe from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday (Nov. 2) in the Christine L. McDonald Community Room in Crandall Public Library.

Local volunteer repair experts participate in the free event, which is put on by Zero Waste Warren County and the library, with support from the Touba Family Foundation.

Repair coaches offer general fix-it knowledge and experience in woodworking, electrical appliances, electronics, sewing and textiles, jewelry-making and leather work.

Zero Waste Warren County is a citizens group dedicated to reducing the amount of stuff that gets thrown away.

“But above all, Repair Café wants to show how much fun it can be, and easy it often is,” said Tracy Frisch, one of the organizers.

The concept arose in the Netherlands in 2009 and has spread around the world. For more information, go to www.glensfallsrepaircafe.org or call Frisch at 518-692-8242 (landline).

Glorious

I’m sticking with my position that global warming is a bad thing. But, boy, has this uncommonly warm and dry fall been glorious.

It’s Open Pickup now in Glens Falls, meaning the city DPW crews will come around every week or so until Nov. 25, picking up the leaves and small sticks and other yard waste you want to get rid of, if you put it out on the curb. It’s a great service, although some residents, like this one on Staple Street, get a little carried away. The city requires that brush be piled separately from yard waste, with all sticks laid down in the same direction, and no topsoil, sod, trash or heavy materials mixed in with the leaves.

Big boo

The Boo 2 You downtown dress-up Halloween event is a great, fun community affair. Bella and Ringo and I stumbled onto it Saturday.

Everyone looks wary in this meeting on the sidewalk.

I’ve seen this pair downtown before, but never in this garb or showing their real (?) identity.

Is it a coincidence he’s standing right outside the bank?

Phones still draw attention, even in a throng of eye-catching outfits.