TURNING TRUMP
The media assault on the president could lead certain Americans to vote for him
GENEVA, OHIO— Dennis Dixon didn’t vote for Donald J. Trump.
He didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, either.
For the first time in his 46 years, the self-described “moderate Midwestern Republican” sat out a presidential election because he was less than thrilled with both major candidates. “I wrote in John Kasich,” he says, with a trace of humor.
Dixon stands in the showroom of Griffiths Furniture along West Main Street — a charming business district, its sidewalks decorated with grape-vine etchings to celebrate the produce for which this Ohio wine region is known. Heis not one of those voters whodoesn’t wish success for the president. Quite the contrary, in fact. “If he continues to stick to his guns and do what he is doing, I’d vote for him if he ran again,” Dixon says.
He may not have liked the candidate but he is “enjoying the heck out of his presidency.”
Whathelikes about Trumpis his determination on certain issues, “but he is also willing to show flexibility when it counts. That is the kind of outside non-politician behavior that attracted a lot of voters to him.”
He also is frustrated by the way the national press treats Trump in comparison to President Obama: “They really do not give him a fair shake.”
In fact, some of that perceived bias impacts how Dixon views Trump: Instead of pushing him away from the president, he is more intrigued by him.
Dixon’s opinion defies the conven- tional wisdom of national news outlets, which still seem unable to grasp that Trump’s supporters aren’t going anywhere for the momentandthat they view his approach to the presidency as successful.
The media certainly couldn’t believe there are Dennis Dixons out there — voters whodidn’t support candidate Trump but are now pleased by his outsider approach to governing. Enough to even consider voting for him in the future. The idea that someonecould go from a Trump skeptic to having an open mind about his presidency is unheard-of in their circles.
Certainly they have done enough to make every newscast, written report, blog post or tweet a breathless condemnation of every step he takes. They are shocked at how unconventional he is, while people who voted for him are shocked the political class still doesn’t understand that’s exactly whythey voted for him.
Dixon, who graduated with a dual degree in English literature and political science, has been in the retail business for most of his adult life. Ten years ago he was managing a big-box store and living in Cleveland.
“My wife and I decided to move back
to her hometown to raise our son because of all it has to offer. The pace is slower, the outdoor activities are yearround and that sense of family connection and community was missing in the city,” he says.
Both of them traded potential for high salaries, and close proximity to everything, for a gentler way of life here in Geneva. Thefamily-ownedhome-goods business Dixon works at, which has been on Geneva’s main drag since the 1950s, has countered the competition and lower prices of big-box stores by offering its customers a more personalized service.
“I can give customers the kind of service I could never give at the larger stores,” he explains. “Wehave customers who have no idea how to install a flat-screen TV; I go to their homes, get everything set up for them and make it as easy as possible for them.”
Tucked into the far upper-right corner of Ohio, Geneva is located in Ashtabula County, which is situated on the shores of Lake Erie. “Thirty years ago, the city of Ashtabula boomed because of its access to the lake,” Dixon says. “The ports were vibrant. So was factory work. It was the place everyone wanted to live.” Then the jobs started disappearing, and “where Geneva was becoming shabby, now Ashtabula was a ghost town.”
Today, neither town is doing great. The collapse of the manufacturing base has hit the county hard, so hard that its electorate has gone from a solid-Democrat stronghold — people here voted for Obama twice — to a complete flip in Trump’s direction last fall.
Howbig was that flip? They voted for ObamaoverMitt Romney by 13 percentage points—and they voted for Trump over Hillary Clinton by 19.
Dixon’s wife, a psychologist with her own practice, was one of those voters whowent for Clinton. Said Dixon of his spouse: “Oh, she is very liberal. Very,” he says, laughing. “Oh, the fights we have over politics.”
But a Washington Post-ABC News poll last week showed manyof Clinton’s voters feel the pangs of buyer’s remorse, so much so that Trump would triumph over his popular-vote loss to Clinton if voters had to do it all over again. According to the poll, 15 percent of Clinton voters would vote for a different candidate if they could go back to Election Day, compared to just 4 percent of Trump voters.
The same poll also shows that while 58 percent of Americans think Trump is out of touch, the Democratic Party is viewed as more out of touch than either Trump or the Republican Party. A whopping 67 percent of Americans think Democrats are out of touch — including nearly half of Democrats themselves.
“The problem, I think, with a lot of the media coverage is that no one lives out here when writing or reporting on the president,” Dixon says. “The national media just doesn’t get the people it covers. It didn’t last year. It still doesn’t. Is that a problem? I think so.”
His neighbors agree. In interview after interview in this northeast Ohio county, voters who supported Trump, Clinton or neither said they cannot find their views expressed anywhere in the national media. It’s not that they expect to be the center of the universe; they’d just like to enjoy a little slice of the coverage.
If they don’t, reporters and the political classes are going to continue to misjudge and misunderstand the nation they are supposed to be assessing. And that bias could influence certain voters to directly oppose the media’s views, just as it has with Dennis Dixon.