‘Ugh’: Americans grapple with daily drama out of Washington
Across the USA, the dysfunction seems inescapable
Jason Johnson, a self-described “high-stress person,” tries to avoid the daily news out of Washington.
He has no Twitter account or news apps on his phone and doesn’t watch cable news. He even avoids talking politics with friends to try to keep his blood pressure down.
But when he checked his email Thursday, a headline flashed across his screen about an anonymous opinion piece in The New York Times that described President Donald Trump as reckless and amoral. Written by an unnamed senior administration official, it said aides worked secretly to thwart parts of Trump’s agenda and his worst inclinations.
“I saw the headline and thought: ‘Ugh,’ ” said Johnson, 41, a construction project manager in Miami Beach.
The chaos depicted inside the White House in the op-ed piece and in a new
book by veteran journalist Bob Woodward is reverberating not just in Washington but all across the U.S. – in places like Miami Beach; Denver; Fremont, Ohio; and Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Though Johnson is a Democrat and didn’t vote for Trump, he and other Americans interviewed by the USA TODAY NETWORK said they are finding it hard to escape the daily drama out of the White House. And though it’s too early to gauge the toll from the stream of bad news, the stakes for Trump are huge. The midterm elections Nov. 6 will determine if Republicans lose control of the House and the Senate.
Carol Bettam, 58, a nurse in Orlando, Florida, said the chaos in Washington doesn’t affect her day-to-day life, but she is terrified of the long-term implications of the increasingly divisive political tone and what she sees as dangerous precedents.
“The problem with the debate right nowadays is that it’s ‘You’re on this side or that side,’ ” she said. “There are two corners, and you have to go to one or the other. Where is the middle ground?”
Her son, Alex Bettam, 31, a construction manager in Denver, signed up for Twitter after the election just to keep up with Trump’s missives. Now, he’s ready to quit the social media platform.
“I start off every day in a bad mood,” he said. “I joined just to pay attention. Now I’m sick of paying attention.”
In Howard, Wisconsin, Steve Lasee, 60, said he hasn’t read the op-ed but has heard from others that “it’s pretty atrocious.” Lasee, a longtime Trump supporter, believes the criticisms are part of a broader conspiracy to remove Trump from office.
“This too will pass,” he said. “It’s just the show of the day.”
In Indianapolis, Danielle Diedrich, 19, wasn’t all that shocked by the editorial.
“I just feel like (Trump’s) whole (approach) from the beginning has been sleazy and just not really playing the game fair,” said Diedrich, who generally considers herself a Democrat and voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Patti Klingel of Marion, Ohio, said she doesn’t follow the news anymore because it’s too biased in both directions.
“One says this while the other says something else,” said Klingel, who voted for Trump in 2016.
She doesn’t like everything Trump says – “I voted for him at the time because I thought I was picking the lesser of two evils” – but believes there are signs he is doing a good job.
“The economy is an indicator that he’s doing his job, or at least someone in his office is doing a good job,” she said. “The president doesn’t do it alone.”
In Chillicothe, Ohio, Chasity BettsArcher, 47, said she found the op-ed “shocking and scary” in its depiction of the Trump White House.
But Betts-Archer, who said she doesn’t vote party lines but voted for Clinton in 2016, said it was important that Americans pay attention to what’s going on in Washington, even if they don’t like what they see.
“If you choose to ignore it, you’re just as much of the problem,” she said.
Contributing: Jeff Bollier, Green Bay Press-Gazette; Craig Shoup, Fremont News-Messenger; Emily Mills, Mansfield News Journal; Kaitlin Lange, Indianapolis Star; Michaela Sumner, Chillicothe Gazette
“The problem with the debate right nowadays is that it’s ‘You’re on this side or that side.’ ... Where is the middle ground?” Carol Bettam Nurse in Orlando, Florida