Give Trump a chance, backers say
Editor’s note: Today’s story marks the fourth in a series examining how Ohioans in key voting areas feel now about their 2016 presidential election decision.
CHILLICOTHE — Christina Ramsey stands along Paint Street, waiting for husband Bruce while clutching a clear plastic box jammed full of his amber-tinted prescription vials.
Change has been elusive, a long time coming for the Ramseys. Now that it’s arrived, it’s the opposite of what they had hoped.
Health issues have forced Bruce Ramsey into an unwanted early retirement after 36 years pumping out paper products at the Glatfelter mill. His wife hopes he will be granted Social Security disability benefits to help them keep their newly purchased mobile home.
“All we ever wanted was to get ahead a little bit, for him to get back a little bit of what he deserves, a middle-class guy who has worked hard, worked forever,” says Christina Ramsey, a 49-year-old mother of five.
Change — that’s why the Ramseys were among the Trump voters who flipped this traditional Democratic-dominated city in south central Ohio from blue to red in last fall’s presidential election. And, it wasn’t even close. In 2012, Chillicothe voters backed Democrat Barack Obama for a second presidential term by 9 percentage points over Republican Mitt Romney.
Last fall, blue-collar Chillicothe reversed political course, rejecting Democrat Hillary Clinton and giving Republican Donald Trump a 6-point win — nearly matching his 8 percent statewide margin.
The Ross County seat is emblematic of many southern and eastern Ohio counties that went from blue to red in 2016.
With perhaps some misgivings over the new president’s hyperactive Twitter account, Chillicothe Trump voters are standing by their man amid an out-of-the-gate performance rife with controversy and criticism, interviews show. (The interviews occurred before revelations about Trump’s apparent disclosure of highly classified information to Russian diplomats and a memo written by the fired FBI director indicating that Trump asked him to back off the investigation of former national security Richard Walker fishes in Yoctangee Park in Chillicothe, wishing critics would give Donald Trump room to lead. adviser Michael Flynn.)
“I figured we definitely need change” after eight years of Obama in the White House, Christina Ramsey said. Her family, she said, has not shared in any economic gains that would make their lives easier.
“He does need to shake things up. We’re with him,” she said of Trump. “Give him a chance.”
At Yoctangee Park, Richard Walker flicks his fishing line into the lake, periodically reeling in small largemouth bass. He wears a U.S. Army ball cap proclaiming his service as an infantryman.
His was a simple ballotbooth choice.
“I don’t vote for traitors,” he said of Clinton. “If they would leave Mr. Trump alone, he could do what he said he would do. Let him run the country, get some changes done for the better.”
Walker, 54, who manufactures display cases, is counting on Trump to insist on legal immigration, pump up the economy and “restore fighting spirit to our military and let them do their job.”
Columbus native Greg Fahnestock, 44, mans his hot dog cart, the Haute Doggerie, in the heart of downtown Chillicothe, hoping that people have a few more bucks to spend on his gourmet dogs this season.
He’s a Trump man. “I thought he would bring fresh ideas into Washington. He’s not a politician. He has business sense,” Fahnestock said.
It’s too early, even amid all the turmoil, to grade Trump, he said. “A lot of people were just ready for change. Give him a chance.
“I wish, though, he would stay off Twitter. He causes himself more headaches than he needs.”
Doug Mallow, 54, a retired sheriff’s office records clerk, typically is a third-party voter, but he went with Trump last fall.
“I thought it was time for a change,” he said. “So far, I give him a good approval rating. I know he’s had some
miscues, but all presidents have that in their first year.”
Jim Hatfield, 75, a retired Postal Service driver, acknowledged Trump’s early bumps but said, “I’d give him a B-plus. It’s a learning curve. He’s headed the right way. Now, if only he can get some support on the left.”
Hatfield likes Trump’s proposed tax plan, immigration crackdown and move to bolster the military.
Hatfield was surprised that Trump won, but added: “I think the Christian people spoke.”
Trump wrested Chillicothe away from the Democrats in the presidential race, but members of the losing party see themselves as but a temporarily vanquished force in this Appalachian city that has a Democratic mayor and city council. The disappointed Clinton voters are banking on a Democratic takeover of the U.S. House in the 2018 midterm elections to serve as a check on Trump and lead to a denial of any second Trump term in 2020.
Bob Etling, 67, a retired records manager from the one-time Piketon uraniumenrichment plant; Bill Hirsch, 70, a bed-and-breakfast owner; and Deidra Nickerson, 52, a landscape designer and gardener, compare critiques over cups of coffee. The Trump reviews are stinging.
“Trump is irrational. He doesn’t understand government and protocol. He doesn’t understand how his behavior impacts the world,” Etling said.
Hirsch added, “It’s a little scary. You don’t know what the guy is going to do,” pointing to Trump’s dismissal of FBI Director James Comey on May 9 amid an investigation of any Trump campaign ties to Russia. “There is an awful strange Russian connection ... and what scares me more than anything is trying to shut down the press. That’s the first step in a dictatorial regime.”
Nickerson even trots out the “H” word. “I don’t trust Trump. I think he’s a megalomaniac. He’s Hitleresque. He changes whatever truth he wants to and throws people under the bus. He’s high on power. He scares me.”
Tyrone Cunningham, 42, who flips abandoned storage-unit contents he buys at auctions, never has been big on voting. He doesn’t see how his vote, or the person in the Oval Office, ultimately makes much difference.
Trump, though, could well lure him into casting a vote in 2020 — against the incumbent.
“He’s a celebrity, not a president. Nothing he’s doing is right. He’s in it for himself and his ego.”