For some Americans, Trump is lesser ‘evil’
barberton (United States) — For some voters, Democrat Hillary Clinton in November is the clear choice for the White House — after all, she certainly has more political experience than Republican rival Donald Trump.
But a trip through the American Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania and Ohio quickly reveals that for others, such logic doesn’t hold much sway.
“Like anyone else, I have my misgivings about Trump,” admits Alex Morton, a 67-year-old real estate attorney who voted twice for Democratic president Bill Clinton.
So, isn’t Hillary the natural choice? No, says Morton. As it turns out, family values matter.
“If she had been an honest woman, she probably would have left him when she found out that he was a philanderer,” Morton said.
“I would have had more respect for her if she had left her husband, but she didn’t, so she’s basically a completely dishonest person.”
In Barberton, a small town not far from Akron in Ohio, one of the key battleground states in the November 8 battle for the White House, there are certainly some Democrats.
Pamela Mignano, who is 61, unemployed and on disability, came with her partner Alan Buckley to the town’s Labor Day parade in
I would have had more respect for her if she (Hillary) had left her husband, but she didn’t, so she’s basically a completely dishonest person.
Alex Morton, real estate attorney
early September. “Mr Trump sucks, just like his hair,” Mignano said. “Out of the two evils, she’s the least.”
“Hillary pretty much ran the country when Bill was in office, because he was too busy out with his cigars and his (expletive),” she added.
Buckley, a 66-year-old artist who carries a gun, interrupts her to say, “I don’t care for either one.”
Mignano replies: “Me neither. We’re in trouble either way.”
This rejection of both candidates shines through in opinion polls, which show that a majority of Americans have a negative view of both Clinton and Trump, and in the struggling Rust Belt, where many have fallen on hard times.
In southern Ohio, which is more rural and conservative, many Republicans shrug when asked what they think of their billionaire White House hopeful.
“I wish he was a little more couth. If my husband did that, I’d be whacking on him,” Tracy Pierson, a 61-year-old cook at a golf course, said of Trump’s brash campaign style.
“We have nothing to lose to go all in a different direction,” she however added.
In this part of Ohio, the population more or less looks the same: Everyone is white, lawns are immaculately maintained, the Stars and Stripes adorns most homes, and sport-utility vehicles or pickup trucks are the norm, parked on gravel driveways.
Some Trump signs are on lawns — never any Clinton signs here.
Don Krepps, a retired construction worker who lives alone with his dog, is one who is making his support for Trump known.
Krepps says he has always considered himself a Democrat but now considers himself an independent. He has never voted in a presidential election, though he says he liked Ronald Reagan, the Republican president in the 1980s. But this year, he will head to the polls.
“Just because of Hillary — that’s why I’ve decided to vote for Donald, because I just don’t want Hillary to get in,” he said.
At his house, Fox News — the network of choice for many conservatives — blares in the background.
Why is he changing sides this year?
Too much crime, too many immigrants who come to the US and “kill innocent people,” he says.
The neighbouring town of Carrollton only sees a handful of crimes a year, but Krepps isn’t swayed by the statistics that run contrary to his view.
Krepps’s sister and brother-inlaw live nearby, atop a hill. Mary Madison doesn’t say much but her husband Jim says this election is the first time in his life that he doesn’t know who he’ll vote for.
“This is a sad commentary on us as Americans,” he says. —