Fishtown and Belmont are the names that Charles Murray gave to his two representative communities in Coming Apart, The State of White America, 1960 – 2010, in which he described the growing divide between middle-class and not-so-middle-class whites. And Rod Dreher uses this terminology in a compelling essay, “Trump: Fishtown’s Champion Against Belmont“, at the site The American Conservative, which I’m unfamiliar with but was linked to by realclearpolicy.com.
This is a compelling essay. Why do we say, “it’s preposterous for anyone to imagine voting for Trump” and find it incomprehensible that he has so many supporters? Because, Dreher says, we’re from Belmont.
Here’s one excerpt.
Late the other night, we got a text from a woman we know. She is one of the working poor, white, and older. She is a good-hearted woman who works very hard. She came into work one day for a friend of mine. Her hand was swollen, and probably broken. She didn’t have the money to go to the doctor. My friend offered to pay for it, but the woman wouldn’t take it. She was too proud to take charity. She went to work. With a broken hand. My friend was moved to tears by her dignity, and begged her to go to the doctor, to not worry about the cost. It did no good. . . .
I have no idea who this lady is supporting for president, or if she even votes. But I would bet you what’s in my wallet that to the extent that she is engaged at all in politics, she’s voting Trump. Because she would be voting her desperation. . . .
What does Jeb Bush have to offer her? Or Marco Rubio? Or Ted Cruz? Frankly, I don’t think that Donald Trump has much to offer her either (as J.D. Vance grasps), but he at least sees her, or appears to. That’s not nothing.
Go read the whole thing (and come back here after and tell me what you think)!
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