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On the Road in Trump's America: A Journey Into the Heart of a Divided Nation
An essential part of a journalist's responsibility is to listen, observe, ask good questions, and then listen some more. For too long, too few journalists have taken this responsibility seriously. This has been particularly true in the Trump era. Most political journalists failed to anticipate Donald Trump's rise because they are utterly unable to understand his appeal. From the start, they treated Trumpism as a pathology. They dismissed his voters as being guided by bigotry, ignorance, and fear. Needless to say, this has skewed their coverage.Worst of all, no one seems to have learned anything. The media malpractice that characterized the 2016 presidential campaign has arguably become even worse during the Trump presidency. Most of the media have remained unwilling or unable to understand and objectively report on the people and places that put Trump in the White House. When reporters do venture into “Trump's America,” they typically parachute in for only a few hours in search of evidence to confirm their pre-written narratives.Daniel Allott decided to take a different approach. In the spring of 2017, he left his position at a Washington, D.C. political magazine and began reporting from across the country. He spent much of the following three years living in and reporting from nine counties that were crucial to understanding the 2016 election; they will be equally crucial to determining who will win in 2020. This book is not just a study of Trump voters. Allott spoke with as many people as he could regardless of their politics; farmers and professors; congressmen and homeless people; refugees and drug addicts; students and retirees; progressives, conservatives, and people with no discernible or consistent political ideology. His one preference was for “switchers” — people who voted one way in 2016 and have subsequently changed their minds ahead of the 2020 election. Allot discovered that these voters are like an endangered species in Trump's America.Allott's goal wasn't simply to learn why people had voted the way they did in 2016, or to predict how they might vote in 2020. It was also to chart how their lives and circumstances changed over the course of Trump's first term in office, and how the values and priorities that inform their political views might have changed.The accounts will challenge preconceived ideas about who the people in these places are, what motivates their decisions, and what animates their lives.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
371 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 25, 2020
14 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 3, 2020
I really enjoyed this book. As someone who has lived in the coastal, white, intellectual city for all my life, I was very happy to find this book that details the lives and views of people living in places so different than mine and how our main stream media does not give the full story. Honestly, I was jealous of the author and wish I could have taken 3 years to go meet with these people and talk about their views. I don't see the author really taking a strong political view and try to be as objective as he can be (which is very rare as everyone knows). At the same time, I do sense a bit of his personal biases but he has managed to minimize it. Not sure who will win the election but regardless, the book gives a very important perspective of the US.
January 11, 2022
What the people think of Trump
Daniel Allott bravely steps into a political minefield with this book. Any discussion of Trump stirs up controversy, so it's brave to launch a genuine enquiry. The book's great strength is when it lets the people speak, ordinary people's unfiltered words, which at times give a real insight into their lives and true opinions. In everyday life everything is so often filtered through the distorted mirror that the media holds up, especially on the explosive subject of Trump, so it's refreshing to hear what the people actually think. The book fails occasionally when Allot tries to overanalyse what's going on. Although some analysis is necessary, I felt it got in the way at times.
This is an interesting but slightly flawed book in some ways. The author strives to be neutral in many ways, but doesn't always succeed.
However his chapter on the opioid drug problem in Petersburg West Virginia is striking and very strong. Here, the structure of his book works well. I was shocked when he showed how pernicious this drug problem has become in some communities away from the big cities. The toll the problem has taken is largely underplayed or ignored and Allott does a good job of examining it. He talks to several recovering addicts who tell their stories. He highlights how the strength of family structures, religion and support had been undermined culturally and how many politicians ignored the problem. It's one of the chapters from the book which will definitely stay with me.
Later in North Carolina he visits Robson County where many of the residents speak of the devastation that NAFTA wrought on their lives and employment. Swathes of jobs were moved abroad over the decade after the agreement was signed. Trump's pledge to look again at all this and pay attention to the people's plight earned him many votes after previous politicians had ignored them.
One researcher estimated that Robeson County lost as many as 10,000 jobs due to NAFTA—more than any other rural county in America in the decade after. The social devastation that followed is still very topical among residents. Trump promised economic renewal.
NAFTA is a telling illustration of how politician's mild words and lack of insight can make a huge difference to whole communities and thousands of people when close attention isn't paid to detailed consequences of agreements.
"The media covered Trump as a figure who went about sowing fear and pessimism. After all, he had published a campaign book called Crippled America. He warned that violent criminals were crossing the borders and that complete idiots had negotiated America’s trade deals. But to many of his voters, Trump the pessimist had paradoxically cultivated a sense of hope. This was in part because he seemed like a lone voice of reason, questioning a status quo to which everyone else was inexplicably and constantly paying homage."
Trump offered hope and change with his Make America Great Again campaign. The media derided it. The people especially those who felt they had no voice, loved it, and they still do. This is especially true in the sad America Biden and Co. are currently devastating again.
This whole book is a great eye-opener to explain why people voted Trump in 2016 and continued to support him.
At the end of Chapter 10 Allott attempts some conclusions. He discusses tribalism in US politics and although he makes some interesting points and attempts to be neutral, he makes some factual errors and the comparisons he makes lack sufficient rigour which spoil his arguments.
However, minor flaws aside, I think overall the book is very worthwhile and an interesting and enlightening read overall. Nearer to four and a half stars than four.
Daniel Allott bravely steps into a political minefield with this book. Any discussion of Trump stirs up controversy, so it's brave to launch a genuine enquiry. The book's great strength is when it lets the people speak, ordinary people's unfiltered words, which at times give a real insight into their lives and true opinions. In everyday life everything is so often filtered through the distorted mirror that the media holds up, especially on the explosive subject of Trump, so it's refreshing to hear what the people actually think. The book fails occasionally when Allot tries to overanalyse what's going on. Although some analysis is necessary, I felt it got in the way at times.
This is an interesting but slightly flawed book in some ways. The author strives to be neutral in many ways, but doesn't always succeed.
However his chapter on the opioid drug problem in Petersburg West Virginia is striking and very strong. Here, the structure of his book works well. I was shocked when he showed how pernicious this drug problem has become in some communities away from the big cities. The toll the problem has taken is largely underplayed or ignored and Allott does a good job of examining it. He talks to several recovering addicts who tell their stories. He highlights how the strength of family structures, religion and support had been undermined culturally and how many politicians ignored the problem. It's one of the chapters from the book which will definitely stay with me.
Later in North Carolina he visits Robson County where many of the residents speak of the devastation that NAFTA wrought on their lives and employment. Swathes of jobs were moved abroad over the decade after the agreement was signed. Trump's pledge to look again at all this and pay attention to the people's plight earned him many votes after previous politicians had ignored them.
One researcher estimated that Robeson County lost as many as 10,000 jobs due to NAFTA—more than any other rural county in America in the decade after. The social devastation that followed is still very topical among residents. Trump promised economic renewal.
NAFTA is a telling illustration of how politician's mild words and lack of insight can make a huge difference to whole communities and thousands of people when close attention isn't paid to detailed consequences of agreements.
"The media covered Trump as a figure who went about sowing fear and pessimism. After all, he had published a campaign book called Crippled America. He warned that violent criminals were crossing the borders and that complete idiots had negotiated America’s trade deals. But to many of his voters, Trump the pessimist had paradoxically cultivated a sense of hope. This was in part because he seemed like a lone voice of reason, questioning a status quo to which everyone else was inexplicably and constantly paying homage."
Trump offered hope and change with his Make America Great Again campaign. The media derided it. The people especially those who felt they had no voice, loved it, and they still do. This is especially true in the sad America Biden and Co. are currently devastating again.
This whole book is a great eye-opener to explain why people voted Trump in 2016 and continued to support him.
At the end of Chapter 10 Allott attempts some conclusions. He discusses tribalism in US politics and although he makes some interesting points and attempts to be neutral, he makes some factual errors and the comparisons he makes lack sufficient rigour which spoil his arguments.
However, minor flaws aside, I think overall the book is very worthwhile and an interesting and enlightening read overall. Nearer to four and a half stars than four.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews