[ExI] letter

SR Ballard sen.otaku at gmail.com
Sun May 21 10:44:35 UTC 2017


On Sun, May 21, 2017 at 4:15 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> Our view of Trump comes from the section of the population where life
> is pretty much AOK.
> Trump supporters come mostly from middle America where life is an
> ongoing disaster.
> The Democrats made the big mistake of ignoring the miserable
> conditions of life in middle America.
> Trump is a result of earlier bad government.
> Government needs to be for ALL the people.
>
> BillK

My view of Trump comes from the lower middle class. My parents have to
decide every year if they want to spend their tax returns on their
teeth, or on their cars. My parents couldn't afford a house so we
moved into an "RV" and I don't mean one of those fancy-pants
old-retiree ones either. I mean that it was meant to be lived in 8
weeks a year, for two years, and replaced. We lived in it for 5 years.
By the end we had no toilet, no hot water, no air conditioning, and
one working electrical outlet. Bugs crawled in through the hatch next
to my bed, and walked all over me.

Growing up, my parents were on food stamps for a while. I always
qualified for free lunch. I went on no school field-trips that cost
more than $10 my entire education. I could not use the scholarship I
got to a prestigious private school in my area because my mom couldn't
afford to drive the ten miles each way. One month in my childhood, all
my mom could afford to buy was a starting-to-rot 50lb bag of potatoes,
and so that's what we ate for a month, with odds and ends. Before I
turned 18, we could only afford to take me to the dentist once. I
received all my immunizations through government subsidized programs.

My parents pulled all of our furniture out of other people's trash. My
parents were too poor to buy me clothes and shoes, so my grandmother
thrifted them. My parents nor myself ever owned a new bed, but used
the ones passed down to us by other family members. Cell phones and
similar things were received in the same way. As a kid, we had a
computer because my mom was good with them, and would salvage
computers that other people put away. My parents never bought a
moniter, television, any tables or chairs. My mother never bought
dishes while I was living at home, other than tea kettles. We used the
plates she got as a wedding present until I used my birthday money one
year to buy her some new cups and glasses when I was in 8th grade.

We would go out to eat the first Tuesday of every month after the 5th
if we could afford it. Some months we couldn't afford the $15-20. My
mother avoided getting glasses that she NEEDED for almost 15 years
because they could barely afford to keep up with my fathers. My mother
darned all of our socks, hemmed all of our pants, fixed our button
holes, and sewed our pants back together. We had a garden because we
NEEDED it.

I remember as a young child, going with my mother to Church Aid
events, where we would have to sit quietly and listen to them demonize
my heritage with their pointed anti-semitism. My mother suffered it
patiently to get the bread and the canned goods. On one occasion were
we even locked in a room for a period of time, then prayed over after
the pastor finally arrived.

So trust me when I say, I understand the frustration and pain that a
lot of people in America feel. I understand firsthand the frustration
and anger of seeing a paycheck dwindle, or layoffs, because I've seen
what they've done to my family and my life. My parents are quite good
at budgeting, or we could have been in a much worse situation. I still
get extremely anxious if the cupboard is not full. A few years ago, my
income was $473, and my rent was $374, and my utility was about $70.
So I had $30 dollars left to buy toilet paper and food. Did I starve?
no. For 9 months I waited to get my approval for foodstamps (they lost
it in the mail on 3 seperate occasions). After eating ramen noodles
and poptarts, do you know how much I cried when I bought a can of
peas? When I had my first slice of bread? If you're not familiar with
Food Stamps, if they approve you, they'll backpay you from the date of
your application. So I had a lot of money. In fact, that foodstamp
budget was more than my parents (for a family of three) could ever
afford to pay on groceries. I bought about $200 dollars worth of
canned fruits, vegetables, and meats, and when I got home I couldn't
stop crying and looking at them.

I understand the frustrations that people feel, but I don't understand
why they felt Trump would fix that, honestly. I suppose they were
mislead by number and range of business ventures, or they felt that he
was confident, rather than realizing that he's an arrogant person.
People also seemed to believe that he was a hardcore Christian, which
surprises me, actually.

But at the same time, I don't feel there weren't great alternatives. I
enjoyed when I worked in politics and had planned to do so again this
past election. But late 2014/early 2015 I saw who was putting out
exploratories, and I sat it out. And honestly I'm glad for it.

Statistically speaking, we were probably going to get a Republican,
take that as you will. But why did it have to be Trump? I both
understand, and don't understand it at the same time.

-Sophia



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