A friend sent an article about two counties in Pennsylvania that switched from being traditionally Democratic to vote for Donald Trump and how Trump capitalized on use of the idea of “hope” to appeal to the voters.

Here is my reply:

Such a sad story — angry, angry people left behind, geographically, educationally, vocationally, completely out of step with scientific and technological advances, world-wide trade, Friedman’s “Flat Earth.” For them, it’s a “scorched earth,” and in coal country literally it is.

They are so angry at what they see as an out of control world economically. And because they see themselves as victims of such a world, they have put their “hope” in The Flim-flam Man and may, like so many other Trump supporters, look for scapegoats everywhere — government, Muslims, media, effete elites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, journalists, etc.

They have to have someone, something, anything to blame.

They certainly have been exploited by greedy coal companies and other corporations who used, abused and left them destitute and for dead and, in that sense, they are victims. Somehow they couldn’t see beyond the mountains surrounding their towns. It has made for the perfect storm of resentment, anger and rage, due, I believe, to endemic trends and patterns such as lack of education, lack of ambition beyond what was right in front of them, lack of family encouragement, lack of vision, contentment with the status quo, gullibility to and dependence on the “victimizing” exploiters.

I will use my children as an anecdotal example of adaptation to a rapidly changing economic, technological culture as you could just as easily cite your children and their accomplishments.

Matthew has a liberal arts education in elementary education from Hope College. While there he became an All-American swimmer and an All-American scholar. He had been swimming competitively from the age of nine. He then got his Masters in Management and Labor Relations (a program rated third in the country) from Michigan State. He taught for six years but saw that the future was in internet technology and he loved the mountains so he moved to Boulder and got an entry-level job (because of his education and his ability to sell himself) and has continued to move up and adapt to that rapidly changing environment. He has changed jobs often but has managed to stay ahead of the learning curve. He is married and the father of three children.

Rachel has a liberal arts education in communication and art from Hope College. She moved to Phoenix, got a job in marketing with an office furniture company, rose to marketing director, left after ten years to start her own business in marketing and “branding” for established companies, government agencies, start-ups and individuals who are looking to do things like publish books. She is adaptable and stays alert to trends in business and knows how to sell herself and her talent to changing markets. She has become an ultra-marathon trail-runner having just completed a thirty-five mile trail run through the Navajo reservation near the Four Corners. She is married and the mother of two children.

Stepson Jim graduated with an associate’s degree in machine tooling from Ferris State University, following the mechanical aptitude he inherited from his mother’s family. He worked as a journeyman mold maker for two years and then saw an opportunity to follow his father’s family tradition in the military. He paid his dues in combat and now is moving up the ladder using his mechanical skills and leadership skills (inherited from his father who was the CEO of a non-profit corporation) as a warrant officer, an area of the military requiring both mechanical and leadership skills. He is married and has one child and three step-children.

I use these as examples only because of my familiarity with them. What we have in these examples are good core values coupled with education and insight to trends and the willingness to follow the opportunities provided by the trends. They have had their finger in the air to see which way the wind of vocational change is blowing and how their skills could be used to carry them in the right direction.

Has it been easy for them in the workaday world? No. Are there economic guarantees? No. But, are they the people who feel hopeless, angry and betrayed who are written about in the article you sent? No. Do they see themselves as victims. No. And are they looking for scapegoats to blame for any misfortune. Certainly not.

All three have overcome extreme adversity having endured at young and vulnerable ages the tragic death of a parent. Anyone of those kids could have flipped out and taken a nosedive in life. How easily they could have seen themselves as victims but didn’t.

All three children (now adults 48, 43 and 38) were raised in family and social environments that celebrated gifts and fostered achievement but none was born with a silver spoon in his or her mouth. They got what education they have through scholarships and federal loans (all of which have been paid back). Matthew paid for his masters with money he earned as a stock broker, something he pursued and accomplished as a young adult because he and his mother had fun playing the market when he was a kid.

What’s the point? Family environment, encouragement, goals, achievements celebrated at every level along the way, fortitude, government support and last but not least, some luck.

By the way, I think the same could be said for both you and me. We are early generation children of immigrants, we came from home environments of solid core values and encouragement and we have experienced significant personal tragedy along the way.

I will forever be grateful to the programs of social security, Medicare and Medicaid. Without them, my mother would have been completely dependent on me and my sister for her survival.

Now back to the folks in the article. Those folks are now, because of the election and the party in power in Washington, going to see programs geared to help keep them alive cut, slashed, trashed and burned. Their already poor public education system is about to experience further devastation at the hands of Betsy DeVos.

For starters, we have to realize that these people written about in the article are all God’s children and deserve respect, compassion and the help needed to bring them up to speed, to not only survive but thrive. The basic federal programs have to be secured just to help keep them alive, but then, the monumental task of providing opportunities that will foster true hope have to be developed through cooperation and collaboration between the public and private sectors.

We as a country have our core values upside down and backward right now — we want to slash people programs and reward the corporations which have shown no wisdom regarding helping those who would purchase their products nor the inclination to invest in the advancement of those very people.

Further, we want to throw more money at a military twice and thrice the size of the military of any other first world country and larger than all of Europe combined.

We want to eliminate environmental safeguards and ways to save the planet not to mention the areas of the country addressed in the article which are polluted by acid run-off from strip mining.

We need a time of national repentance and a major paradigm shift.

One last example. We have a friend who at age 74, through no fault of his own but because of an unscrupulous tax consultant, finds himself financially destitute and completely dependent on federal programs of social security and Medicaid.

What will happen to Chuck if the Republicans have their way?

Bob