The Washington Post, engaged in an in-depth series on the angry American voter, had a reporter visit Macomb County to analyze blue-collar voters that support Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
The premise of their latest story is that, much like Macomb became a bellwether county starting in the 1980s as home of the Reagan Democrats, in 2016 it reflects a barometer of the Trump phenomenon. The Trump enigma has turned Macomb “once again into a case study of modern politics.”
Fair enough. Unfortunately, the newspaper’s attempt falls short in many ways and succeeds only in reinforcing Macomb as a redneck backwater of suburban Detroit.
First, the inaccuracies. The Post assumes that the Reagan Democrat phenomenon began 36 years ago, during the 1980 Carter vs. Reagan campaign. In fact, it emerged halfway through the Reagan presidency, in 1985, when pollster Stanley Greenberg engaged in a detailed post-election analysis of the Reagan landslide over Walter Mondale in Macomb County.
The Post also apparently accepted the ridiculous assumption that Macomb County has become a “largely Republican” territory.
A quick check would have revealed that the county backed President Obama by a wide gap in 2008 and by a narrower margin in 2012. The nearly even split between Republicans and Democrats in the county’s legislative delegation in Lansing should have been another clue. What’s more, the Democrats’ dominance of the five countywide elective offices for more than 20 years should have been a big hint.
Still, the Post also was misled into believing that Macomb acts as some Confederate flag-waving bastion of anti-immigration sentiment. While ethnic tensions certainly remain in the county, the newspaper fails to point out that Macomb was the first county in Michigan to sign on as a “Welcoming Community” for immigrants. Instead, the Post chooses to focus on a city council debate in nearby West Bloomfield over Welcoming Community status.
Newspaper relies on right-wing tea partier
How did the paper arrive at all these stereotypical conclusions? Apparently by latching onto a bombastic right-winger in the Republican community, Ken Matiyow.
Matyow is the top aide for state Sen. Jack Brandenburg, a Harrison Township Republican who is the only elected official in the county to endorse Trump. Matiyow was also a key leader of a hardcore tea party group that emerged in south Macomb in 2010, The Metro Detroit Freedom Coalition (MEDEFCO).
Matiyow
At one point in 2013, Matiyow lectured a MEDEFCO audience about how white suburbanites must hold tight to the Second Amendment because it provides protection against “generations” of black criminals in Detroit and against mentally ill people living in suburban neighborhoods.
Yet, Matiyow was offered up to Post readers as a fairly typical Macomb County guy.
Here’s the Matiyow summary of Macomb County in the paper’s story, where he conflates illegal immigration and legal immigration:
On immigration, Matiyow said, there (is) “a massive outpouring of disgust.”
… After describing how Brandenburg had helped turn Macomb County Red by pounding away on conservative issues and taking the territory back one house at a time, Matiyow concluded a riff on immigration by telling a personal story about where he lived.
For the past several years, he had been renting a place at the Village Park apartments on Dequindre Road in Shelby Township, not far from the (Macomb GOP) party headquarters. When he moved there, he said, “there was no one there from India. Now half the building is made up of people from India. These are young techies who have come to replace American workers. This is a real scandal.” The Indians, he said, all had proper documentation but were taking jobs away from Americans.
Now, the idea that an apartment building on Dequindre — defintely not an upper middle class neighborhood — is half-full with high-tech Indian workers is exceedingly far-fetched. Instead of presenting this anecdote as reliable, the Post could have checked and found that the latest U.S. Census estimates (from 2014) indicate that Shelby Township’s Indian population is roughly 1.7 percent.
Instead, they give Matiyow credence by relating a blow-by-blow description of his various pro-Trump reactions to the nasty GOP presidential debate in
Subtle stereotyping
Beyond the inexplicable attachment to Matiyow, there’s more subtle stereotyping in this Post piece.
The paper describes the Macomb GOP headquarters as located in “yet another strip mall” on Hall Road, “stuck between Buy Buy Baby and Long Tall Sally.”
The Post piece details the “unofficial bouncers” at the door to the regional Trump headquarters, two men in their early 6os, described this way: “(They) fit the Macomb County Reagan Democrat archetype — beefy guys who grew up as Democrats, once belonged to unions (United Auto Workers and Ironworkers) felt “screwed,” as they said, by various free-trade agreements, left the Democratic Party and were now all in for Trump.”
The Post also offers up a high-energy, 17-year-old Trump campaign volunteer from New Baltimore, in this vein: “(He) was into prime-time television, and his favorite show was ‘The Apprentice,’ which he began watching when he was 12. Trump had been an authority figure in his life ever since. ‘I have always looked up to Mr. Trump. I like how when he walks into a room, he commands the room. I enjoyed that show. He was almost like a role model for me. That show was able to convey his personality and charismatic appeal. I would like to become more like him.’”
Finally, the Post introduces us to another Trump campaign volunteer, age 63, who is presented this way:
“He had read many of Trump’s books, including “Midas Touch” and “Why We Want You to Be Rich,” and had taken courses Trump sponsored in real estate and wealth development. ‘I admire success,’ he said. Trump was his favorite profit evangelist, but he also was keen on investor Warren Buffett … and motivational speaker Tony Robbins …
“Was he rich himself? (He) had lost his share of homes and cars over the years, he said, and he had been ‘divorced twice, like Trump.’”
