The Washington Post sent a couple of reporters into Macomb County recently to talk presidential politics with the electorate and came away admiring the curious qualities of voters who demonstrated Macomb’s trademark refusal to engage in pure partisan loyalties to either political party.
Two Post reporters chose St. Clair Shores as a place in Middle America to conduct typical “man on the street” interviews where they engaged in conversations about the presumed presidential matchup of Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton.
Back in Washington, reporters and editors at the Post surveyed the results and focused on one particular voter.
Here’s what they wrote over the weekend:
The state of the 2016 race, in one quote:
“Trump is just insane,” said Joe Place, 57, a retired autoworker who is undecided. “I vote Democrat, but I can’t vote for Hillary. … I think she’s beholden to interests other than mine or the middle class.”
These comments from an up-for-grabs voter in an up-for-grabs Detroit suburb come to us from The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker and John Wagner, who talked to voters in the Rust Belt and Upper Midwest to see what could be in-play (perhaps a surprising amount of this typically safe Democratic territory). For our purposes, Place’s musings about whom to vote for sums up this race perfectly: It’s a race to the bottom between two very unpopular candidates. And voters are loathe to choose between them.
Personally, my favorite quote in the Post piece came from Julie Downey, 18, who works at a Mediterranean bistro. Downey said she plans to vote for Trump but she said choosing between the bombastic billionaire and former fist lady Clinton “is like finding the shiniest turd.”
The Post team descended on Wave’s bar and restaurant, plus other locations in the Shores, and found similarly ambiguous views on the two unpopular candidates for the White House:
Listen to the happy-hour conversation around the bar at Waves in this politically up-for-grabs suburb of Detroit, or to young parents taking their children for a stroll along the lakefront, or to factory workers picking up a 12-pack of Budweiser at the liquor store, and you hear danger for Clinton. Particularly striking is how many voters have reservations about Trump — yet are still thinking of giving him their vote.
Scott Vezinau, 51, the owner of Waves, said that Trump “kind of scares you” in terms of what he might do in the Oval Office. His wife Denys, 49, chimed in: “Like push the red (nuclear launch) button.”
Yet, the couple, despite their Democratic backgrounds, is leaning toward voting for Trump.
St. Clair Shores is traditionally a Democratic stronghold, but with enough ticket-splitters to potentially present problems for the Clinton campaign.
The Post piece was written within the context that the Clinton camp so far seems to be taking for granted a series of November wins in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In those three big, industrial states, the effectiveness of Trump’s message of economic populism and nationalism has surprised many Democrats.
The Post quotes Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn), a loyal Clinton supporter, who said she has been “stunned at the number of sane people” who view Trump as a wild card but lean toward voting for the real estate mogul because they “want to shake up the system.”
Brandon Dillon, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, insisted that Clinton has a substantially superior ground game in the Great Lakes State, compared to Trump’s unorthodox efforts, which will pay dividends. The Democratic National Committee, Dillon added, will come around.
“They know that a Democrat can’t win the presidency without Michigan,” he said.
Photo: Nick Hagen, Washington Post
