CommentsEASTSIDER-After recent visits to Kern County, the area LA Dems believe to be mindless “Core Trump voters,” it turns out that they may be country, but they ain’t stupid.
Most of my LA friends have a monochrome, negative view of Kern County as a hotbed of redneck rabid Trump voters. But the reality is more nuanced than the rhetoric. I will admit that whenever I go up to Tehachapi/Stallion Springs or Bakersfield, I usually turn the am radio dial to KERN News Talk (1180), and get re-acclimated by listening to Inga Barks, Jazz McKay, or Ralph Bailey. These folks make Rush Limbaugh sound wimpy, yes sir.
However, Kern County is changing. For instance, it’s is now one of the hottest real estate markets in the State of California.
Why? How about because the LA City Council and their compadres have caused houses to be so ridiculously priced that no normal person can afford to buy one, and those who rent are spending something like 40-50% of their income on that rent.
Kern is actually affordable, and economics have a way of taking care of stupidly overpriced areas like Southern California and the Bay area. As for politics, here’s a hint of change on the political meter. The Bakersfield Californian, of all newspapers, recently printed a piece called, “A Tale of Two Cities and One Congressman.”
It’s a good read, and shows that Kevin McCarthy, like most politicians, takes the money and forgets the troops after hanging around Washington D.C. too long.
The Troops
Anyhow, in Bakersfield particularly, the life’s blood has always been oil and ag. For a minute it was real estate, but after the economic disaster of 2008, their booming housing market tanked just like everyone else’s. It has not been good times.
Historically, they also had some darn good music called the “Bakersfield Sound,” and some wonderful kicker bars like the Blackhawk and Trouts where you could hear Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, and the like. Most people still know each other here and meet up in churches and at social events.
You also get to see your friends by taking a short car ride, unlike the 1 1/2 hours it takes to go 10 miles from LA to Santa Monica, one way.
Up in Tehachapi, the major employer is still far and away the prison, with ag running a close second. Soon there will be a Walmart, and there’s already a Home Depot, as well as a small hospital which will open “real soon now.”
The bulk of the people I know in both places have always been politically conservative, and to be candid, somewhat suspicious of those fast-talking bs artists from Los Angeles, be they selling politics or loans. Many came to escape LA, Santa Clarita or the San Fernando Valley. This does not imply that they are stupid. Call it distrustful for cause.
There seems to be broad consensus on a few things in the area, and I agree with some of them. First, they think that most politicians, particularly Nancy Pelosi/Chuck Schumer democrats, are selling snake oil and haven’t done a darn thing for working people in way too long. This strikes me as an acute observation, and inconsistent with the usual portrayal of Trump supporters as a bunch of closet Neo-Nazis and haters.
These folks are “country,” but that doesn’t mean they fit the media profile of “Trump core supporters.” They are working class people with significant pockets of very high unemployment and crime, and a lot of the jobs are dependent on oil prices and the various agricultural markets, so employment fluctuates.
Since many of these people were among the hardest-hit by the financial meltdown, they haven’t been too keen on regular Republican politicians either. There is still high unemployment, some really eye-opening poverty, and air quality that is actually worse than Los Angeles. As reported by the local newspaper back in 2007, Kern County’s foreclosure rate was three times the national rate.
The President
My perception is that the financial meltdown really made folks hurt, and faith in any political party ebbed. At least Donald Trump promised to shake things up, and by any measure he has done that for sure. He also talks more like the radio talk show hosts in the area.
Regarding the constant media focus on the President’s sexual peccadilloes, many people in Kern County tend to simply shrug. While the conduct is seriously uncool, a majority of U.S. presidents have, in fact, had mistresses or extramarital escapades. And after the five-year hunt to impeach President Bill Clinton, by all accounts at least as big a philanderer as Trump, we now know that sexual misconduct is not really grounds to impeach a President.
From a practical perspective, people here still focus on jobs. If immigration policies and trade wars hurt local agriculture, you bet it will be noted. And honestly, most of the people I talk to are still of the opinion that absent actual proven criminal conduct by this President, or anything else that could be grounds for impeachment, we simply aren’t there yet.
Another interesting observation is that I don’t hear much about “$15/hour or else” in Kern County. Opportunities to get a job? Sure. Some $15 guarantee? Not so much. One reason may be that there aren’t tons of those types of jobs here; another reason may be that the rhetoric that works in a big city isn’t the same in more rural communities. Face it, how we feel about our wages mostly has to do with whether or not we can live on what we make.
If you’re paying $2500 a month for your rent in LA, you need to make a bunch more than if your rent is under $1000 a month. The spread controls your thinking.
The Takeaway
At first glance, it would seem that you couldn’t find an area more at odds with the East LA Progressive Democrats, and on a lot of issues that is true. At the same time, I personally see a fair amount of overlap.
These republicans have no more use for the traditional republican top-down congress members than the progressive democrats do for the traditional democratic top-down establishment congress members. Both want elected officials who have lived and worked in their districts, know about their local issues, and will represent those interests in Congress.
We’re not a one-size-fits-all country, and that’s a good thing. So, I think that if our elected officials actually represent the interests of the district that elect them, we will all be able to figure out how to get along and work together. After all, it’s Congress, not the President, that makes the laws and oversees the Executive branch.
Here’s the key. While the visions of Kern County and LA may be different, disenchantment with national parties that only represent the rich and their own party’s interests is the same in both places.
If we can find common ground instead of whacking on each other, maybe we can change this rigged government of ours.
(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
