In the first chapter of the Old Testament, in an exchange between God and Adam’s second son Cain, God asks Cain the whereabouts of his brother Abel.
Cain replies: “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” It’s a perennial question and a forthright one, and it’s been resonating lately with Joe Simitian, a supervisor in Santa Clara County and a former state legislator.
“Until and unless we provide meaningful work with a livable wage, and then educate American workers to do it, we have no hope of pulling together as one nation, united by a common vision and value: opportunity for all,” Mr. Simitian wrote in an Oct. 18 op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle.
He was writing about a spring listening tour of three economically depressed counties — in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Majorities there had voted for Barack Obama in past presidential elections, but chose Donald Trump in November 2016. Mr. Simitian wanted to know why.
At his own expense, and with insights gathered from news clips and books such as “White Working Class,” by Joan C. Williams, “Hillbilly Elegy,” by J. D. Vance, and “The Politics of Resentment,” by Katherine J. Cramer, Mr. Simitian traveled east. He went not as a politician and not as a reporter, though he says he felt like one at times.
Mr. Simitian will be visiting Menlo Park at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, at the City Council Chambers at 701 Laurel St. to talk about what he learned. Admission to “Listening to Trump’s America: Bridging the Divide” is free, but registration is required. His talk has drawn overflow crowds in Palo Alto, Los Altos and the Commonwealth Club, he said.
Left behind
His accommodations while traveling included places like the Holiday Inn Express. His get-togethers tended to happen in diners. And he introduced himself by writing ahead. “Hi. I’m an elected official in California and I’d just like to drop in and have a conversation,” he’d write. To which he sometimes received replies like this one: “You’re who, from where?” His enterprise occasionally felt like a come-on in a Nigerian email scam, he said.
He found himself a long way from home. In Palo Alto, according to figures from the 2015 U.S. Census update, 80 percent of the residents have college degrees. In Robeson County, North Carolina, that number is 13 percent; it’s 19 percent in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, and 23 percent in Macomb County, Michigan.
The residents of these counties, those who didn’t leave, have endured decades of economic deprivation, Mr. Simitian noted. Local industries such as textiles (in North Carolina) and mining and steel-making (in Pennsylvania) are long gone, and auto production (in Michigan) has faded, he said.
But with just one exception, “people were incredibly welcoming, hungry to be heard,” Mr. Simitian said, and more than willing to share their points of view, their perspectives, their life experiences. They were really glad, he said, to receive someone who wanted to understand what happened in the election and why.
Robeson County, North Carolina, voted for a Democrat in every presidential election since 1988, according to the website PoliticsNC. Mr. Trump’s victory in 2016 reflected an employment situation that is “low pay and no say,” and that “no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to get ahead,” Mr. Simitian said, recalling conversations in his op-ed.
Robeson County voted for Mr. Trump 51 percent to 46 percent.
During his campaign, Mr. Trump visited Johnstown in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, which voted for a Democrat in every presidential election since 2004. “We are going to put your miners back to work and your steel workers back to work,” Mr. Trump said, according to an MSNBC archive. Mr. Simitian questioned residents as to their take on his pledge. “Sir, false hope is better than no hope at all,” he recalled one person saying.
Mr. Trump won in Cambria County with 48.5 percent to 47.85 percent for Hillary Clinton.
At a community college in Macomb County, Michigan, which twice helped elect Mr. Obama, Mr. Trump pledged “consequences” for companies that moved American jobs to other countries. “A Trump administration will stop the jobs from leaving America and will stop the jobs from leaving Michigan,” he said, according to a C-Span transcript.
Mr. Trump won Macomb County 53.6 percent to Ms. Clinton’s 42 percent. A comment to Mr. Simitian from a young Macomb County Democratic Party activist: “You grow up here, and your goal is to get out.”
The one exception to the welcome Mr. Simitian said he received on his trip came from a Republican leader in Cambria County whom he managed to get on the phone despite her reluctance. Her anger was such that he had to hold the phone away from his ear, he said.
He asked her why she was unwilling to talk. “You people in Silicon Valley haven’t given a shit about us for 50 years,” he recalled her replying. “She may not have been terribly gracious,” he said, “but she was pretty much right.”
Respectful acts
Asked why he made this trip and what lessons his local constituents might take away, Mr. Simitian said he did it for his own edification. “This was time well spent,” he said. “I did this so that I would have a better understanding of what happened and so that I could carry that understanding as I did my work.”
It’s important to have “a fuller understanding of just how desperate folks are in a broad swath of the country and how important it is that we think about bringing them along as our economy here in the Valley remains go, go, go,” he said. “There’s got to be a place for these people if we’re going to have a successful economy and country going forward — and if we have any connection to our fellow Americans.
“All of us should listen respectfully. Listening is the ultimate respectful act,” he said. “It starts with listening. (And while) understanding won’t get the job done, without understanding, there’s no chance of getting the job done.”
The American Dream — that upward social mobility is possible through hard work and playing by the rules — “has historically defined the American frame of mind,” he said. “When people start thinking that the system is rigged, that the deck is stacked, they don’t see much reason to get up every morning and give their best effort.
“If they come to believe that there’s no payoff in working hard and playing by the rules, why should we be surprised when they aren’t interested in working hard and playing by the rules?” he said. “If someone gives them a reason to hope and believe, they’ll take it.”
INFORMATION
Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian will give a talk on “Listening to Trump’s America: Bridging the Divide” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, at the Menlo Park council chambers at 701 Laurel St. in the Civic Center. Registration is required. Go to is.gd/listen2016 to register for a seat.
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