美国国家公共电台 NPR How's The New President Doing? Voters In One Trump County Talk

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

We're going to listen now to what some voters think of President Trump¹'s dramatic first two weeks in office. And Steve - lucky guy - you got to go to my home state of Pennsylvania.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Yeah, that's true. That's true - and to one of the places in Pennsylvania where the election was arguably decided². Pennsylvania, as you know very well, David, voted narrowly for Donald Trump, which made him the first Republican to win the state in decades. And among other places, he won a county that, on paper, should've gone to Democrats³. It's in the western part of the state.

GREENE: But not as far west as Pittsburgh, we should say just to orient people. You were in the Allegheny Mountains. I mean, I love this part of the country. It's rural. It's beautiful, mountainous - but also some industrial towns with so much character.

INSKEEP: Yeah. All those things are true in the valley, the particular valley we visited. Let's give a listen here.

We're on a ridge⁴ overlooking the steel mills and churches of Johnstown, Pa., which is nestled in this river valley below me. It's a very famous city. It flooded in the 1880s disastrously⁵. Thousands of people were killed. It's also been an industrial city over the years and remains⁶ so. It is in a county that once voted for Barack Obama back in 2008 but went very, very heavily for Donald Trump in 2016. People visit this observation platform overlooking the city even on a snowy morning.

My name's Steve, by the way. How are you?

MIKE MCGOUGH: Mike McGough, nice to meet you.

INSKEEP: Nice to meet you, too.

McGough is a retired⁷ county worker who closely follows the area's politics. He generally votes the way the county used to vote.

MCGOUGH: This has always been a very heavy Democratic area. And then the coal mines slowly started going under.

INSKEEP: So did the steel mills that once used coal from those mines. The county has lost many jobs. And its population has been declining for decades. McGough sees compensations. The government, he says, cleaned the river and the air.

MCGOUGH: If you would've been standing⁸ here 30 years ago, you would've just seen a slight haze⁹ over everything. I can remember, when I was a kid, my dad - he had a brand-new car. He was so proud of that car. Getting up in the morning - and there just being this real fine dust on the car.

INSKEEP: Now a critic of environmental rules is set to lead the EPA. And a climate skeptic¹⁰ is in the White House. Trump's early moves - banning refugees, hectoring foreign leaders - have not reassured¹¹ McGough.

You don't think this is going to end well, do you?

MCGOUGH: No. Hell, if we're still alive (laughter) next year at this time, I'd be surprised.

INSKEEP: He says he can hardly stand to talk politics with his neighbors because many of his friends are Republican. And 66 percent of his county voted for President Trump.

We heard that people at the steel mill down below us favored Trump. So we drove down off the ridge, past wood-frame houses and over a steel bridge to Gautier Steel, a riverside complex so vast you can drive a mile without leaving the grounds.

(SOUNDBITE OF FORGING STEEL)

INSKEEP: In a brick building, workers smash red-hot steel into shape. You hear the echoes in this enormous space but see few people. Deb Chiodo started to work here 44 years ago. Back then, the lights were always on - didn't even have switches. And the plant employed 11,000 people. Today, it's about 100.

Were times better then, 40 years ago?

DEB CHIODO: Oh, my God, yeah.

INSKEEP: Talking with another guy this morning who thinks it's actually better now - that the river used to be dirtier, that the air used to be so dirty.

CHIODO: Yeah. Well, there's no jobs now. Yeah, the river's cleaner. But, I mean, unless you can make a living on the river...

INSKEEP: She voted for Trump, as did the chief financial officer, Jackie Kulback, the only other woman who works here.

JACKIE KULBACK: I've only been at Gautier for a little over 10 years. I worked for an air-compressor company before that. And that compressor company was closed down because the jobs went to Reynosa, Mexico - NAFTA. And, you know, I saw people's lives change - and not for the good.

INSKEEP: Economists¹² say automation has cost far more industrial jobs than trade deals. But the bottom line here is an unemployment rate higher than the national average and wages that are lower. Kulback says she got into politics in recent years and is now the county Republican Party chair. Last year, she organized a series of small events for Trump, which gradually became larger and larger events.

KULBACK: And we had people stand in line for an hour to get a Trump sign. And they could get their picture taken with Donald Trump, the cardboard one.

INSKEEP: The cardboard Donald Trump.

KULBACK: Cardboard Donald Trump.

INSKEEP: So what do you think of his first two weeks?

KULBACK: I haven't seen anything that I've been upset about at all. I think he's doing exactly what he said he was going to do. And he has been no-nonsense about it.

INSKEEP: Let's think about some of the things he's done. He named a Supreme¹³ Court justice.

KULBACK: Which we're very ecstatic about.

INSKEEP: Neil Gorsuch - you like him. He banned travel from seven Muslim-majority countries around the Middle East and also stopped the flow of refugees.

KULBACK: I think that it's a temporary ban. And this is, again, something that he said he was going to do. Keep in mind, Flight 93 memorial is - what? - 20 miles from here.

INSKEEP: One of the planes on September 11 crashed nearby.

KULBACK: Yeah. I mean, that hit close to home.

INSKEEP: She knows the travel ban does not actually cover countries that the 9/11 hijackers came from. She isn't sure if it'll work. But she is willing to try it. She also isn't sure why the president obsesses¹⁴ over the crowd size at his inauguration¹⁵.

KULBACK: There are some things - I think, oh, my goodness. Let it go.

INSKEEP: But the things that have sent protesters into the streets, Trump's remarks about Muslims or women, his worldwide business conflicts of interest, the fear that he will trample¹⁶ the Constitution - she says none of those things cost her sleep.

KULBACK: Really, when it comes right down to it, jobs trump everything.

INSKEEP: Are you sure that Trump's prescriptions¹⁷ for fixing the economy or improving the economy are going to work?

KULBACK: The law of unintended consequences could come into play. And, definitely, that is a concern. You try and fix something that's broken, and the last thing you want to do is make it worse.

INSKEEP: But she'll give him a chance, which is also what we heard at Lazarus Cafe when we told the woman at the cash register we were asking about the new president.

CAROLYN SHARP: Ha. I mean, I'm going to tell you right now I'm not a liberalist.

INSKEEP: It's a Lebanese restaurant started by an immigrant. The server, Carolyn Sharp, voted Trump.

SHARP: I feel like maybe someone who has a little more power and a big mouth can actually get some words across, you know?

INSKEEP: And she approves the president's early steps to keep some people out of the United States.

SHARP: I grew up in this country. I've been here all my life. So is that all right for, like, someone who has never lived here just to come over because they want a job, just to come over just for freedom purposes? But how do we know that they're not going to turn crazy on us? We don't.

INSKEEP: Do you know when your family came here?

SHARP: My family, actually, is immigrants from Yugoslavia. And my grandma had 14 brothers and sisters. And her parents came over here.

INSKEEP: Wow.

SHARP: They're over - they're on the wall in New York on Ellis Island. So that's how my family came over.

INSKEEP: There's a wall with names of people who've come through. And they're on there.

SHARP: On Ellis Island, yeah.

INSKEEP: I can see, by the look on your face, you're really proud of that.

SHARP: Oh, yeah, I am.

INSKEEP: The phone rang before we could talk through the contradictions in what she'd said.

Oh, get the phone.

SHARP: Yeah, I will. Thank you. Lazarus Cafe. This is Carolyn.

INSKEEP: Though Carolyn Sharp came to our table to talk some more - and it became clear she feels those contradictions. She read on Facebook about a local man whose brother was kept out of the country by the president's travel ban. That bothers her. But like others here, she will give the new president time. In this town, where the past seems grander than the present, voters are hoping a new president brings a better future.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

5 disastrously   

ad.灾难性地

参考例句：

• Their profits began to spiral down disastrously. 他们的利润开始螺旋形地急剧下降。
• The fit between the country's information needs and its information media has become disastrously disjointed. 全国的信息需求与信息传播媒介之间的配置，出现了严重的不协调。

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

10 skeptic   

n.怀疑者，怀疑论者，无神论者

参考例句：

• She is a skeptic about the dangers of global warming.她是全球变暖危险的怀疑论者。
• How am I going to convince this skeptic that she should attention to my research?我将如何使怀疑论者确信她应该关注我的研究呢？

11 reassured   

adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The captain's confidence during the storm reassured the passengers. 在风暴中船长的信念使旅客们恢复了信心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The doctor reassured the old lady. 医生叫那位老妇人放心。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

14 obsesses   

v.时刻困扰( obsess的第三人称单数 )；缠住；使痴迷；使迷恋

参考例句：

• I suppose no artist achieves completely the realization of the dream that obsesses him. 我认为哪个艺术家也不可能把昼夜萦绕在他心头的梦境完全付诸实现。 来自辞典例句
• As source and, nature obsesses us, as do childhood and spontaneity, via the filter of memory. 作为资源和来源，自然总是纠缠着我们，经由记忆的过滤，就像童年和自发性所做的。 来自互联网

15 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

16 trample   

vt.踩，践踏；无视，伤害，侵犯

参考例句：

• Don't trample on the grass. 勿踏草地。
• Don't trample on the flowers when you play in the garden. 在花园里玩耍时,不要踩坏花。

17 prescriptions   

药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划

参考例句：

• The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
• Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。