Trump Went to War With Motor City and Won

Fox Business ^ | 11/14/16 | Matthew Rocco

[workerbee]

**SNIP

The top car-producing states in the nation ultimately sided with Trump, who swept through the Rust Belt on Election Day.

In Michigan, the epicenter of America’s auto industry, Trump won a state that hadn’t supported a Republican candidate since George H.W. Bush in 1988. The Republican nominee also took Ohio, the second-largest car producer among the 50 states, with relative ease. A similar story played out in Indiana, whose vehicle production is slightly ahead of Kentucky this year.

Overall, the seven states that have manufactured the most cars so far this year all lined up behind Trump: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri.It was apparent that Trump’s message resonated with voters who work in manufacturing. According to Fox News exit polls, union households supported Hillary Clinton by an eight-point margin, below President Barack Obama’s lead of 18 points in 2012. The results marked the lowest union support for a Democrat in the past 20 years.

Trump carried 52% of the union vote in the battleground state of Ohio, far better than former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s 37% support. About half of Ohio voters believe trade with other countries costs American jobs, while 32% said trade creates jobs. Among those who think trade hurts jobs, 67% backed Trump.

An internal poll by the United Auto Workers union showed 28% support for Trump before the election, and another 6% of members were undecided. However, during a press conference following Trump’s victory Opens a New Window. , UAW President Dennis Williams conceded that the union’s poll may not have accurately reflected Trump’s overall support among auto workers.

[MarMema]

They were here (Michigan) a lot. And I missed them every time...just kills me.

[littleharbour]

Trump needs to sit down with the CEOs of the 100 companies with the most sales of imported goods. Auto sector, Walmart, Apple, Nike, etc. Tell them they will return 50% of the manufacturing to the US or the hammer will drop. If they don’t comply then cut off their imports until they do.

[Old Retired Army Guy]

So what is taking the Mich. Scty. of Stete so long to declare the results official?

[Morpheus2009]

There should be taxes on foreign labor.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Good idea.

[Netz]

The Michigan sec. of State is terrified to release the data that this time, Michigan (finally!) went red...

[taildragger]

"An internal poll by the United Auto Workers union showed 28% support for Trump before the election, and another 6% of members were undecided"

That's not what I heard, sadly I can't 2nd source it. What I heard was 60% Trump 40% for you know who, and this was a straw poll in one plant.

It was one reason I stayed so optimistic during this election cycle.

[workerbee]

Someone posted (before the election) that MI has a Repub SoS who is a stickler for getting things done.

[Nextrush]

The story as I read it is that counties have until Nov. 22 to certify their results, then the state certification is done on Nov. 28. The media is going to wait till then to say Trump won it appears.

But with only one precinct from Detroit (400 votes) out, there’s no way Clinton will come back from 13,000 votes behind.

[Paladin2]

As far as I can tell it’s Rat centric cities trying to make up votes for H->! .

[Paladin2]

Maybe she is a #NeverTrumper.

[Gen.Blather]

“Trump needs to sit down with the CEOs of the 100 companies with the most sales of imported goods. Auto sector, Walmart, Apple, Nike, etc. Tell them they will return 50% of the manufacturing to the US or the hammer will drop. If they don’t comply then cut off their imports until they do.”

Much as I want manufacturing to return to the US nothing is a simple as it sounds. Those companies are bound by contracts which, doubtless have penalties. Such a meeting would probably be in violation of existing trade treaties that forbid protectionism and those treaties have teeth. A trade war is bad for both parties and would have lots of collateral damage.

There are always two sides to any equation. The better approach would be to attack the laws, regulations and agencies that caused companies to leave the US in the first place. This isn’t simply a matter of cheap labor. It is much harder to run a remote facility in a foreign country than to run one in the US. What drove them away are the hundreds of thousands of local, county, state and federal laws and regulations. Those regulations are intended to extract fines from companies and running afoul of them can destroy even a large company. Do away with that and they will flood back to the US.

[Tenacious 1]

Trump needs to sit down with the CEOs of the 100 companies with the most sales of imported goods. Auto sector, Walmart, Apple, Nike, etc. Tell them they will return 50% of the manufacturing to the US or the hammer will drop. If they don’t comply then cut off their imports until they do.

When did conservatives start thinking that you can motivate big corporations with threats? Businesses don't pay taxes (More taxes are a cost that is rolled into the cost of goods and services - they collect taxes). You can't single out or target a company for punishment, an industry yes, a company no. How about the old, traditional, conservative approach. Create a favorable, profitable, opportunity for businesses to thrive in America. America is where their largest consumer block is located. They would rather do manufacturing in the US. AND they could overcome the labor costs with just a little risk and tax mitigation opportunities. This "punish the defectors" ploy is communist/socialist approach.

[IamConservative]

A hurdle we have to clear to get a manufacturer to return is the workforce will need to be educated, have motivation to work and be able to pass a whiz quiz.

My son works in one of these (increasingly) automated manufacturing facilities in flyover country. He does prototyping, CNC machining and fabrication of tools and jigs for the line. 5 in 10 people who apply for a job fail the piss test. Only 1 in 10 can pass the skills test.

[Gen.Blather]

“Only 1 in 10 can pass the skills test.

The trade school sections of high schools and trade schools themselves almost vanished during the dot com bubble. People wanted their children to become instant millionaires by having the new game or dot.com idea. Nobody wanted their kid to be a plumber.

Trade school education is making a comeback at our local junior college. You can become a certified mechanic or air conditioning tech. But there are millions of children, now adults, who never saw a lathe or saw. Some of them rent from me and I asked a grown man to hand me a pipe wrench while I was under their sink. He didn’t know what one was.

[Buckeye McFrog]

More precisely auto workers finally figured out that their union has been LYING to them for seventy fricking years.

[Wallace T.]

Union members tended to vote Democrat because the unions protected their jobs and fought for higher wages and better benefits. Even if they were socially conservative, they recognized who was buttering their bread and showed loyalty. Since 1992, the Democrats, certainly Clinton and Obama, have done nothing to prevent the loss of jobs to foreign plants. Unions like the United Auto Workers and the United Mine Workers continued to support the Democrats. Millions of jobs were lost, and union workers in the Rust Belt and Appalachia became unemployed or worked in low paying service jobs. Through their unqualified support of the Democrats, the union leadership broke the social contract with the rank and file. The Bushes, Dole, McCain, and Romney were not able to fully exploit the alienation. Trump did.