Posted on 10/01/2016 3:22:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
HARRISBURG — Jerry Calvert, 72, said Americans took a chance on a first-term U.S. senator from Illinois when they elected Barack Obama as the country’s 44th president.
That “backfired,” he said.
Now, Calvert, of Sharon, said Americans should take another chance, electing an outsider to succeed Obama.
GOP nominee Donald Trump’s negotiation experience as a real estate developer will pay off for everyone, he said. “Trump definitely knows how to deal with people. He knows that we need to be firm and not let other countries push us around."
Besides, he said, voters have "nothing to lose."
"Our country is in dire straits," he said.
Calvert is so convinced, he gave $450 to Trump's campaign. Among seniors, he's far from alone.
Even though Pennsylvania donors have given close to $8 million to Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign — more than four times what they've given to Trump — his political and financial support is stronger among older donors.
About one-quarter of Clinton's donations in Pennsylvania have come from those who describe themselves as retired in Federal Election Commission documents. More than 2 in 5 donations to the Trump campaign have come from retirees.
The difference may not be surprising because Trump is more popular among senior citizens than he is among all other age groups, polls show.
He leads Clinton among seniors, 47 percent to 41 percent, according to polling data from Muhlenberg College. It’s the only age group that he's winning in Pennsylvania, according to the survey.
Among all voters, Clinton led 44 percent to 41 percent in a two-way race and 40 percent to 38 percent when third-party candidates are counted.
A CNN/ORC poll released Monday had similar results. It found Trump leading among Pennsylvania seniors, 49 percent to 44 percent, even as Clinton holds a 45 percent to 43 percent edge overall.
“Donald Trump’s bleak description of the state of the American economy may resonate with seniors," said Douglas Schoen, a former pollster for President Bill Clinton, in an August opinion piece for FoxNews.
He noted a poll by Bring the Vote Home that found 2 in 3 seniors disapproving of Obama, and more than 3 in 4 seniors feeling like the country’s on the wrong track.
Manufacturing generation
Chris Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College, said Republicans tend to do well with older voters, but Trump seems to outperform recent GOP nominees.
“It’s a key group to have,” he said.
His core message — “Make America great again” — speaks directly to the misgivings that many older Pennsylvanians have about the state of their communities and country, he said.
Their generation, over age 65, probably had more experience in manufacturing than others.
"They had the jobs that are gone now,” Borick said. So when Trump stumps on the promise of bringing back those jobs, he said, "It clicks for them because they think, 'That’s the workforce I remember.'"
Not all seniors are buying what Trump’s selling.
Emmajane Adams, a retired medical technologist, and her husband, Dennis, a retired teacher and football coach in Danville, gave $107 to Clinton's campaign.
“In the times we are living, you need a politician in the office” of president, she said.
Clinton’s political skill will help the country deal with issues such as the social unrest connected to police killings of unarmed black men, she said.
It will also help the country deal with foreign leaders.
“The thought that Trump could win makes me sick,” she said, adding that Clinton is “a very strong woman, highly intelligent.”
Adams was a lifelong Republican who joined the Democratic Party so that she could vote for Clinton in the primary.
“I think she’s the best," she said.
She doesn’t believe Clinton could have done anything more to save the U.S. ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, or three others killed in attacks on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi.
John Todorich, of Ellwood City, is a retired union representative who gave $75 to the Clinton campaign.
Like Adams, he said there’s no evidence that Hillary Clinton has done anything that should disqualify her from becoming president — despite Republicans' best efforts to prove otherwise.
“The Republicans spent millions trying to nail her," he said. "They’ve found nothing on this lady.”
Clinton has spent her entire career trying to improve the lot of working people and the poor, he said.
Business owners divided
But Clinton “couldn’t begin to run a business," said Calvert, the lumber store owner from Sharon.
He has greater faith that Trump understands how to improve the business climate, he said.
Small businesses are overburdened with taxes, he said, and too many politicians “spend because someone else is paying for it."
Matt Sernell, president of Eagle Ridge Industries, a telecommunications company in Johnstown, said Clinton’s economic proposals are bumper-sticker fodder.
“I don’t trust anything she says,” said Sernell, who gave $20 to the Trump campaign.
“How you do better is to let me do better,” he said. “The government can’t create private sector jobs."
Small businesses would be better off with the types of tax cuts that Trump would seek, he said. That would level the playing field and help all businesses — not just the ones that are large enough to lobby for loopholes and other advantages.
But the business community is hardly unanimous on the race.
About twice as many Pennsylvanians who described themselves as company presidents, CEOs or owners gave money to the Clinton campaign as Trump’s, federal campaign disclosures show.
Virginia Feitner, managing partner for Sensational Sweets, a Lewisburg-based candy maker, is one of those business people backing Clinton. She's given $383 to the Clinton campaign.
She said there’s no reason to believe that Trump has interest in helping small businesses. She points to anecdotes from contractors who’ve accused him of short-changing or stiffing them after they’ve done work at his casinos and resorts.
“I have no confidence that he’s going to suddenly change," she said, and become interested in the good of all businesses, rather than his alone.
Tons more Trump signs/stickers all around here too, especially out here in farm country.
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A week ago I drove Route 30 from Lancaster to Greenburg, Pa. Over the entirety of that stretch of highway there are literally hundreds of Trump yard signs, and at least a dozen of those monster signs about 5’x7’. But here’s the kicker: I didn’t see a single Clinton/Kaine sign on that drive. Really odd, no Clinton signs at all.
Yikes !
Very (mostly) pleasantly scenic, but not the route for those in a hurry .. lol !
(tho it has been awhile since I've driven down that way)
I simply can't imagine that with the YUGE disparity in rally attendance, and the YUGER disparity in signage/clothage/etcage
that this won't be the YUGEST thing since Reagan beat the snot outta that militantly idiotic Carter.
(so yea, i made up a couple words, but they fit ;-)
I first coined the phrase as a bumper sticker idea for the 2008 Gubernatorial campaign of the utter failure of a Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan. Unfortunately it was just a couple days before her being elected to a second term of destruction. Within a few months, I was no longer having to travel to work every day and soon joined a few hundred thousand others in moving out of the state.
Good observation on your part.
Trump may do well with the 65-90 age bracket, but Hillary has nearly universal support in the much larger 90-160 age bracket. We need poll watchers in Philadelphia, or Trump has no chance in Pennsylvania.
that militantly idiotic Carter.
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Funny description of the Peanut Man. Until the Kenyan Fraud duped the electorate, he held the title for the most ignorant President in U.S. history.
I’ve seen *one* Hilarity bumpersticker, oddly enough, at a different Hobby Lobby in Chambersburg PA.
I *think* it was a woman, who got into the car.
/wouldn’t bet money it, though
However, the many times I *thought* I saw her stickers on car, at closer range, they said Hillary For Prison 2016.
Another portion have yet to remove their Bernie stickers.
[which are frequently placed next to their cat lady and/or legalize pot stickers]
South/southwest PA, right over the MD line, is the same.
They’re literally *everywhere*.
More of those really yuge ones than I’ve ever seen, for any [R] candidate.
Even *businesses* have them plastered all over their property.
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