Posted on 07/27/2017 8:44:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
YOUNGSTOWN - When the voice on the other end of the phone said the president of the United States wanted to meet him, Geno DiFabio, a 54-year-old lifelong resident of the South Side, was skeptical.
It wasn’t a completely unreasonable possibility. Just that morning, DiFabio had appeared on a Fox News show to discuss why he, a lifelong Democrat, switched parties to throw his support fully behind then-candidate Donald Trump.
The voice – a White House communications official – convinced DiFabio that the call was legitimate, and they set a time to meet ahead of the president’s rally at the Covelli Centre Tuesday.
DiFabio voted Democrat for as long as he could remember. He was a Democrat because Youngstown was a blue city and everyone he knew voted blue.
Despite identifying as a Democrat, DiFabio wasn’t ideologically liberal, at least not in regard to social and cultural issues.
“I’m a big Second Amendment guy, I’m very pro-life, I’m conservative,” DiFabio said. “And you know that’s how this whole Valley was. We were always Democrats, but we still cared about the sanctity of life and family values. We went to church. I thought we were losing that.”
In 2015, DiFabio was largely unimpressed by the likely presidential candidates who were bubbling to the surface. In his mind there was little difference between Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush; both were going to talk, and neither was going to deliver, he reasoned. Politics as usual, in his mind.
Then Trump came along, and DiFabio was sold.
“I was looking for an outsider, and that was Trump. He talked about jobs and bad trade deals. He talked like me,” he said.
Read more of his opinions in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.
Loved this story. I have worked with lots of socially conservative blue collar D’s over the years. They are patriots who simply want decent paying jobs. Many realize the the political establishment (R and D) is the real enemy. Many, many are staunch 2A supporters.
It was supposed to be Hillary vs Yeb!
Trump was the only thing that saved us from that
And many, many are sick of the colonization of our country by Spanish speaking fraudulently documented foreigners.
Hope this is a trend, Reagan democrats were a start then there was backsliding with Clinton and Obama. Now new hope with Trump, A lot of erstwhile democrats voted that way out of family and generational tradition and momentum. They didn’t fully comprehend the extreme shift to the left of their party. However, republican politicians have got to get their act together or else we are all goners.
H.Clinton 2020!
I am not surprised they voted for Clinton over Bush Sr. No one was excited about Bush the patrician. Clinton was advertised as a conservative Democrat, and lots of the Reagan Democrats went to Perot. I think Obama is in the 4 worst Presidents ever, but at least we dodged McCain and Romney, both of whom would have delivered the gun control that Obama could not deliver!
I think you are right. At least Clinton was culturally American...albeit an incredibly flawed one... whereas Obama was not. Perot votes probbly took it from “read my lips” Bush. McCain and Romney are treacherous bastards and we may well have gotten the AWB back under them...especially Romney who did it to Mass.
Donald Dems. Now if conservatives would just find some to run in Dem primaries...
Hint...hint...hint...
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