Trump Republicans: My dad would be one, if he were alive

Re: “Fearless predictions for 2020,” (TNT, 1/2).

This column by Ann McFeatters could be entitled “I Hate Trump.” Her disdain for the president and his supporters corrupts her effort at skilled commentary.

One sentence illustrates the Achilles heel of elites: “The election comes down to Ohio, once THE swing state, now reliably Republican because its farmers and factory workers think Trump knows what he’s doing about the economy.”

Sounds like “deplorables”? Most farmers have college degrees, manage million-dollar budgets and know more about economics than most academics or political pundits. Their livelihoods depend on it.

Factory workers? How about my father - the oldest child of immigrants, quit school at 14 to help feed his younger siblings, marched with Patton in World War II, lost a brother in the war, worked as a pipefitter 40 years and devoured the Los Angeles Times cover to cover each day.

He was a Kennedy Democrat and died at 93, the wisest, most informed person I’ve ever known. He’d be a Trump Republican.

The common man and woman work hard, pay their bills and respect others regardless of their stripes. We ignore their wisdom at our peril.

This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 1:21 PM with the headline "Trump Republicans: My dad would be one, if he were alive."