The eCrozier

During my sabbatical this summer I had a chance to return to my hillbilly roots in Portsmouth, Ohio where I grew up. I’m technically only half-hillbilly, being from a family of Scots-Irish Baptists from Kentucky on one side and backslidden German Roman Catholics from southern Ohio on the other. And since my German Roman Catholic side was working-class, they identified with the hillbillies in my family. This summer, I also read J.D. Vance’s new book, Hillbilly Elegy, which I highly recommend. It’s about my people who migrated from Kentucky to southern Ohio to look for work.

My Kentucky forebears found good-paying factory jobs at places like Detroit Steel in Portsmouth and Fisher Body in Cincinnati. Most of those jobs are gone now. Those like my father who “got out,” finishing high school and college, had a different life. He was the only one among his brothers and cousins to finish high school let alone get a college degree. People really don’t understand how truly tough it is for these folks now that the good-paying jobs are gone and they don’t have an education. Opioid addiction and (death from it) is increasing. In Portsmouth, deaths from drug addiction now outpace deaths from all other causes except old age. As I walked through the streets of downtown Portsmouth, which bustled in the 1960s, I saw many vacant storefronts. All that is there now are pawn shops, pay-day lenders, and cash-for-gold stores. There are good people there trying to turn things around, but the deck is stacked against them.

For the last 36 years, both political parties have basically proposed nothing to address the needs of the people with whom I grew up. Democrats sneer that these folks vote against their own economic self-interest due to social issues and Republicans have continually proposed policies of tax cuts benefiting the rich and deregulation and free trade that primarily help the business class. These policies have done nothing to help address the deep, real crisis in southern Ohio’s working class people. That’s why Trump’s candidacy is resonating with them. When he rails against corporations for shipping jobs overseas and promises to build a wall to keep out competitors for working class jobs, his rhetoric is like a sweet, siren song to them. The fact that both parties would never support either of those two things isn’t lost on my people. They know that both parties take their cues from big business. They’re just glad someone is “sticking it to the man,” even though the “man” who’s doing the “sticking” is a narcissistic blowhard who’s as culpable as anyone else in the business world and proud of it (“You’re fired!”.)

Yes, “my people” are given to racism and xenophobia. I’m not trying to make them out to be totally virtuous. But they’re hard-working and they just want a chance to have a decent life for their families. I know the issues of globalization and rapid economic change are complex. I don’t know exactly what the answers are. But I do know that both political parties have left my people out. Despite their words, neither party has a track record that proves they care about the plight of these folks. Of course, the Prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures had much to say about the ethical misdeeds of the rich and powerful who seek only to benefit themselves while neglecting the poor (Amos 8:4-6.) My heart breaks seeing what has become of the people and the place where I grew up.

+Scott