AJC on the trail
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will be closely tracking the presidential campaign through November 2016 all across the country, with a special emphasis on the South. To see past stories, go to MyAJC.com.
The vendors outside the Macon Coliseum were only beginning to set up tables hawking Donald Trump memorabilia when Gwen and Harry Sheffield arrived. It was the retired couple’s first political event, and they wanted to make sure they had the best seats in the house: a front-row perch within shouting distance of the Republican front-runner.
“He’ll get it done in Washington. And the No. 1 thing that needs to be done is an end to the lying,” Gwen Sheffield declared. Harry Sheffield echoed her sentiment: “He says what the people want to hear. He says what needs to be said.”
Much ink has been spilled trying to explain how a political newcomer who was barely a blip in the 2012 election has led the GOP field for much of the year. But interviews with more than two dozen Trump supporters in Macon help gauge how an upper-crust Manhattanite has formed a bond with working-class Georgia voters fretful about the nation’s economy.
It’s a connection he hopes to cultivate to stay at the top of the heap as voting nears. His first test is less than 10 weeks away, in the Iowa caucuses. And voters in Georgia and the other “SEC primary” states will cast their ballots in three months.
So far, as Trump happily told the 6,000 or so gathered to hear him Monday, he’s shown tremendous staying power atop the divided GOP electorate. He’s leading his frustrated rivals in nationwide polls. He’s ahead in most polls of early-voting states. And he’s atop the few polls that have so far emerged in Georgia.
Those surveys generally show his support cuts across broad swaths of the GOP electorate: He’s earned tea party support, backing from religious conservatives and help from libertarian voters that form disparate branches in today’s Republican Party.
Many of the Trump fans in the overwhelmingly white crowd on Monday saw him as a singular force to unite the GOP. They talked of the distinct fear the nation was slipping from its post-Cold War supremacy, and they avowed that only a tough-talking leader willing to break political norms could right the ship.
“I’m really tired of the way things are going and how people are misused,” said Eleanor Welch, a retired staffer with the Bibb County school system. “Donald Trump could change the debate. And I know he’s not afraid and won’t back down.”
“He is all over the issues we care about — the economy, immigration,” added Shelby Garrett, another retiree from Macon. “And most importantly, I think he will actually do what he says.”
Most of those interviewed voiced support for his plan to seal the U.S. border with Mexico and deport the roughly 11 million immigrants in this country illegally. More importantly, some said, he’ll be a Washington iconoclast who can shatter the gridlock that has paralyzed debate over some of the thorniest issues.
“America is too sensitive, too politically correct,” said Madison Vargas, a 17-year-old high school student who drove from Savannah with her father and sister to hear the candidate speak. “And Trump is the antidote.”
His rivals for the GOP nomination have so far failed to stop his momentum, despite a string of gaffes and fabrications that would have sunk lesser candidates. Will R. Jordan, a Mercer University political scientist, chalks up Trump’s political magnetism to his decisive rhetoric.
“They like the idea of a president who is comfortable making the big decision quickly, someone who will give the ‘you’re fired’ treatment to members of the Washington establishment who stand in his way,” he said.
Of course, he added, that same drive to act as a freewheeling chief executive has confounded other presidential aspirants confronted with the checks and balances that rule Washington.
“Even Barack Obama, who should have known better with his background in constitutional law, has been surprised by the real constraints of the office,” Jordan said. “One suspects a President Trump would find it even less to his taste.”
In his speech, Trump promised to be the tough-talking figure that America needs as it braces for a larger fight with the Islamic State. He invoked Gen. George S. Patton, the iconic World War II leader who led the U.S. Army’s drive across Europe — and sparked much controversy for his hard-charging style.
“He was a vicious, ruthless, horrendous human being. He cursed and spat and spit in peoples’ faces,” Trump said of the general. “Who cares? He was great. And by the way, his troops would go to hell for him.”
Count Daniel Rose, an Athens man who has been struggling to find a steady job, among the voters drawn to the same sort of brash persona. Rose was leaning toward Trump before the speech and came away firmly in the billionaire’s camp.
“What I liked about him is that he owes nobody anything. He’s not bought and he can’t be bought,” Rose said. “The fact that he’s as rich and successful as he is works in his favor. He doesn’t need the money like other politicians. And that’s reason enough for my support.”
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