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“I WAS TICKLED pink.” That was how Ronald Schwartz reacted to the election of President Donald Trump.
While the result may have been somewhat of a surprise, his reaction is not so.
When we spoke to him back in October, Schwartz was in campaign-mode as the county manager for Trump in Laurens County in the state of Georgia.
The county includes the town of Dublin, from where Schwartz spoke to us again on the eve of Trump’s inauguration.
“A lot of people thought it would never happen, but some of us had quite a bit of faith that it would. You know a lot of us spent a lot of time helping him,” he says.
So for us we’re enthused, but if you look at the other side they’re really disillusioned.
Schwartz was in campaign mode until the very end. Trump won in Laurens County by a healthy margin of about 2:1, but the Indiana native says he was checking absentee ballots and voter registrations until after 10pm on election day.
It meant he knew little about how the votes were going until later, when the rest of the world was realising that Trump had a shot at winning.
I hadn’t heard anything about what was going on and when I got home I turned on the TV and they were saying that Trump could win this thing. He only needed one of the three states and he could actually win it.
“I stayed up ’till 3.30am expecting them to call Michigan but they actually called Pennsylvania and put it away and I was tickled pink. I couldn’t believe it,” he adds.
Transition team
Schwartz supported Trump from the early days of the primary stage, in large part because of his pro-gun and anti-establishment stances.
So has Trump’s choice of several billionaires for his cabinet made him feel like he’s broken his promise to ‘drain the swamp’?
“No, because the billionaires who are there are successful people,” Schwartz says.
And I think with the agenda being set as it is, they’re going to be expected to perform for what the people want not what they want. Because Trump got elected by the people, he didn’t get elected by the ones with lots of money.
He doesn’t worry about the new president’s tweeting either, saying Trump will become more businessman than showman in office.
“It (Twitter) has gotten him a long way but I think he has to be extremely careful now that he’s actually going to be president,” Schwartz warns.
He might have to cut the comments down but I don’t think it’ll keep him from going to the people with his position. But I do think that they’ll have to monitor it.You know he’s a showman, but I think when it comes down to it and it comes to actually doing the job a lot of that’s going to go away and the seriousness is going to come in.
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It’s worth noting that despite Trump being a billionaire the big money was behind Clinton. She spent $380 million more on her campaign than Trump did. For all the claims that can and are made against Trump, it certainly can’t be claimed he bought the election. To the contrary, that’s a trend he bucked….
@Stephen Duffy: Well, Hillary got 25 million from Saudi and gave 62 million to Byonce and Jay-z. There is an article in the Catholic Voice that celebrities gave her a lot of money on a promise of tax breaks. Myrl Streep mentioned the new poor of Hollywood
Ah the catholic voice I prefer to get my news from mad magazine val at least that know they are talking sh**
The author neglects to the mention that the ones with money expend huge resources to ensure that ordinary people vote the way that they do. There is vast industry devoted to this task called the mainstream media supported by the education system and most of academia which relentlessly peddles a self serving fairytale to the masses.
Big capital has always largely owned “democracy”. It’s a more resource efficient way of controlling the majority working class in comparison to brute force oppression. Democracy is not possible without an informed electorate and that is why the capitalist elite expend so much effort in keeping the majority misinformed as to the nature of the socio economic model which exploits them. The strategy is to control the information rather than direct control of the population by force which cannot be sustained indefinitely in any case.
Trump understands this perfectly and used the media to peddle an illusion of choice to the people and lift himself to power. That’s what demagogues do. It worked because capitalism has failed so many people so badly that they will grasp desperately for any alternative to the misery of the status quo. Trump will betray those people as he too represents the billionaire class as of course do Clinton and the Democrats. Any ordinary American who voted for Trump or Clinton is complicit in their own exploitation.
@Val Martin: Hillary gave Beyonce 62 million, eh? Are you trying to be funny or are you seriously that crazy?
How did this comment get so many upvotes? Are people insane here?
The people of America voted him in as there president. Who are we to say he shouldn’t hold the job. As for all these women protesting in the US now, it’s a pity they didn’t get out in more numbers last November.
@mickmc. That’s true. Hopefully a lesson learned.
@mickmc: Hopefully some day I will succeed in putting a name on this mindset. Their children as SNOWFLAKES but what are they? Working on it,
No! Hillary won the popular vote!
The popular vote doesn’t win you the presidency. It never has, a strange sort of democracy alright, but their democracy.
No they didn’t, the electoral college voted in trump. It amazes me how many people don’t realise this.
@oliverjumelle: who cares about the popular vote? The us has never elected its president by popular vote (or direct vote for that matter) and their system serves them well. How would people like it if the EU made all decision based on popular vote? Ireland is one of 28 states yet has only about 1% of the population of the EU. The top 4 EU nations hold more than 50% of the total population. Should the EU simply make policies to benefit them and ignore the other 24? because that is the sort of logic that wanting the us president to be elected by popular vote would advocate. And in the USA the imbalance would be worse. 9/50 have over 50% of the population with just California and Texas combined holding 1/5. If the US president just needed the popular vote, they could simply make promises to benefit a small handful of states at the cost of the other 40+ and win. They would win the election but they would probably lose the country since the USA is a union of 50 individual states. The American system of government with its electoral college for president (not to mention its two houses, one representative of population and the other representative of state) has allowed them to function for over two centuries (the USSR got 70 yrs and it’s doubtful if the EU might even break that record). Many of the smaller “flyover” states if independent would dwarf many European nations, including Ireland, in both population and GDP so to argue that they couldn’t survive without Washington would be false as well. So I think we need to stop talking about the popular vote as if it would somehow solve all of america’s problems.
ah please journal.enough already …trump is president..build a bridge ..get over it …
@Bejasus Bejorrah: They can’t get over it. There world is torn apart. I believe the divide is between those who work or cant to work and basement dwellers who want to live of handout plus celebrities who want tax breaks.
@Val Martin: democrats who refuse to recognise democracy….im surprised the people who protest can tie their shoelaces without being shown a manual ..clinton was right about the deplorables ..she didnt realise they were her own supporters
I think he might prove a lot of people wrong. Time will tell
I hope your right.bush and clinton wont be rembered in a hundred years like lincon or washinton,is that not what its all about.imortality
I wonder if anyone has asked all these people protesting if they actually bothered to even vote as 43% of American voters didn’t.
I’m seeing some positive notes,
Pros
He is going to be accountable to those who elected him.
They are practical people so will expect tangible results.
Not all of them are Trumpists
Cons
Fake news and the reality distortion field may result in blurred optics.
Prepare for it to be difficult to persuade some followers that he may be failing them in some area even if true.
Republicans who speak out may be ostracised and cast out.
@Tom: I think the popularity of the term “fake news” was a pro of this election. Fake news was a part of the media since there was media to begin with. Yellow journalism, muckraking, manufacturing consent. Society has been told for over a century to not believe everything they read yet it seems in our age of social media we’ve lost this scepticism (to the benefit of the big corporations who own most mainstream media sources). I think this election has reminded us that we should always hold some doubt, regardless of who is telling it to us.
Only tennis players who voted for Hillary don’t feel aggrieved by losing the election despite winning the popular vote . They know it’s the number of sets you win not the number of games and points that matter.
He’s not the only one who’s tickled Pink, it’s like awakening in the middle of a nightmare & then realizing it’s reality. A bit of a sicker punch really!
Trump got voted in by the people who believed all his lies and false promises. Thats the reason why people protest.
@Dave Harris: And that differs from politicians in other Countries how exactly? They all tell whoppers at election time, as Pat Rabbit said “Isn’t that what you do during an election?”
Doesn’t change the fact that Trump got voted in by the people who believed his lies. The difference is Trump told an awful lot of them and promised things he cannot possibly deliver
@Dave Harris: As distinct from the basket of deplorables who didn’t believe Clinton’s lies and promises.
Can someone explain all the comment voting here? Are Journal readers really that pro-Trump? Even outright fake news is being heavily upvoted here. If you think Hillary gave Beyonce 62 million USD< I really worry about your wellbeing.
It still has to be noted and the figures are there to prove it that Clinton, right or wrong, was the people’s choice by 3-4 million votes.
@#knowingitall: It is of no importance what so ever that Hillary won the popular vote, she knew full well that it was the electoral college vote she had to win, but failed to do so, she shares a good portion of the blame for not bothering to engage rural America, in fact she did the opposite, she dismissing them out of hand and even openly insulted them.
It doesn’t question the legitimacy of his win just the strength of his mandate which is weak at best
So California basically voted for clinton…. its not how it works. People in smaller states would be sidelined if you look at that figure. California has the same population as the 25 lowest population states. It will easily skew the numbers.
Trump got elected by red necked backward Americans who live in trailer parks and narcistic socio- blinded by white supremisices
@Joseph Molloy: thats a lot of americans, are you sure you can back that up with numbers? He was voted in by people sick of career politicians like hillary, the DNC made a huge mistake putting her forward, if they had went with sanders they might have had some chance.
I actually didnt want Trump to win but the reaction from liberal media and social justice warrior types since the election has changed my mind and now i don’t mind at all. The stand out thing from this election is the lefts complete and utter disdain for democracy and the will of the people actually a lot like the Brexit vote in the UK.
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