I see discussion of Trump/poverty/heating fuel costs (in very stupid terms) in Central and Northern Maine. The economic devastation of decades of free trade/neoliberalism helped destroy the mills & clothing/shoe factories there that had once provided good jobs there.

As much as I despise Trumpists, and view any justification of a vote for him as instantly false, it should perhaps not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with that part of Maine that a figure like Trump would appeal to many of them. I guess unless you were a wealthy tourist.

Another tension Mainers have to put up with is wealthy people from out of state coming in as tourists & part-time residents, & not being able to say anything when such people are arrogant, because they rely on their patronage as a major boon to the state, which is pretty poor.

So I was shocked this morning to feel a pang of outrage on behalf of Maine’s 2nd District, which had nauseated & infuriated me last week by going for Trump. Because what, the alternative is more humiliating deference to wealthy out-of-staters who don’t fucking care about Mainers?

It’s a complicated dynamic. But I’m actually glad for Waldman’s tweet for throwing into sharp relief some of the enduring class tensions which fed Trump, and which are subtle and powerful. Maine is an interesting microcosm for this dynamic with the white working class.

While Maine is the whitest state in the country, agriculture (mostly potatoes) & logging still rely on immigrant migrant workers — as I remember Maine learning in 2002, when 14 Central American laborers died in a bus accident in the Allagash wilderness https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20020913/news/309139963