WHAT HOBART IS SAYING

INTRO

What’s going on is a phrase made famous by the great soul singer Marvin Gaye. In this song, he pointed out the issues of his time in the late 1960’s. It’s funny that many of those issues still exist, but today we are faced with new issues that are more challenging than ever. 

The issues discussed are from the point of view of my small town of Hobart, Oklahoma. Hell, I’m writing this at Kozy dinner on main street. We are located in the southwest part of the state. We are a farming community, and very proud of it. We have done well for ourselves for over 100 years. I started my insurance agency in this town, and was very happy to have it there. Sadly, I must close my office and service my clients only once a week because business is so slow. The latest major blow to my business and others here was the closing of SKF ball baring plant. That plant took most of the equipment and moved to Mexico. This is an old story repeated many times around America today. That plant didn’t leave because American Workers are inefficient. The company left to save money with cheaper labor, and a mostly automated plant.

In a farming community, everything is based upon prices of the livestock, and crops that you grow. Another hit to this area is the continuation of low livestock, and crop prices. This has placed even the most thrifty, non-debt amassed farmer in a bind. A farmer that has made his living from the land, land that his family may have held for over 100 years, cannot make a profit from his efforts. Because of this, farmers in the area are buried in debt that drowns every little attempt to provide economic to the local community. 

So you may say, “what’s the big deal”? These are the same issues people have dealt with for decades now. Why is it so important to address them again, and now? Well these problems have reach a critical mass of sorts. That has caused a division among our people and politics that may be unrepairable. Some of you may say that I’m being overly dramatic. But my position is supported by history, and history has given us a grave picture of what has happen to countries that ignore negative changes of it’s people. I’m not going to cite history here, or go into a deep research driven paper full of triple checked facts and figures. I’m writing about political change on the human level, and the issues that leaders are ignoring.

THE HOPE OF MIXING THINGS UP

The 2016 Presidential Election was especially polarizing to people around the country. Here in Hobart, if you looked at the votes Trump received, you would think that almost everyone was in agreement that Trump was their guy. Now understand, there were only a few that really believed that Trump was their savior. “I believe in everything in Trump.”” Trump, he’s the best thing since Ronald Regan.”” Hell, the best thing since Eisenhower.” Only a few people said this. Even fewer believed this. The three reasons why Trump won, 1.Trump is a Republican, 2. No one liked Hillary Clinton as a person, and 3. Trump will cause a shack up in Washington. YEAH, THAT’S IT. TRULY. “Come on, this couldn’t be the reason for Trump winning the election?” ” It had to be more than that?” Nope, that was it. The best thing for President Trump was the media and their reporting of his antics. The stalking of Hillary during the debates. The so call locker room talk on the Access Hollywood bus. The big crazy rallies that Trump lead across the country. These reasons created a vision to my people here that he will throw a monkey wrench into the cogs of the Washington establishment. This show, Political Campaign, was the greatest thing on TV since the 2000 Super Bowl where the game truly came down to the last second and yard. That was drama, and the 2016 Election was pure drama. With such a guano show, it made it easy to vote for Trump. Hell, it made it easy with a smile. Plus most people didn’t think he could win it. Trump didn’t think he could win it. The reality is that many of Hillary’s own party didn’t like her, and didn’t show up to vote. Congratulations President Trump on being the next President of the United States of America. You actually won! Now you actually have to lead. This, so far, has seem difficult to accomplish. 

HOPE ON LIFE SUPPORT

In Hobart, nothing has changed. The agricultural markets are still depressed. The economy is on the verge of non-existence, and business’s are still moving or failing. Yet, there is hope here that the President will change things. With the passage of his tax bill. You have a few that say, “maybe we’ll have a little money to do something now”. It’s hope for something better, but a giant tax cut that will expire for the middle class in 2022 is not going to stimulate growth here. This area, and many others need agricultural markets to increase in value. They need small factories to hire non-agricultural workers. They need an infusion of big economic spending now in Hobart that seems will never come. When it won’t come, and when hope dies. Hobart, and towns like it will die. I’ve seen a good example of this nearby. The town of Roosevelt, Oklahoma was always a small town. But when Hobart had an economic boom in the 1980’s. People relocated the 12 miles for a new life. Now the town is nothing but a shell of itself. The only true business is Parts World which have made the town into a junk yard until the newly elected mayor in the summer of 2017 made them clean their mess. Now, the population of Hobart are moving to towns like Elk City, Altus, Lawton, Cordell and Oklahoma City. Main street seems like a ghost town at 9 AM during a work day, and I don’t see anything that President Trump has done or heard what he will do to bring back my hometown. That’s why I’m moving away. I cannot see my town lose it’s hope. I do know, if nothing is done to stimulate growth here within the next 12 months, hope will be lost. Especially if another major employer closes it’s doors. According to rumor, Walmart will close down in 18 months or less. This will place the final nail in the coffin of a town that had died over a year ago when SKF Plant closed. When this happens and hope dies. My hometown will disappear like so many before her.

CONCLUSION

This little article was to provide a view in the thinking of most of the supporters of President Trump in the fly over states (most states in the US that make up the bulk of the countries territory, but holds about only 30 percent of the population). Even though with all the other things we’ve heard in the news how the election was affected, the bottom line is that the people who mostly voted supported Trump to shack up the establishment. To have the leaders, they elected, to listen to them, and maybe save their way of life. Also, a good portion of American voting public simply stayed home and didn’t care about their constitutional duty to vote. No matter how you may have felt, American’s in mass failed to stand for what they believed. The American’s that did stand, left the day in frustration or in grand anticipation for the best. Now both groups that actually voted feel uneasy, with a thin layer of fear. The ones that failed to vote, are energized to vote. They will not let the next opportunity to choose their leaders past again.

Hobart, Oklahoma is only a microcosm of all the small towns and cities throughout the country that are feeling as if their voice is not heard. Their voices are not heard and will not be heard. The life of the US is in her cities. The work will go there mostly unless there is an economic reason to establish anything in the rural areas. Their cry to be heard by their vote for President Trump has been lost on his personal crusade on the culture wars, and name calling on twitter. When these people lose hope, what will Hobart do? What will America do? Still over 30 percent of the population live in towns like Hobart. If they feel that they were not heard in this past election, how will they make themselves heard?