Discontent with Bush grows in hard-hit town "It's the jobs, stupid" and "We love Bush because he's not afraid to mention God" (Bush's self-proclaimed personal advisor)
globeandmail.com
By ALAN FREEMAN
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Cheraw, S.C. — If you were to ask Malloy Evans why he probably won't vote for U.S. President George W. Bush next November, he'd respond: ''It's the jobs, stupid.''
"Bush is making people that have been voting Republican into Democrats because of his lack of sensitivity to the loss of jobs," said Mr. Evans, president of Cheraw Yarn Mills, a cotton producer in the former boomtown of Cheraw, S.C.
Cheraw, a town of 5,500 near the North Carolina border, used to attract factories from the U.S. Northeast and the Midwest with a combination of low wages and a plentiful, non-unionized work force, but the lure of still lower wages in Mexico and China has changed all that.
Mr. Evans has counted more than 700 lost jobs in the past few years, including 60 at his yarn mill.
While the headlines focus on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, the economy is the issue that matters most to voters in small-town America, and Mr. Bush clearly recalls the defeat his father suffered in 1992, when Bill Clinton's team rolled to the White House on the strength of the slogan, "It's the economy, stupid."
Yesterday, Mr. Bush flew to Missouri, a state he only narrowly won in 2000, to reassure voters.
"We're growing," Mr. Bush said after touring an engine plant in Springfield. "The growth is good. New jobs are being created. Interest rates are low. Homeownership is at the highest levels ever."
But residents of Cheraw aren't so sure they agree with that assessment. Mr. Evans noted that plant shutdowns have led to higher property taxes, lower house values and a drop in the quality of medical care as workers lose their health coverage. "It's the unravelling of a town," he said.
"We used to have over 4,700 manufacturing jobs within the city limits of Cheraw," Mayor Andy Ingram noted.
"We provided more jobs per capita than any other town in South Carolina."
No longer. The Weller division of Cooper Industries, which moved here from Pennsylvania to make soldering irons and soldering guns, closed down last year, taking 250 jobs with it.
Last month, Takata Industries, which makes air bags and restraint systems, announced that it is laying off 150 employees in June and moving to Guadalajara, Mexico. Even the local Burger King has shut its doors.
"We can't compete with the Mexican labour market," said Mr. Ingram, who is also a local real-estate broker. "We can't compete with the Brazilians. Washington has got to put in place more fair-trade policies."
South Carolina has been bleeding jobs since 2001, the first time since the Depression that the state has lost jobs three years in a row. Last year, the number shrank by 41,000, including 19,700 in manufacturing. Although the statewide jobless rate is just 6.1 per cent, there are regions where it's as high as 17 per cent. In the Cheraw area, it's 9.7 per cent.
Last week, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll reported that approval of Mr. Bush's handling of the economy fell to 44 per cent, compared with 53 per cent a month earlier. The number of jobs lost nationally since Mr. Bush took office now stands at 2.2 million.
Mr. Bush easily won South Carolina in the 2000 presidential campaign, garnering strong support from the state's socially conservative white voters, but even they can no longer be taken for granted.
Charlie Rose, a Cheraw antiques dealer who last voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in 1976, is having second thoughts about his vote this fall.
"I voted for Bush last time, but right now I'm leaning toward John Kerry," he said, referring to the Massachusetts senator who is now expected to take the Democratic presidential nomination and is already leading Mr. Bush in national polls.
Mr. Rose is upset at Mr. Bush's economic record and can't understand the thinking behind "going to the moon and going to Mars when you have trouble paying the rent."
The retired investment adviser, who is hoping to turn Cheraw into a tourist centre and a mecca for retirees, is proud of the town's historic quarter, whose wide streets are lined with lovely pre-Civil War homes. Yet outside the centre, Cheraw seems to sprawl forever with fast-food joints, rusting mobile homes and roadside businesses offering "payday loans" and instant tax refunds.
"The economy is atrocious," said John Lockany, a onetime custodial worker who lost his job after suffering a back injury.
"Anywhere you look something is closing."
Mr. Lockany backs John Edwards, the senator from neighbouring North Carolina who won the recent South Carolina primary and has focused his campaign on his regional roots and a defence of working people and the poor.
There do remain many white voters in the South who plan to stick with Mr. Bush in November, regardless of who represents the Democrats.
"I started voting Republican when Eisenhower went in and I'm still a Republican even though my grandson went over to Iraq twice," said Mary Hilliard, owner of Mary's Restaurant.
But Robert Cole, a member of the county council and a leading member of the town's black community, says he's worried about the impact of the layoffs on the town as a whole and on the blacks in particular.
"This is about as bad as I've seen it in a number of years," he said. "We can always rest assured that when the Republicans are in office, they do not have the working man's interest at heart." And he's convinced that no matter what happens, most white voters will stay loyal to Mr. Bush.
That's certainly the case with Buddy Brooks, the local State Farm Insurance broker, who has come to Mr. Cole's diner with his wife for some fried chicken. Mr. Brooks, a cheerful 59-year-old who prefers talking golf over politics, acknowledges that the economy has hurt his insurance business. But that won't change how he votes in November.
"We love Bush," he said. "We can't say how refreshing it is to have him after Clinton. This is the first president we've seen since his daddy who is not afraid of mentioning God. We think he's a wholesome good guy." |
