Downstairs I was justly called to task for repeating the widely spread story that Hillary lost WI, PA, and MI because she failed to campaign in those states. I had assumed the story was true because I heard it from multiple sources and failed my due diligence to verify its authenticity. So she actually did campaign in PA and MI, though not in Wisconsin.

Blue collar workers in their 40’s and 50’s didn’t want to hear that they had to train for a new career; Trump promised them that he could perform miracles and they wanted to believe. Yes — a lot of his voters were racist (certainly most of the ones I knew, but they were not blue collar) but there were others who saw no way to recover their lives.

Relocating for a new job is not easy if there is no guarantee that a job will be there. Many workers don’t have the resources to move while their families remain behind in the community that provides support. Especially in a nation where each school system follows its own curriculum — uprooting families also means disrupting children’s academic education as well as social network.