Ben Bradlee Jr.

The “Forgotten” Whites of Luzerne, PA Speak Up

Luzerne County in northeast Pennsylvania flipped for Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Nearly 6000 Democrats changed their registration so they could vote for him in the primary. The overwhelmingly Democrat county then gave Trump his biggest win in the state. Ben Bradlee Jr. went almost immediately to investigate why. He came back with the answer that Hillary Clinton made whites feel ashamed, while Donald Trump made them feel good about show more themselves. Bradlee lets them speak their minds in The Forgotten, a quick and easy read that makes it understandable.

The county used to be an incubator for the middle class. Coal was the first great booster, and when that faded, manufacturing sprung up to keep it all going. Wilkes-Barre, its largest city, topped out at a population of 90,000. Luzerne is mostly Catholic, with a strong and growing evangelical component. They get their news from Fox, Breitbart and Infowars.

The decline accelerated with company relocations to Mexico and China in the late 90s. With no jobs, property values plunged, to where good housing can be had for five figures - but no one wants any. The death rate from opioids is four times New York City’s, with an average age of death of 38. The crime rate is 50% higher than the Pennsylvania average. Guns are a non-controversial part of appearance.

Luzerne has been humiliated by scandals like Kids for Cash, in which judges sent juveniles to for-profit prisons for kickbacks. The population has also changed dramatically: it is now 52% Hispanic, mostly Dominican, the same as for Reading and Allentown nearby. Finally, Pennsylvania ranks fifth in the nation for the number of hate groups operating there, including the Ku Klux Klan in Wilkes-Barre, the county seat. Its population is now 40,000.

Bradlee spent several weeks roaming Luzerne, finding out who was who, and interviewing a dozen diverse white Trump voters in great depth. The chapters profile them, with a photo, the story of their thoughts leading up to the 2016 election and how they came be Trump voters, their family and career history, and how they see Trump now.

The common thread in Luzerne voters’ complaints is a lack of simplicity. They enjoy the simple, tweetable solutions, leveraged so well by Donald Trump (though several wish he wouldn’t tweet so much). They have no time for implications or unintended consequences. For example, Kim Woodrosky , a high school graduate, made herself into a successful landlord, tooling around her properties in her signature bright yellow Corvette. She has 65 apartments providing her a $90,000 annual income. She leases to the lowest end, Section 8 renters, people on welfare. But she complains bitterly about people getting something for nothing. “How is that fair?” she rails repeatedly. She pays taxes, and the money goes to welfare, she claims. Yet if Trump halts welfare, all her tenants will default. She will have to evict them, fall behind on her mortgage payments, and with no real estate market, be unable to sell them off. She will lose her buildings to foreclosure and file for bankruptcy herself. More than her tenants, Woodrosky lives nicely on welfare.

There is also a strong thread of rationalizing Trump. No one actually ignores all his lies (6.5 per day), his infidelities or his crassness. Instead, they have become apologists: “What he really meant was…” or “We’re all sinners” or “Do you know anybody who doesn’t curse?”, or “It’s refreshing.” So no matter what he says or does, he’s the best for them. And they can’t believe the whole country isn’t behind him as he remakes it in his own fantasy.

They absolve Trump of blame for not replacing Obamacare as promised numerous times. Even though he claimed to have his own plan that was far less expensive and offered far more benefits (“Believe me”), the Luzernians blame the Republican Party instead. They say it had seven years to come up with a better plan but didn’t. Even though the party was always against any health plan at all.

They all have unkind words for Hillary Clinton. She was either an unwanted extension of the vile Obama, a criminal in her own right, or an insult to the intelligence of women, who don’t want to be considered single-issue voters (a female president). So even if they couldn’t rationalize Trump, they would not even consider Clinton.

The Obama years weighed extra heavily as Luzerne deteriorated over the past decade. They say it was Obama who was “a degradation to the office”, not Trump. “He almost gave the impression he did not like America, apologizing for our exceptionalism, and I never understood why,” says Erik Olson, a war veteran. He likes Trump because he is not a politician, something strongly echoed throughout The Forgotten. They applaud his unorthodox approach to everything. That’s what they voted for, and they got it.

There is one rising star in Luzerne. Lou Barletta, the mayor of Hazleton until he landed a seat in Congress (on his third try), is now running against Bob Casey for the Senate. A seat of the pants successful entrepreneur and nice guy, he achieved fame in 2006 by trying to expel illegal immigrants from Hazleton, a decade before Trump came along. Barletta was key to Trump’s success in Pennsylvania, and Trump is the one who insisted he run for the Senate seat. He had offered Barletta Secretary of Housing, but Barletta preferred Transport, and so got left out of the cabinet. (Mitch McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, had dibs on Transport.)

Life has not changed in Luzerne, except that many people don’t talk to each other any more because of the Trump/Never Trump rift. They unfriend each other on facebook. Some warehouse businesses are starting up, thanks to Wilkes-Barre’s location at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 84, but the outlook is still grim, with blatant, overt crime at the top of everyone’s list. Followed close by immigrants/race, and gun rights.

Possibly the most important profile in the book is of Alia Habib – who left. She is not “white” according to whites, and she is not a Republican or a Trump supporter. Anyone with education and/or talent leaves, but Alia has analyzed it better than everyone else. Everything in Luzerne is measured through a race lens, she says. Growing up, she was classified “sand nigger” or “camel jockey” because of her name. When she moved to New York City, she was shocked that people thought her intelligent and attractive. She is now a literary agent, and pessimistic for the future of Luzerne, where negativity and support for Trump rule. “I don’t see the next four years will see the residents of Luzerne County better off, but I do think it will be even harder to live there – economically, socially, emotionally – if you number among one of the groups Trump scapegoated.”

Meanwhile, another woman profiled is thrilled that she wakes up “every morning and say to myself Donald Trump is our president so my day doesn’t get any better.”

David Wineberg show less

Ted Williams was a great… and here is where the argument starts. “The Kid”, a name given Williams early in his career by an equipment manager, was a great team player, only out for himself, a horrible father, a man who loved his children, capable of great acts of humble generosity, egotistical, sexist, and the most foul mouthed son of a bitch ever to stride the earth. Far from settling any dispute, The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams by Ben Bradlee, Jr. determinedly collects show more every perspective and places all of them before the reader. Rather than a verdict, Bradlee seems interested only in an understanding of a great man.

I grew up in a home where the statement “I don’t care if another baseball ever crosses the sky” was expressed anytime baseball became the subject of conversation. My father’s generation had no southern team they could see play or root for, and football was the perpetual pinnacle sport, even for many in my generation. Professional baseball did not find its way south until 1966.

In 1975 I went to visit relatives in Boston, and that year the Red Sox took the Reds all the way to game 7 of the World Series before again being touched by the curse of The Babe. The remainder of the 1970’s saw the Patriots draft Stanley Morgan, Roland James, and other Tennessee Volunteers, and I adopted Boston as my favorite sports town. I was introduced to Ted Williams in the early 1980’s by John Updike’s essay on Williams final at bat. I’ve always been a sucker for mythology.

Over the years I would see him appear on David Letterman, Bob Costas, and other shows and be intrigued. The other thing that stood out to me was the reaction of real baseball fans to the mere mention of his name. Even Yankee fans respected and admired the talents of “Teddy Ballgame” and spoke of him in awe. I also learned of his service in the Marines, and not just in a uniform selling bonds, but with the stick of a plane in hand smack dab in the middle of harm’s way. There was from time to time a less than flattering image of Ted that surfaced, but those could be trimmed and discarded like a bad spot on a strawberry.

One of the reasons I so enjoyed Bradlee’s work is that regardless of Ted’s behavior, laudable or reprehensible, Ted remains great. There is nothing hidden and just about the time you are ready to hate the SOB and spit on his grave, Bradlee shows us the great compassion and generosity of his contributions of time and money to The Jimmy Fund, set up to help children with cancer. Quickly followed by a story about Ted’s verbal abuse of some woman. Bradlee was able to create a suspense similar to that found in a thriller, except the ultimate question was not who did it, but who is he.

The end of Ted Williams’ life was dominated by his less than stellar son, a man whose only accomplishment in life was being the son of Ted Williams, and whose moral compass could only point towards money. Not even the huge boom in internet pornography, a venture John Henry Williams was more than happy to try, could overcome his poor business skills.

However, there were two items that Mr. Bradlee presented repeatedly that had universal agreement. Ted Williams was an honest man, and he was the greatest hitter that ever graced a batter’s box. Even through the troubled time at the end of Ted Williams’ life, Mr. Bradlee never lets us forget that Ted Williams is “The Kid once and forever.” show less

ARC provided by NetGalley

I was born long after Ted Williams stopped playing baseball and didn't get into baseball until after he stopped signing and doing appearances. And yet....I remember hearing his name spoken with reverence and honor. The last player to ever hit .400 in a season. The player who spent 5 years of his baseball career, during his prime playing periods, serving as a pilot for the Marines in WWII and in Korea. The player that meant more to his team, his fans, and the world as show more just a ball player...but as a hero. Someone that we could admire and look up to. And in this book Ben Bradlee lays out the life of The Kid and holds nothing back.

Bradlee tells a compelling story of one of baseball's all time greats. A man that was feared in the batting box til his final days and a man that was troubled in his personal life, with multiple marriages, bickering children, and a legacy that others tried to define for him. But in this book Bradlee tries to do Williams justice. He spent 10 years interviewing friends, family (including his daughters), former players, and any other primary source material he could get his hands on to share the full tale of Williams life. Even though this is a long book (over 800 pages!), Bradlee creates a compelling and well written story about Williams life. He shares the good, the bad, and the in between, so we get a full picture of who The Kid really was. And so that perhaps we might also understand that era a bit better as well.

Despite it's length, this is a biography that is perfect for any fan of Ted Williams, baseball, sports biographies, or even just someone that likes biographies. It's well written, and while long, is well worth the read. I give the book 5 out of 5 stars. show less

There wasn't "anything new" in here per-se for me. I had listened before and even in 2016 I was not surprised that Trump got it. There were enough warnings in the run-up that were ignored.

Will this book make a change? Maybe, maybe not. The author at the end gives the same advice that others have given to the democrats: Stand for things, not against them, listen to the people you seem to despise etc. I am not sure this book will have a bigger impact than the others that were written before, show more but time will tell.

An additional note: A reviewer gave a one star review citing that the author wasn't "honest" in their reporting, on a follow up it turns out that one of the people being interviewed seems to have had a strained relationship with the family before Trump. The reason for the low review was apparently that the author was notified about this but didn't reflect it in the book.

This is an interesting question for me, should this affect the value of the book? I don't think so. Ultimately he transcribed that woman's words and presented them to the reader. It is quite possible that the way she sees the relationship is indeed coloured around Trump and how the rest of the family responds to him, or not. For the purpose of this book their interpersonal relationship does not matter. People who support Trump and read how apparently she is good and her grand son is the "typical Hillary supporter" it won't make a difference. They "already know".

For people who are Hillary (or not-Trump) supporters who read it won't suddenly become Trump supports just because of this. Stories like this have been out ever since he got nominated, so the impact of this will be pretty nil.

It probably would have been good form for the author to acknowledge the difference in view points, even if it would have just been a one liner along: "The family disagrees with the way X describes their relationship." But in my estimation it does not affect the message and insight of the book overall. show less