Farmers for Trump
For many Americans, the rural countryside is the 'real' America. Trump and his team have been hugely successful in crafting the image of rural life as something that is pure America; untainted and disrespected by outsiders, liberals and urbanites.
“I think there is very much this us versus them mentality,” she says. “It's two Americas."
Leyla Santiago joins me from her farmhouse kitchen in rural Virginia where she has chicken coops and bee hives. After leaving CNN where she was an award-winning correspondent, Leyla moved to the countryside, became a mom and teaches journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Leyla, a proud Latina with Puerto Rican roots, and I talked a lot on air when I had my show on CNN. Like with one of other regular on-air CNN guests, Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, I’ve always wanted to hear more about Leyla’s backstory and her thoughts on America.
She lives in Trump turf, as she calls it, now. “My neighbor has a big sign that says Farmers for Trump. There's a huge sign downtown that basically says F@#k Joe Biden right across from the church, by the way.”
For many Americans, the rural countryside is the 'real' America. Trump and his team have been hugely successful in crafting the image of rural life as something that is pure America; untainted and disrespected by outsiders, liberals and urbanites.
“I think there is very much this us versus them mentality,” she says. “It's two Americas."
For many rural voters, immigration and inflation will be key in their choice of President.
Trump has promised to be tough on immigration.
I asked Leyla why many Latino men have moved right and support Trump’s hardline threats on immigration even though he’s used racist tropes to describe them?
As a Latina woman with Puerto Rican background, Leyla says the Latino communities in the USA are a blend of different people in different places. “When he says they're coming over the border and they're not bringing their best, they're bringing the rapists and the criminals. Cubans don't consider themselves Mexicans, Puerto Ricans don't consider themselves Mexicans. And so it's a little bit like, yeah, he's talking about Latinos, but he's not talking about me.”
Crucially, she says the Republicans messaging on the economy and inflation really connects to many Latinos who have a historical and personal dislike of leftist dictatorships. “They really targeted those Cubans in Miami by putting out things like Biden is a socialist, right? You say socialism to a Venezuelan or a Cuban that has a voting registration card in the US and those are fighting words, right? Like that is fear.”
Many targeted Republican political advertisements on television or online are issuing dire warnings that America will be turned into a socialist state because of Democratic economic policies.
Donald Trump has been struggling to find an honorific by which to insult Kamala Harris. He defined Clinton as Crooked Hilary and now he’s testing the nickname Comrade Kamala - calling her it at rallies and on social media to see if it will stick.
Donald Trump has a sharp instinct for playing on voter’s fears and labeling Kamala Harris as so left-leaning that she’s a Marxist, Communist, Socialist (even though most people couldn’t tell the difference between all three) plays well to a certain type of voters; the type of voters that might just well make the difference between whether he spends the next four years living at the White House or Mar-a-lago.
Join me,
Robyn
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Jimmy carter is a good man
American Presidents - like England’s Kings and Queens - reflect a specific era in history. Jimmy Carter, who turns 100 this week, was a one-term Democratic President whose loss to Ronald Reagan in 1979 ushered a new type of Republicanism and the excess of the 1980’s.
American Presidents - like England’s Kings and Queens - reflect a specific era in history. Jimmy Carter, who turns 100 this week, was a one-term Democratic President whose loss to Ronald Reagan in 1979 ushered a new type of Republicanism and the excess of the 1980’s. On his birthday, Carter’s legacy will be discussed a lot but almost everyone will be in agreement about one thing. Jimmy Carter is a good man. The same can’t be said for many other occupants of the Oval Office.
I have known Washington Post journalist Kevin Sullivan for decades. He and his wife Mary Jordan won the Pulitzer Prize when they were based in Mexico City. They’ve always written as a team. Kevin, Mary, my husband Kim, who works at CNN, and I have shared many meals together in cities around the world. Over wine and food, I have heard Kevin’s stories about interviewing American Presidents (including Donald Trump) and I wanted to share with you all some of his insights on the country’s leaders.
Kevin holds a special place in his heart for Jimmy Carter, who he also shared a meal with at Carter’s home in Plains, Georgia. He tells me that when he was visiting he realized Carter’s home was so modest that it was worth less than the cost of the Secret Service vehicles parked outside.
If you want to hear where Kevin would go if he could time travel in American history, take a listen to the bonus episode. Each week I send my guests a Proust-like questionnaire and it’s always fun to hear what they answer.
I’m Searching for America by interviewing good Americans about good Americans and trying to understand this complicated country in a time of change without hysteria or partisanship. Please recommend this podcast to your friends and family around the world.
Join me,
Robyn
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Why is Jesus on the Ballot?
Unlike other Western democracies, America's politics are infused with religion. God is everywhere, all the time, especially during election season. As we get closer to the November polls, it would seem Jesus is personally invested in the outcome of the vote if you listen to candidates up and down the ballot.
Unlike other Western democracies, America's politics are infused with religion. God is everywhere, all the time, especially during election season. As we get closer to the November polls, it would seem Jesus is personally invested in the outcome of the vote if you listen to candidates up and down the ballot.
I’ve covered elections across the world for the past thirty years, and I can’t think of another country (that isn’t a theocracy) that has such a deep sense of its own religiosity when votes are being courted and counted.
Doug Heye is a Republican strategist and even though I wasn't planning on talking about Trump, Republicans and God with him, the conversation went there and I am so glad it did. It’s so fascinating!
Doug Heye says Republicans and Democrats have used religion to attract voters in the past but evangelical fervor for Donald Trump has turbo-charged the Republican ticket in different ways.
President Trump, who struggles to quote Bible verses and is no poster child for the Ten Commandments, has a loyal and powerful base among evangelical Christians. Trump and his supporters say they are doing God’s work because, in spite of the fact that he slept with a porn star weeks after his wife gave birth to his son, they see him as a savior on single issues around abortion, IVF and even gun control. It’s a Faustian bargain for the true believer, but it’s one that millions of Christians are willing to make this November.
Doug Heye is wary of making a moral equivalency but he suggests that campaigning in churches has been a constant in American politics, even for Democrats. The civil rights movement, he says, was a faith-based movement that was extremely powerful. Democrats, especially in places like Atlanta where I live, continue to base a large part of their outreach to voters via African-American churches.
But there is something more, isn’t there, about the temperature levels of religion in this election? It feels almost too hot to write about or talk about in a podcast; as if questioning why there’s the personification of Jesus in this race is an act of diabolical heresy.
For years now, Doug points out, there's been an erosion in institutions - from the press, to the church, to government, to even Hollywood. The breakdown in institutions was super-charged by Covid. So, he says, politics has become a religion for a lot more voters than it used to be. It’s intense and it’s personal.
That made a lot of sense to me. ‘Politics is the new Religion’ helps me understand why some voters can sit with the hypocrisy of language that is thrown around so carelessly. In an age of division, extremism and identity politics, even though the pious can preach they love their neighbor, they don't.
Self-righteousness across the political spectrum is easy to find nowadays. From the left to right, it sometimes sounds like voters think their political viewpoint is divinely set in stone. “There is a tendency to want to find somebody as an apostate, or as a heretic,” says Doug. Leaders, of course, are quick to manipulate.
Take a listen, and if you’d like a more outsider perspective of America please get friends and family to sign up to this newsletter and follow us on Searching for America wherever you get your podcast. Join me,
Robyn
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Enemies can be perceived to be everywhere, even in classrooms.
Sarah and her family are not Trump voters - “Can’t stand the guy” - but she is also critical of Democratic Party which she believes ignored the pleas of large chunks of ordinary Americans who were struggling with the effects of globalization and the challenges of small-town life.
There are many frontlines in America’s culture wars. In a divided country, enemies can be perceived to be everywhere, even in classrooms.
I can’t wait for you to listen to Josh Clark, who is a head teacher and on the board of the National Association of Independent Schools. He’s also a world expert on teaching dyslexic kids. Josh has a broad, bird’s-eye view of how identity politics and censoring self-righteousness has invaded classrooms.
“Us versus Them” thinking creates children who are scared of complexity or ambiguity. Josh is emphatic that teachers need to be trusted to teach multiple viewpoints without overprotective parents thinking their kids are being indoctrinated. No teacher, says Josh, goes to work to be underpaid, overworked and to “screw over” your kid.
I have been wanting to talk to author Sarah Smarsh for years because she is one of the few people on the national stage who can explain, with authenticity, about a part of America that is often overlooked and undervalued. Sarah grew up in a poor, white rural area of Kansas. Her mom gave birth to her when she was seventeen and she was raised by her grandparents on their farm. Her latest book is called Bone on Bone; Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class.
Donald Trump won over poor, white, working class folk in rural America because he has been able to channel their anger. Sarah and her family are not Trump voters - “Can’t stand the guy” - but she is also critical of Democratic Party which she believes ignored the pleas of large chunks of ordinary Americans who were struggling with the effects of globalization and the challenges of small-town life.
In Searching for America, I’m curious about stories and perspectives from places that are not New York or Washington.
Josh grew up in Tennessee. His dad was a prison warden and as a young boy he lived in the warden's house inside a federal penitentiary complex in Virginia. Josh’s first friend was a prisoner called Nelson. "Nelson was an inmate who worked in our yard, who'd smuggled cocaine into the country in a private plane in the 1970s. I was seven. I thought he walked on water. But it was interesting growing up in this dynamic of the industrial prison system."
Sarah writes with empathy about her grandmother’s dentures (all her teeth were removed in her twenties because she had no dental healthcare) and helping her grandparents harvest wheat or butcher their livestock. No matter if rural folks vote for Harris or Trump, Sarah helps us understand the deep sense of frustration felt by millions of Americans towards the “elites.”
American politics is more than polls. The election is about stories; which voters feel seen and heard and which voters feel invisible and angry. One group is going to outvote the other. I don’t want to be surprised again, like we were in 2016, so I’m trying to understand by listening.
Join me,
Robyn
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Why I launched a podcast to decode the U.S.A. for the world (and maybe a few Americans too.)
Why I launched a podcast to decode the USA for the world
In my search for the real America - that elusive soul of the U.S.A. - I’ve come to realize, via miles traveled and steps walked, that the sheer size of this country makes it almost impossible to pin down a single description of America or its inhabitants. The landmass is so huge and geographically and culturally diverse that I’ve barely visited a fraction of the places I want to see in the decade I’ve called Atlanta, Georgia my home.
With the Presidential election looming, I’ve been struck by how many Americans feel unrepresented by the politicians and two political parties that dominate this gargantuan landscape. The words ‘politically homeless’ are thrown about a lot to describe a large chunk of the electorate.
Here in the South, and across the country, there are millions of good Americans who want the best for this country, who are dismayed by the loud extremism from the right and the left and who want to mend fences with fellow Americans after years of division.
I know a lot of good Americans - soldiers, teachers, politicians, writers, comedians, chefs, journalists, singers - and the conversations we have on this podcast will hopefully help to decode the choices Americans are making.
I travelled the world as an anchor and foreign correspondent for decades. I look at America through the lens of outsider and outlier, even though I live here. The only way to make sense of troubling times is to listen to everyone and, hopefully, laugh along the way.
Thanks for joining me,
Robyn
Good Americans
Lt. Gen Mark Hertling and Jason Kander
Lt. General Mark Hertling is a soldier, a thinker and a man who admits he cries at the ‘opening of a supermarket’ even though he won a Purple Heart for bravery.
When I was a CNN anchor, Mark and I spoke many times on air during battles, wars and terror attacks. I often wanted to chat to Mark after my show was over and listen to his stories.
Jason Kander 'sorta ran for President' in 2020 before checking himself into a military psychiatric ward for PTSD (he served as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan.) Jason knows Kamala Harris and is still dialed into Washington politics from his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri where he runs a charity for homeless veterans.
Searching for America gives me the opportunity - and indulgence - to go back to some of the most interesting people I’ve interviewed and ask them the questions I didn’t get time to ask during breaking news.
What does it feel like knowing you’re willing to die for America? Why are military veterans treated with such reverence at baseball games and airports? Why do so many civilians dress in camouflage gear and carry weapons of war? Who is Kamala Harris? Who votes for Donald Trump?
I deliberately spoke to two army veterans over the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. 9/11 changed their lives and they can articulate what it means to be American right now with a unique perspective.
