What a day for a daydream What a day for a daydreamin' boy And I'm lost in a daydream Dreamin' 'bout my bundle of joy And even if time ain't really on my side It's one of those days for takin' a walk outside I'm blowin' the day to take a walk in the sun And fall on my face on somebody's new mowed lawn
I've been havin' a sweet dream I been dreamin' since I woke up today It's starrin' me and my sweet dream 'Cause she's the one that makes me feel this way
And even if time has passing me by a lot I couldn't care less about the dues you say I got Tomorrow I'll pay the dues for droppin' my load A pie in your face for bein' a sleepy bulltoad
And you can be sure that if you're feelin' right A daydream will last along into the night Tomorrow at breakfast you may pick up your ears Or you may be daydreamin' for a thousand years
What a day for a daydream Custom made for a daydreamin' boy And now I'm lost in a daydream Dreamin 'bout my bundle of joy
John Sebastian
First a Confession, I have two posts in progress on the "usual" themes, both leaving me "unsatisfied". So today's post was inspired by a conversation I had Friday with blog follower Phil Gocke, who is also my "financial advisor" (a shameless plug Phil). Phil reached out to talk about the "obvious"- this weeks Corona Virus market meltdown. During our conversation I could not help but relay my own "post ski day" reflection on a poll (one that I made without a conscience effort) derived from three conversations I had that day. So here is my "polling data". I departed for my regular ski routine that morning solo, as I have for a couple of weeks now, due to my "Faithful and Obedient's" forced time off due to her recent meniscus surgery (she is doing well by the way!). While I miss her company, such solo trips to the mountain offer opportunities for interactions with people both on the bus and on the lifts. This Friday seemed especially interesting as the day unfolded. Particularly with the "bad news" of the week. My first encounter was at the bus stop at the end of our street. Usually it is empty on Friday but that day found me striking up a conversation (both at the stop and on the bus) with a nice couple, and their two young adult children, from Dayton Ohio. They were making their annual winter visit to Winter Park and we began with a discussion about "skis". He (for some reason?) was admiring my Volkls which I bought when we lived in Stowe. He told me he was a frequent visitor to Colorado not only to ski, but also for business. He was also a ski patroller at a "ski area in Ohio" to which we both shared a hearty laugh! Our discussion evolved into families, a history of where we have lived (he was Ohio born and raised), how we connected with Winter Park etc. He was very curious about life in Winter Park and retirement. I could tell he was at that stage in life and was eying up places to live. At no point did politics, Corona Virus or Market crashes come up...even when I coughed. We parted company at the bus drop off saying maybe we would meet again over the next week The second conversation was on my second lift ride, where I boarded from the "singles line" . This ride found me in the company of a nice young lady and her husband from Maryland. They had two young children which I learned about when she mentioned they were enrolled in ski school. He was a government contractor from Lockheed Martin, she was a stay at home mom whose father retired to Fraser several years ago. They made annual ski trips to Winter Park every year for he father's birthday weekend. Once again I found us chatting the entire lift ride about families, kids and even Stowe where they occasionally skied (I had opened the conversation when I overheard her telling her husband maybe their passes would be good at "Stowe" I proceeded to chime in-uninvited to inform her she would have to go to Sugarbush or Stratton with her IKON pass and walla our conversation ensued. ) Once again no mention of Corona or stock markets! Finally my last lift ride of the day found me next to a gentleman and his friends from Kansas City, Mo. You see he had a Chiefs Superbowl Shirt shirt over his ski jacket (skiers from Missouri always seem to put a "jersey" over their jackets!). I congratulated him on their victory and mentioned I was an Andy Reid fan..from my Eagles loyalty. He went on to tell me he was a seasons ticket holder who won the fan Lottery for Super Bowl Tickets and was actually at the game. It was a short but fun lift ride. We departed hoping for an Eagles vs Chiefs Super Bowl next year (sorry Pats fans!) Of course no mention of Corona Virus or Market Meltdowns. As I rode the bus home I went into a "Daydream" about what a wonderful day I had on the sunny slopes (the first sunny day in a week), particularly the three wonderful conversations from people of different ages, walks of life and geographic parts of the good old USA. A fitting random sample I think! No divides existed on this sunny day on the ski slopes! I thought of this as Phil and I spoke about the all the hyper news of the week. So in retrospect perhaps that Gallup Poll was a pretty fair sample of the countries "satisfaction"! With that pleasant note I bid you all Adieu
So long sad times Go long bad times We are rid of you at last Howdy gay times Cloudy gray times You are now a thing of the past
Happy days are here again The skies above are clear again So let's sing a song of cheer again Happy days are here again
Altogether shout it now There's no one Who can doubt it now So let's tell the world about it now Happy days are here again
Your cares and troubles are gone
Lyrics from Happy Days are here again
Today's post was inspired by the the recent release of Gallup's annual "Personal Satisfaction Survey". This year's survey showed a record percentage of Americans felt "satisfaction" with their personal life., a survey they have taken since the late 1970's. See graph below:
Of course the Republican "Tribe" has already used this as proof positive that Trump will be re-elected. That everyone is so happy because the economy is "booming". I on the other hand am skeptical of this train of thought, as you will see as I delve into the topic. So here goes: My last post certainly sounded a dismal tone when I discussed how our tribal warfare was making us such a divided country. Was I wrong? Particularly since it appears that in reality most of us are actually pretty happy, at least with our personal lives. As I pondered this I thought, "Before I make this a blog post maybe this survey needs further exploration and consideration". So I downloaded the public version and took a look at how the overall survey breaks down in terms of people being satisfied: Men Women White's Nonwhite Rep Dem Independent 92% 87% 92% 86% 93% 86% 89% Well based on this analysis ... even democrats are relatively "happy" at least in their personal lives Before going directly to my "observations" I would like to make a comment about the raw data. When I looked at the sample selection by political leanings, (i.e. actual survey respondents) it raised a flag (at least to me). Below are the actual survey respondents by political party of those surveyed versus national percentages of registered party affiliations (which I got from Wikipedia):
Republican's polled =32% of survey responses while National Party registration Percentage is 31.3% (spot on). Independents polled = 41% while Nationally the registration of independents is 25% (way higher polled). Democrats polled =27% while Nationally the registration of percentage is 43.7% (way lower polled). So Democrats were under polled by Gallup and independents were over polled. Now I am no expert on polls but something seems a tad amiss based on raw responses to this survey. Unfortunately I cannot tell if this was an anomaly with this survey either in the past, or just in 2019. Maybe a lot of ticked off democrats simply hung up on Gallup?? Regardless Gallup seems confident about their methodology (see Gallup's survey notes at bottom of blog) so I will use that as justification for being too lazy to research Gallup further on this. Instead I will proceed with my "Observations" assuming that "statistical gobbly de goop" they outlined below has overcome my skepticism. First a graph of how and what they measured in terms of "personal satisfaction":
So for "fun" I decided to use a grading system like we had in high school in an effort to create an "American Satisfaction" report card: 1. We get an "A" (excellent" grade over 90%) as respects our feelings on: Family Life, Educational attainment, and in how we spend our leisure time. 2. We get a "B" (good grade over 80%) on how we feel about our: Housing, Personal Health, the communities we live in and with our overall "standard of living". 3. We get only a "C" (Average grade over 70%) when it comes to satisfaction with our jobs, and our income. 4. The only thing doing poorly is the "D" (under 70%) for how we feel about the "amount" of our "leisure" time. In essence we need to work "harder" when it comes to taking more "time off"! Which reminded me of that famous employment interview question and answer: Interviewer: "Jim tell me your greatest weakness." My Answer: "I tend to be to much of a perfectionist at work." Similar train of thought when the Average Joe says to Mr., Ms, or whatever gender you are or identify as surveyor, is I lack enough "lazy" time. Regardless what seems clear is that we generally seem pretty happy, and getting happier! Now frankly from a personal standpoint that would be my general Observation about the typical American. So how does that square with my grim tribal observation on my last blog post? Well one key is that this happiness with family, and community etc is just that. We live in different communities, and frankly we have become even more "isolated" into these physical and social silos. Our happiness in San Francisco, or New York is likely in communities and families with like minds. Ditto for those living in Batesville Arkansas, and Punxsutawney Pa. Red State Blue State, Urban Versus rural have become more concentrated and more monolithic. So any extra leisure time "Happiness" may come from golf or skiing, but just as likely it may be found in rallying for Bernie, or Trump, or protesting for Sanctuary cities or impeachment, or rallying for "right to Life or 2nd amendment rights'. Heck with social media you don't have to physically leave your house to protest with your friends on twitter. Each side anticipates and believes they are on the right side of history and the joy is working together in that direction...to convince everyone how right we all are. As Haidt termed it, "The Righteous Mind". In other words we as a nation likely relish our competitive politics and take great satisfaction with it all. Kind of like rooting for our sports teams AKA Them Eagles versus them hated Cowboys. Or we can all just hate Tom Brady and the Pats! Think I am nuts? I will end with a clip from a great article last Sunday in the Wall Street Journal on "The Science of Friendship" that has some relevance to all this. The Surprising Science Behind Friendships From the Article (which to me was not a "surprise") Why do we become friends with one person and not another? There’s this interesting chemistry to friendship. Just like in romance, you are more drawn to some people than you are others. Some of it is very straightforward: You are interested in the same things, you spend time in the same place. That’s one reason why we are close to relatives, because you have a head start, you spend more time with them than you do anyone else. (I highlight in bold the author's own "observation" to which I see as "obvious" oh the lonely world of "scientists") We do tend to be better friends with people who are more like us. Having a shared world-view turns out to be important. Scientists looked at all these people in a social network, showed them the same sets of videos and looked at how their brains responded to these videos. They could predict just by looking at the brain processing who was friends with whom. Literally, you hear and see the world more like the people you are friends with. The big question is: Is it cause or effect? Are you drawn to people who already see and process the world more similarly from the start or do you become more similar? Of course, as with so many things, the answer is probably both. So I am left with two final questions 1. Regardless of one's world lens can it they still find satisfaction and happiness within a "Tribe" win lose or draw? 2. If true does our divide in some weird way actually make us all "happier"? Even when taking a Gallup survey. With those crazy thoughts until next time I bid you, Adieu. PS. From this morning's WSJ news:
Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign is hiring hundreds of workers in California to post regularly on their personal social-media accounts in support of the candidate and send text messages to their friends about him.
The effort, which could cost millions of dollars, is launching ahead of California’s March 3 primary and could later be deployed nationwide, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
To staff the effort, the campaign is hiring more than 500 “deputy digital organizers” to work 20 to 30 hours a week and receive $2,500 a month, the documents show. In exchange, those workers are expected to promote Mr. Bloomberg to everyone in their phones’ contacts by text each week and make social-media posts supporting him daily, the documents show.
If you start seeing "Mike Can Get It Done" banners like this you'll know I finally figured out a way to squeeze some $$$ out of this blog. I might need your help in "reposting and expanding" my network. I would be willing to cut you in on the action!! Of course it looks like I would have to do a blog post every day but what the heck 15 minutes a day....for a couple grand a month. Not bad work! I even like the title, "Digital Deputy". Just gotta find out if my blog qualifies as a "social-media" post, I would think it is! I can see my happiness index going places! Results are based on telephone interviews conducted January 2-15, 2020 with a random sample of –1,014—adults, ages 18+, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on this sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 70% cell phone respondents and 30% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cell phone telephone numbers are selected using random digit dial methods. Gallup obtained sample for this study from Dynata. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member has the next birthday. Samples are weighted to correct for unequal selection probability, non-response, and double coverage of landline and cell users in the two sampling frames. They are also weighted to match the national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, population density, and phone status (cell phone-only/landline only/both and cell phone mostly). Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2018 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older U.S. population. Phone status targets are based on the January-June 2018 National Health Interview Survey. Population density targets are based on the 2010 census. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls. For questions about how this survey was conducted, please contact galluphelp@gallup.com. ______________________________________________
OK Bloggers Rise and Shine...............It's Groundhog Day
Today's post...and the next few (I hope) have been in my head for months. The impetus to get started was of all things...Bill Murray's Super Bowl Commercial (I had flagged before the game to several of you thanks to blog follower James' "Alert"). It would appear that it was a game day "favorite" based on both Local (Denver) and National News Organizations (i.e. USA Today) polls.
Bill Murray's Jeep Commercial was a wonderful parody of a great movie. In my mind Groundhog day rates up there with cinema's best.. In year's past I have commented on it many times, to both family and friends and even have made a passing reference in a blog post or two.. As always my faithful and Obedient Companion and I watched it again this year on Groundhog day- right after the Superbowl.
During this year's viewing I was hit by a different theme, one I guess I never thought about before in watching "Phil and Rita" , but something I have thought of broaching for some time and from other "angles". So today's Observation will begin an attempt at hitting some long held thoughts (and maybe some dialog?) on very current issues, as mentioned in this post's title.
Every time I have watched Groundhog Day it always has been first and foremost an allegory about seeking true meaning in life. The essence of the story is about how we as humans invariably look to first find "satisfaction" through selfish hedonism, greed and even gluttony only to find that they all fail to provide any real meaning to our "self". The protagonist, Bill Murray (Phil), final finds his true meaning ONLY after he finds it can only come in a community of others, and more importantly is actualized by both giving of yourself to those others and by accepting them for who they are.
This year, however, a "fresh" note struck me as we watched it. It was how Murray's character (at least initially) is an "elitist" weatherman who knows it "all". At one point, in his hubris he even claims "I make the "weather" to a policeman ordering him to turn back to Punxsutawney. All the while he freely shares with his co-workers his disparaging thoughts about the people of Punxsutawney, stating clearly that through their behavior (right down to their love of Blood Sausage) they were nothing but "Hicks Rita". As I watched them initially drive into "Punxsutawney" (actually it was filmed in a town in Indiana) it reminded me so much of driving into Northampton PA to visit with "my faithful and obedient" companions sister and her family. Through the years I have come to know
and like this place very much. It is my vision of "America" complete with flags flying on mainstreet, friendly people in restaurants gas stations and and ice cream parlors and even a local Hungarian Club. Funny enough because , I went to college in Northampton County as well, but really never thought about anything but the Bars in those days!
As I thought of this (boy did my mind wander this year) I recollected something else about Northampton County Pa. for it clicked at that moment back to a book I read after the 2016 election (I have mentioned it before in a post) "The Great Divide". You may recall I mentioned how it documented-through interviews with residents of "flipped counties"- how Donald Trump won in 2106. Northampton County Pa was a county prominently discussed in the book because it went for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and then for Trump in 2016. Why? well might I suggest you read the book. But here is a hint, it was sure not because they were Nazi/ racist/ white / supremacists. In fact many of the voters interviewed wondered how they could be termed "racist" after voting for an African American for President in this case twice (Northampton voted for Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012).
Northampton County is a place with an interesting mix- kind of a microcosm of our country, it has commuters to New York and North Jersey, and residents whose families have been there for generations. Many of them hunt and most days from my sister in laws house you can hear the local gun range down the road. Many attend Lutheran or UCC churches both of which espouse very liberal social justice views.... Funny I then thought of President Obama's comment about "Bitter Clingers" to their "Guns and Religion" ( he too was a UCC member) and I wonder if any of that that played out in 2016 along with Hillary's "deplorable" comments.
Now before you all jump to conclusions on how I seem to "Observe" all this from a "one-sided" perspective-I also understand that one cannot ignore accepting those different than us in our community, and giving up of oneself for others-goes both ways. Entrenched attitudes that cling to views that deny basic humanity to others in our society are also contributors to our great divide. I have no doubt that many race baiters likely voted for this President. But I do not believe for a minute this was why Northampton County....and hundreds of others flipped to Donald Trump in 2016. See my note at end from Wikipedia on Politics in Northampton County.
Bottom line the "Elites" (you will see who I mean by that in a moment) rejected any idea that this was possible without either nefarious intruders in the process or because of racist or sexist intent by huge numbers of their fellow Americans. In a nutshell they were "Hicks Rita".
Now to a second point from "Groundhog Day" Much of our political malaise arises from our universal tendency as humans to seek impose our will and sense of "right" on our fellow humans. Groundhog Day illustrates this perfectly. After Murray's attempts at pure hedonism fail to satisfy him, he decides to use his unique position of defying death as a means to impose his will on others-by any means possible. In Groundhog Day "Phil" secretly studies Rita (likely over hundreds or maybe even even thousands of "days") with the intent to exploit her emotions and to bed her. It is not enough for him to have his "free will" but he must exert his will over others- one way or another.
So if you cannot win your ideas at the ballot box there are many other ways of doing so in our modern state apparatus. One can use Universal Public Education to stamp out incorrect thinking, or use the administrative state like Human Rights commissions to dictate thought and speech and correct religious beliefs etc. Either way large swatches of our country felt their way of life was falling apart.
Wow Jim aren't we a little paranoid? Maybe but over the next few blog posts, using mainly first hand incidents I will try to lay this out further. Through this I ask all my reader not to necessarily think I am against "progress". What I am against is unlegislated and underhanded pushing of rapid social change without open free and unfettered discussions. It is the lack of this that has much of the country in an ugly mood (in my opinion).
In Groundhog Day Phil finally learns that imposing his will in this way is doomed to eternal failure, Rita simply will not comply. Would that we had thousands of days (or even years according to some commentators on Groundhog Day) to get life right! Or some other way to bring along our fellow citizens to correct thoughts and deeds.
So to end this Observation: about the America's Tribal Warfare:
I believe that as a country we find ourselves locked in a battle to impose our respective political groups "will" on the other using whatever means possible. It is not a new battle in our country's history by any means. But in my (admittedly as Haidt would say 'Biased") mind over the past 30-40 years we have had a monolithic take no prisoners, cultural, economic and cultural revolution which has blossomed on both coasts, and has shaped the thinking in our universities (and educators at all levels), our media, and our political parties. This has taken place in such a way that suddenly in the last decade or two large parts of our country found themselves out of touch with many of these new "values" which seems to be never ending in there evolution. So in pushing back, of course we have conflict.
So why would anyone be surprised by either Trump and Bernie's appeal (from almost opposite sides) that has been a result of all this.
Bottom line these movements which turned away from "normal" politics in 2016 were finally noticed by the "elites" i.e. those who have "run things" in most of my lifetime. From a pure "selfish" standpoint they ran them just fine. I have my health and I have my comfortable retirement. But maybe like Phil we need more than that. Maybe the forces that want us to impose our will on others cannot but help kick in. Weird, maybe that is even my motivation ..to make you all think like me. Hmmmm possibly it would be nice if everyone thought like me well at least my kids! That ain't happening!
Well like "Phil" maybe it is my thoughts are selfish but heck it is my blog!
I will conclude this post with some snippets from a November Piece in National Review. I believe they dovetail well with much of this piece. Hopefully future blogs will a couple deal with specific issues and maybe even a couple thoughts of how we can ever reach accommodation and not exert our will on others in a "free" society.
I do look forward to reactions and comments from anyone who wishes to add their voice.
Till next Time
I bid you
Adieu
Meanwhile: To National Review
(Note: Kevin Williamson is a National Review writer, a conservative, but with an unabashed anti-imperial presidency bias.)
First I will paraphrase/Summarize his commentary :
Williamson cites our current divide as somewhat similar with past divides in our country, particularly Urban/Rural (Elites and Hicks I would say!) but with some new power dynamics in the Presidency.
He outlines that since our founding we have always had a rural/cosmopolitan divide. However, some very general values were shared. In the the last few decades suddenly portions of our country started to reengineer some basic values, for example the definition of who is Male/Female and it's meaning in marriage, and yes abortion. Add to that to many the economic system seemed stacked and "unfair". Unable to get the consensus needed to redefine these issues via the constitutional process we went through court fiats to enforce the will of one segment of our population on the other. Whenever congress got in the way we used Presidential fiats and administrative rulings to advance agenda's. The Federal Government took over major parts of daily life i.e. healthcare, is one but one but even things like what could or would be taught in local schools etc, so we have an administrative state accountable virtually to itself and/ or the Executive Branch of our country. While this has simmered for some time it erupted over the last 10 years or so.
More ominously as the countries voters separated into two worldviews with so much power now the in the executive branch many hings we all once saw as something we can resolve locally etc became a huge stake nationally particularly based primarily on who is President. (as Obama said...I have a Pen and paper) This has gotten more and more emphasis and has culminated in Donald Trump.
The election of Trump had a virulent counter-reaction from the power elites in this country
To Finish let me provide some directly commentary that I found to be a very insightful view, so I choose not to "paraphrase".
Directly From National Review "Impeachment and the Broken Truce"
Who bet on Hillary in 2016: Donations from people associated with Goldman Sachs to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign outnumbered those to Trump’s campaign 70 to 1. (Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona was a larger recipient of Goldman Sachs–affiliated money in 2016 than was Trump.) Among bankers at large, Clinton’s donations led Trump’s 7 to 1. Among people affiliated with Harvard, Mrs. Clinton’s edge was 200 to 1. Facebook money favored Clinton 100 to 1; Apple money favored her 135 to 1; Google favored her 76 to 1; Exxon Mobil favored her 4 to 1; Walmart favored her 3 to 1. Mrs. Clinton led Trump 4 to 1 among securities and investing donors, Mrs Clinton led 20 to 1 among lawyers and law firms, 4 to 1 among those in the film and television business, 3 to 1 among those in health care, 3 to 2 among real-estate people. Which is to say, Mrs. Clinton was by far the preferred candidate of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the Ivy League, Big Business, medical staff, lawyers, and real-estate developers, to say nothing of government workers and their. unions.
And even with all that support, and even as she ran up her totals in a handful of large and lopsidedly Democratic states, Donald Trump won a majority of the voters in a majority of the states.
Consider this from the point of view of New York City or Palo Alto. Mrs. Clinton’s cause was more popular than was Trump’s in 2016, even though the “national popular vote” is meaningless from a constitutional point of view. Mrs. Clinton’s cause was much, much more popular in the economically vibrant metros whose populations are more extensively educated and significantly more economically productive, contributing more to economic growth. A third of Mrs. Clinton’s voters were urban, but only 12 percent of Trump’s were. College-educated Americans, who compose about a third of the electorate, favored Mrs. Clinton by 21 points in 2016, whereas nongraduates favored Trump by 7 points. A Clinton voter of any race in 2016 was about 50 percent more likely to be a college graduate than was a Trump voter; a white Clinton voter in 2016 was about twice as likely to be a college graduate as a white Trump voter.
The question that has occasioned the impeachment of Donald Trump is not whether the president is legitimate but whether his tribe is legitimate. When the rival tribe is understood as being fundamentally illegitimate, then no government arising from that tribe can be understood as legitimate, either, and neither can the political processes that empower that tribe over its rivals.
So my Final "Observation" on today's thoughts:
In 2016 people from places like Punxsutawney voted and half the country saw them as hicks "duped" by the Russians, Facebook ads racism or their own ignorance.
Their response was you have no right to run this country we "know what's best". This will not stand and have been saying it ever since. Protests erupted day one regarding it's "legitimacy"
Little wonder why Bernie and Trump have rabid followers when you negate their legitimacy from day 1 is it any wonder why they dig in at anything?
It is interesting to see how the Democratic Elites handle Bernie...Michael Bloomberg anyone????
By the way Here was Williamson's closing:
The truce is broken, our politics has descended into restrained (for now) tribal warfare, and the presidency has been remade into a weapon of mass domination.
If you think this (impeachment) is all about a telephone call to Kyiv, look again. Frome Wikipedia Northampton County Pa
as of December 2019, there were 208,650 registered voters in Northampton County:[13]
In recent decades, Northampton has been identified as one of Pennsylvania's "swing counties," with statewide winners carrying it in most cases; since 1952, it has gone to the statewide winner in the presidential election.[14] All five statewide winners carried it in November 2004 and all four statewide Democratic candidates carried it in November 2008, with District Attorney John Morganelli doing well there despite losing statewide to incumbent Attorney General Tom Corbett. The Democratic Party has been dominant most of the time in county-level politics in recent decades. In 2016, Donald Trump ended that streak when he became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Northampton County since 1988.
