One Square Mile Johnston: Why Did This Democratic Town Back President Trump? (2017)
thepublicsradio.org
... You don't have to look far to find Donald Trump supporters in Johnston. In fact, it's as easy as walking into one of the Brewed Awakenings coffee shops on Atwood Avenue, a busy main artery lined with strip plazas, Italian restaurants and other small businesses.
Brewed Awakenings is a frequent gathering point for a group of pro-Trump retirees, like Ralph Petrocchi.
"People say to me, well, you left the Democratic Party. No, I didn't " the Democratic Party left me. And I'm sick and tired of them giving away my money to everybody, and all of our money to everybody who doesn't deserve it," Petrocchi said.
Petrocchi said he's a lifelong Democrat. But he got turned off by what he considers excessive American foreign aid to other countries.
Like many others in this middle class town west of Providence, Petrocchi sees Trump as a sharp break from business as usual in Washington: "I think he knows the problem. As a person who's not a politician, he's a businessman. And he's gonna run this country like a business, and that's how it should be run."
State Rep. Stephen Ucci (D-Johnston) is hanging out with the pro-Trump retirees this morning. Ucci said he voted for Clinton. But he believes dissatisfaction with the status quo explains why Johnston voters saw Trump as a change agent.
"I think a lot of people are just frustrated, thinking that nothing's coming out of Washington," Ucci said. "So it was really kind of a backlash on a national level against some of the Democratic policies. And a lot of the people I've talked to think the party doesn't reflect them any more and that it's gone too far to the left."
Too far to the left is a relative term. So it's worth remembering that Johnston Democrats lean to the right, especially on social issues like abortion. That's due in part to the scores of Italian immigrants and their children who moved to the town after first settling in Providence. Johnston is now considered home to the second-highest proportion of Italian-Americans in the US. ...
