We Asked Trump Voters, “When Did America Stop Being Great?” Their Answers Were Amazing.

“We have been overlooked, with all these special-interest groups getting their way.”

Smiling voters unfolded chairs or stretched on the grassy slope overlooking the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland Monday. They were there to participate in the first big pro-Trump rally of the GOP convention and to listen to speakers such as far-right luminary Roger Stone and conspiracy shock jock Alex Jones.

Trump’s famous slogan is obviously “Make America Great Again,” but I wanted to know from his most die-hard fans: Exactly when did America stop being great? The video above paints a picture of voters who feel like the very idea of “America” as they know it is slipping away—voters who worry that their values and freedoms are under attack from politicians and the press. “The mainstream media wants to tell us that somehow we’re racist or we’re discriminatory or we’re misogynist,” said Rhona Welsch, a 55-year-old food and beverage worker at a Hawaii resort. “It’s just not true.”

 

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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