It is an understatement to say that U.S. Representative Tom Reed’s relationship with his constituents in Ithaca is a strained one. His successful reelection campaign in 2014 relied heavily upon chastising Ithacan liberalism and criticizing his opponent Martha Robertson for exemplifying the “Ithaca liberal” to gain support in the vast rural expanses of our Congressional district. His voting record is not one that reflects the will of most Ithacans, and he seeks to distance himself from our town and what it stands for. Reed’s absence from Congress when it was voting on the Affordable Care Act was once his most heavily criticized action, but that has now been vastly overshadowed by a more recent decision: on March 16, Tom Reed endorsed Donald Trump in his bid for President of the United States of America.
Tom Reed’s endorsement of Donald Trump was, sadly, not too surprising. The Republican race had been whittled down to three candidates the day prior to his endorsement, and the oddball slate was one that left many Republican politicians in a tight position. There was, firstly, the underdog Cruz, a conservative firebrand who hides incredible shrewdness and unwaveringly orthodox rhetoric behind his syrupy Texas drawl. Moderate New England Republicans like Reed are more ideologically similar to the Blue-Dog Democrats of the South than to extreme Southern Tea-Partyists like Cruz, so no endorsement was expected, as it would have only decreased Reed’s support amongst the overwhelming majority of New York Republicans.
There was also John Kasich, seemingly more appealing than the other candidates until Ohio’s incredible luck in simultaneously discovering natural gas reserves and gaining access to billions in ObamaCare funds are factored in to his governorship. To many, these factors almost deem his leadership not commendable enough to make him particularly more deserving of the Oval Office than others. More importantly, Kasich was made mathematically unable to actually win the Republican nomination the night prior to Reed’s endorsement after having picked up a mere 81 delegates on a night where experts thought he needed more than 260.
Trump realistically has none of the flaws plaguing these other two candidates. His few non-border policies are actually extremely moderate, and are certainly more representative of New York’s proportionally small Republican faction. He’s also a business leader with a big name, well-known for his extravagance and wealth and evidence of success in the business realm, however marginal. He’s also not in any way mathematically challenged to reach delegate totals, having an almost insurmountable lead and having already picked up more than half of all needed delegates even before Reed’s March 16 endorsement. Reed was evidently in a pickle here, stuck between an unlikable choice and an unviable choice, and under pressure from a Buffalo-area Trump lobby, he hastily and somewhat warily endorsed Trump.
As U.S. Senator (and recent Ted Cruz endorser) Lindsey Graham put it, “I have literally run out of adjectives to describe Donald Trump.” He evidently stands for none of the same values as Ithaca or most constituents of Tom Reed. However, there are aspects of Trump and our district that may help explain Congressman Reed’s decision. Trump’s extremely populist ideology evidently fares best amongst poorer, less educated Caucasians. Our district perfectly matches this demographic description, with only about 10 percent of our district being nonwhite and about 80 percent of our district not holding a college degree. It only takes a short drive outside of Ithaca, to Newfield and Schuyler County to the west or the acutely poor regions to the east and south, to find oneself “surrounded by reality.” Manufacturing jobs, of which there were few to start, are now truly nonexistent, and the overall population of our district and state has shown a pattern of decline. There must be a sense of desperation for those living in communities stricken by poverty, and the negative sentiments of these constituents essentially makes scapegoats of politicians and illegal immigrants. Donald Trump is the candidate who everyone knows has been vocal about such populist and relevant issues, and even if he hasn’t posed real solutions, bringing light to the issues plaguing rural America and offering to solve them if elected is a big plus for voters. The conditions in our district are exactly the same as that of the districts Trump has won so far; in South Carolina, where Trump won all but two counties, even the sense of being overshadowed by larger communities is the same.
Tom Reed got it all wrong. He is likely not only making a selfish decision based on the general voting trends of this year’s primary, but is probably representing the concerns and wills of the New York 23rd District. While we may be a rural, sprawling district, we are by no means a homogenous or traditionally struggling one. Our surprisingly growing and robust economy is the result of higher education like Cornell University and SUNY Cortland and of high-tech manufacturing like that of Corning Glass. These industries rely heavily on skilled immigrant workers, and Trump’s restrictive and careless immigration policies and rhetoric would prove immensely destructive to the lifeblood of our community. Tom Reed has acknowledged that he doesn’t necessarily agree with this notion, but an endorsement in its purest form is giving approval to a candidate and what they stand for, and Reed needs to take more meaningful action.
Reed’s endorsement of Trump is also shocking, as Trump’s fiscal policy would obliterate economic prosperity in the NY 23rd. Anybody with a calculator can tell that nearly halving taxes would either need to be followed by a near-elimination of the federal government, or that the average per-capita debt would exponentially increase from the already striking $50,000 per person and cripple the residents of our district, where the average wage is only $45,000.
We can only hope that Trump is vacillating on foreign policy. The alternative is that he’s completely malicious, intending to convince Americans that friendly nations like Japan and Taiwan are out to get us economically and that we must counter this “aggression” with massive 35 to 45 percent tariffs. Obviously, it would be consumers paying for most of these prices, or at best the American companies controlling production, and these increases would hammer the working and middle classes that constitute an overwhelming majority of our district. Absolutely none of the cost would be met by the governments of Japan, Mexico or China. Bankrupting the residents of the Southern Tier isn’t a particularly attractive prospect, and it’s definitely one that should make Tom Reed reconsider his support of Donald Trump.
Overall, Tom Reed’s endorsement will definitely hurt his political career. In his 2016 re-election campaign, he will face for the first time a Democratic candidate who is not from Ithaca: a Jamestown, NY resident by the name of John Plumb who served a distinct naval officer career and is said to be better poised than either of Reed’s previous opponents. While two sides can be argued on this topic, the overwhelming consensus is that Reed made a reckless, inconsiderate, and likely opportunist choice by endorsing Donald Trump. Ithaca residents’ sentiments about the endorsement can be perfectly encapsulated in an Abraham Lincoln statement: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”