“Airing the family's laundry can make people upset.” — J. D. Vance Quote

Airing the family's laundry can make people upset.

Hillbillies learn from an early age to deal with uncomfortable truths by avoiding them or by pretending better truths exist. This tendency might make for psychological resilience, but it also makes it hard for Appalachians to look at themselves honestly.

In some ways, Trump's large, national coalition defies easy characterization. He draws from a broad base of good people: kind folks who open their homes and hearts to people of all colors and creeds, married couples with happy homes and families who live nearby, public servants who put their lives on the line to fight fires in their communities.

It's amazing to think how powerful of a force optimism and hope can be. It's the thing that saves me. I believed that I lived in the greatest country in the world. I still believe that, and consequently, I believed that I had a chance, even though things around me were absolutely crazy and difficult.

I put a lot of money in a coin-operated dry-cleaning place and it keeps losing money and I can't get anybody to buy it. So I keep pouring more money Into it, and into the laundry next door which'my father owns.

In a way it was like washing your laundry in public and, yep, there you go, you've seen my underwear. And now I feel like there's nothing left, you've seen it all and I can get on.

I do the laundry, cook all the meals, take care of my kids and I love it.

As soon as my clothes come back from the laundry I hang them up on the left-hand side of the wardrobe and take clothes to wear from the right, so they're constantly rotating.