GILCHRIST COUNTY TEA PARTY, INC.
HIGH SPRINGS, FLORIDA

According to figures from the Texas Department of Public Safety, only 3.4 percent of the state’s 27 million residents have any sort of license to carry a firearm. While the new law allows licensed owners to openly display their weapons, it also allows private businesses to implement their own bans. Many privately owned businesses across the state have implemented their own ban in the New Year as well as national chains, including Starbucks, Jack in The Box, and Chipotle. As required by law, the businesses must post separate signs for their bans on both open and concealed carry. Other businesses see no issue and will allow customers to open carry, including The Home Depot and Bass Pro Shops. According to figures from the Texas Department of Public Safety, only 3.4 percent of the state’s 27 million residents have any sort of license to carry a firearm. While the new law allows licensed owners to openly display their weapons, it also allows private businesses to implement their own bans. Many privately owned businesses across the state have implemented their own ban in the New Year as well as national chains, including Starbucks, Jack in The Box, and Chipotle. As required by law, the businesses must post separate signs for their bans on both open and concealed carry. Other businesses see no issue and will allow customers to open carry, including The Home Depot and Bass Pro Shops. It doesn’t help that the current economic “recovery” isn’t really reflected in the job market. While the unemployment rate is back where it was before the crisis, many workers have been out of work so long that they aren’t even looking for jobs anymore, and thus aren’t even included in the federal unemployment rate. Other measures of the health of the labor market, like the average length of time people are unemployed, still remain stuck near levels that would typically be seen in recessions. Most Americans are employees who derive almost all of their income from wages, not from business profits, the stock market, or other investments. To them, the labor market is the economy, and the fact that the media and some politicians are declaring that the “economy” has recovered while the circumstances for workers haven’t improved much only serves to emphasize the extent to which elites are out of touch. Trump’s appeal is that he makes a simple, intuitive diagnosis of America’s woes. He addresses the concerns of a swath of American whites, and finds the source of their problems in forces beyond their control. In doing so, he plays to their prejudices, strengthening his appeal.