I am not an elite. My grandparents arrived at Ellis Island as immigrants from Russia and Ukraine in the early 1900s. My paternal grandfather, despite being valedictorian of his high school class, was rejected by Columbia University because it had already accepted its quota of Jews for the year. He was persistent and was finally accepted. His parents were not wealthy enough to pay his tuition, so he worked at a market in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Neither I or any of my three sisters attended an Ivy League university. We grew up in a post-war housing development on Long Island where you had a choice of the one car or two car garage model with the garage on the left or right side. The mortgage payment was $90, the equivalent of $1,059 today. According to the Pew Research Center’s income calculator, my wife and I are in the middle of the middle income range for families in Salt Lake City.
I did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016 or 2024. I have family and friends, most of whom have middle class incomes, who are Trump supporters with whom I maintain good relationships. I understand why he appeals to them. Mr. Trump has promised to improve the lives of those of us in the middle class. I plan to pay close attention to whether he keeps his promises or not, primarily in areas that are within his power to do as president.
I quietly sat on the sidelines for too long, but no more. I will publicly acknowledge his successes and draw attention to his failures or inactions. I hope that the lives of those of us in the middle class will be better at the end of Mr. Trump’s second term.
Aharon D. Shulimson, Salt Lake City