THE SMALL Amish community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania possibly played a significant role in the election of Donald Trump.

It’s a bizarre fact: a religious sect that strictly adheres to the natural law in family, favors beards and plain clothing, and so eschews modern life that it typically uses horses and buggies instead of cars, helps elect a thrice-married casino magnate who lives in an ostentatious and gilded penthouse with pagan gods on the ceilings, has sponsored beauty pageants, prefers Mercedes’ and Rolls Royces, and has bragged about his adulterous affairs. Can you even imagine Trump and an Amish farmer conversing over coffee? How about an Amish farmer in the marble lobby of Trump Tower? Or Trump in a buggy? Mrs. Trump III visiting Mrs. Stolzfus? The culture clash doesn’t just strain the imagination; it positively incapacitates it. Politics creates strange bedfellows.

Such was the 2016 election. The Amish voted for Trump, possibly without a single exception in the entire voting demographic. They are the alt-alt-right, I guess. They’re not really “deplorables” because they don’t attempt to convert others and are far too strict to attract followers from Manhattan or San Francisco. (The height of hedonism in Amish culture is a good piece of pie.) But they could become “deplorables” and even “Nazis” if this political thing keeps up.

There are about 30,000 Amish in the Pennsylvania quasi-rural county and another 5,000 to 10,000 in related Protestant sects. The Amish vary in their rules from church to church. Some are more accepting of modern technology than others. The county as a whole has a population of about 500,000. There are an estimated 64,000 Amish in Pennsylvania altogether. Trump won 137,000 votes in the county, and only won the state of Pennsylvania by an estimated 68,000 votes. If he had not won Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, he possibly would not have won the election — or the election would remain unresolved, creating a national meltdown. (His total currently stands at 285. He needed 270 to win.)

A group of Republican, non-Amish voters — calling themselves the Amish PAC — organized to drive the Amish, some of whom were attending weekday weddings or funerals on election day, to the polls. It was such a success, with suburbanites in their minivans driving the plain people to vote, that the group has vowed to do it again in the future.

An Amish family in Lancaster County

It makes sense. Despite their counter-cultural way of life, often romanticized by outsiders, the Amish have no choice but to be part of the modern world. It surrounds them on all sides. Suburban housing developments and even corporate campuses have sprung up near their farms. They use the local roads and hospitals, where they usually pay in cash. (They are exempt from Obamacare for religious reasons.)

Wesley Robinson writes at Penn Live:

Another Amish man who is not currently a church member told PennLive he disagreed with both candidates but found Trump to be the “lesser of two evils.” The man, who also was in his early 20s, said he owns a business installing solar panels and is fearful of the environmental policy Clinton would have employed and its effect on smaller companies like his.

This man pointed to a shift in the community from agriculture as a means for a livelihood as a reason for more politically aware people in the community. With more people in skilled trades and outside the somewhat insular community, the reality of politics has become more clear.

“I think it’s our duty to vote, and the newer generation is feeling that more,” he said, adding that his father would have voted for the first time were it not for his sisters’ wedding and missing the absentee deadline. His mother is more “old-fashioned” and does not vote.

A middle-aged Amish couple said they were aware of the PAC’s efforts but voted based on the issues. Both were proud they had voted since 2000 and had no plans to stop.

The husband said he was a supporter of Second Amendment rights and did not believe Clinton would serve gun owners as president. He said Trump had failures as a businessman, shaky morals and multiple marriages but would be a good leader.

The man’s wife echoed the same sentiment, adding that she didn’t think a woman was fit to be president. Both said a woman wouldn’t be good under pressure, with the husband noting that though Germany and Britain have had women leaders, those countries have much smaller populations and are therefore easier to oversee than the U.S.

“I don’t know one Amish that would vote Democrat,” the woman said.

In recent years, the Amish population in Lancaster has reportedly shrunk, as families move to cheaper land elsewhere. There is also a sizeable Amish presence in Ohio — another swing state. Presumably they also played a significant role in this election.

Many people do indeed romanticize the Amish for the apparent simplicity of their ways. Still there are important things to learn from their way of life. And they are enviable somewhat on the political plane. They probably don’t even know what LGBTQ stands for, and why should they? They are cut off not just from electricity and cars, but from the major organs of indoctrination. Many of the repercussions of an election simply do not touch them.

— Comments —

Paul C. writes:

Exciting story about the Amish.  I am speculating, but I think it is possible they saw the handwriting on the wall: a Clinton election meant the First Amendment would become a “living and breathing”  instrument for the death of their culture.

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