Linda Tirado, author and activist, has written and spoken around the globe about what it's like to be poor in America. She now has a new project. She is seeking truth about our democracy by traveling the country and interviewing voters in the last Presidential election to find their current reaction to the Trump Administration and to the apparently stalled Congress. Tirado is finding that we have groups of disparate people living in the same geographical country but most people no longer having common goals or purposes. She contends “factionalism” has never been this bad. She challenges whether we even have a “country” beyond geography. This great divide is breeding danger: increased violence and a rise of the American style of fascism, according to Tirado. She notes that reporters, just doing their job, are not safe and that far right-wing political people blame the news media for spreading lies and “fake news” as is trumpeted by President Trump. She cites the recent assault on a reporter covering the Montana congressional race. She notes that many of the poor people who were depending on Trump to give them jobs and protect their interests are disappointed and their negative feelings are rapidly growing. As a result, Tirado contends they will probably not vote in future elections. Neither, Republicans nor Democrats should count on them voting – period. She also contends that this administration is under attack at so many levels – Congressionally, foreign-policy wise, and the investigations of Russian interference and collusion that the average person cannot follow everything happening. She calls it a “fever dream of lunacy.” It is Tirado’s contention that when people of overwhelmed that they turn off and pull inward back to their own lives and their local and family environments. In October 2014, Tirado’s book,” Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America” was published and has emerged as an extremely meritorious book about living in poverty in America. About 43.1 million Americans live in poverty and some experts challenge that number as being too low. Yet, poor people are routinely ignored by society and even chastised for not being able to work themselves out of poverty. Many, however, became a major factor in Trump’s victory in this past election. Tirado challenges traditional political thinking, fly-over reporting by news organizations, and our misunderstandings of what it is truly like to be poor in this country. She is now on assignment from major publications to determine how and what Americans are truly thinking and believing.