To introduce himself to viewers, Andy Hinson pulls a 2016 Trump shirt from a drawer and unfurls it in front of the camera. Though the wrinkled blue cloth suggests that Andy has kept the campaign tool in storage for some time, the faded white words “Trump for President” indicate that it got quite a bit of use in its time.
Andy doesn’t deny it. In fact, he admits that he not only voted for Donald Trump over Hilary Clinton in 2016, but he also convinced friends and family to do the same. Although Andy has no plans to do the same in 2024, fearing that Trump will become a dictator on day one, the chyron on screen identifies him as a conservative Republican voter.
Brittany Newton introduces herself in a very different manner. Sitting in a nondescript interview room, with a painting of a boat as the only decor on the wood-paneled wall behind her, Brittany explains that she works three jobs to make ends meet. Over shots of her daughter finishing her homework, with the help of her mother, Brittany describes the pain she feels when her son begs her to stay home and skip her shift at her night job.
“Democratic voter,” reads the chyron below her.
Andy and Brittany, both residents of Columbus County, North Carolina, are two of the more compelling figures in the documentary The Deciders: Red, Whiteville, and Blue. Directed by D.L. Anderson, The Deciders focuses on a cross-section of voters in the economically depressed city of Whiteville, which would lead most to assume that the film pits Andy and Brittany against one another.
However, the exact opposite happens. The Deciders depicts Andy, Brittany, and other Whiteville citizens of varying political persuasions coming together to advocate for a $15 minimum wage and for higher taxes on the rich. Named after the title that the group chooses for itself, The Deciders captures the formation of class consciousness.
The county seat of Columbus County, Whiteville has a population nearly evenly split between Black and white citizens, and a voting block that went 64 percent for Trump in 2020 and 36 percent for Joe Biden.
For North Carolina native Erica Payne, marketer turned political consultant, only one statistic matters: In 2022, Whiteville had a median income of $34,121, with 20 percent of the population at or below the poverty line. Although she doesn’t use the phrase at any point of The Deciders, it’s clear that Erica sees a burgeoning class consciousness developing, which makes Whiteville the ideal place for her to find converts to the causes she perseus in her various political action committees, namely higher minimum wage and increased taxes on the rich.
Vittles Films
Participants in "The Deciders" listen to other residents of Whiteville, North Carolina, share their perspective on the economy during an educational sessions hosted by the “Patriotic Millionaires.”
Anderson’s camera catches the reality of these numbers in the despair on citizens’ faces—in the tears that Brittany sheds when she has to leave her family to go to work, or the irritation elderly resident Evelyn Youngerman expresses when she tries to buy enough groceries to feed her family.
Yet, when Erica addresses the Whiteville citizens, she doesn’t speak of them as losers in a larger economic game, crushed under the heel of capitalism. Instead, she repeatedly insists that they have the power to change their lives. The rich may have stolen that agency, but she plans to show them how to take it back.
The Deciders features clips of Erica sparring with now-dismissed host Bill O’Reilly on Fox News and prodding millionaires for donations for the Agenda Project, the left-leaning political organization she founded in 2010. However, Erica comes to Whiteville not as a Washington outsider but as a native of nearby Raleigh, a proud Southerner who knows firsthand that people from the region deserve to be heard.
Much of The Deciders consists of Erica sitting around a table with Whiteville residents, her sleeves literally rolled up and ready to work. Erica and her associates set up meetings in the community, offering free meals and promising to help them lobby for higher wages. Each meeting acts as part support group, in which members describe their struggles with one another, and as action committee. The attendees break into groups, delegating tasks such as recruiting more members and handing out fliers to raise awareness.
In one of the first meetings, Erica gives the attendees a basic task, asking them to come up with a name for the group. Simple as it seems, she gives the group the ability to name themselves as an act of empowerment, helping the Whiteville residents take their first steps toward asserting their own political identity, not just accepting the depowered and individual identities thrust upon them by their employers. When Andy, Brittany, and some of the other more dedicated participants come up with the Deciders, there’s a clear sense of pride and hope on their face.
In fact, the film’s central tension comes from the initial reluctance, and eventual acceptance, on the part of the people of Whiteville to take hold of their own political destiny. Used to thinking in individualist terms, the residents want one person to take charge. But Erica realizes they have more power as a community, and nudges them in the direction of collective action. The movie captures moments of that dawning realization, as when Andy gets a few fellow committed Republicans to admit that the rich should be taxed more, something they’d never say without his prodding.
It’s easy to see why the folks of Whiteville have such trouble accepting their power. Not only have they been told time and again to be grateful for whatever wages they can earn, but many don’t initially see solidarity with one another, even though they all live in the same town.
During one of the first informational meetings that Erica holds in Whiteville, residents sit in groups and cliques, and individual interviews highlight the differences between them. Evelyn, who becomes one of the more committed members of the group, begins the film by sharing her fears that the world has become more unsafe, and that she cannot even trust the people who have recently moved into the town.
Still, whenever Erica starts talking about how wages are too low, everyone—white and Black, conservative and liberal—nods in agreement. Even those who don’t necessarily want to blame the rich for their problems still admit to having problems: Their work doesn’t have the same value as it used to.
As The Deciders continues, Whiteville citizens start stepping up to build on the organization that Erica put in place and the distinctions between people start to fall away. Instead of seeing one another as opponents or enemies, they see one another as members of the same class.
At least, to an extent.
Midway through the film, director Anderson appears on screen to check in on Jamie Insley, one of the early enthusiasts of the Deciders. When Jamie finally appears on the other end of the Zoom call, we see blue skies and bright sun behind him. In the brief exchange that follows, Jamie admits that he has left North Carolina and the mainland United States altogether, moving to Puerto Rico.
Jamie is not the only person with the means to leave the project. After one particularly rough scene with the group facing another setback, Anderson cuts to an overhead shot of a luxury car driving down through an open gate and down a long driveway. Moving past a lush green lawn and perfectly manicured shrubs, the vehicle ultimately arrives at the South Carolina mansion of Stephen Prince.
Stephen made his fortune in the gift card business, a fortune he adores. “I don’t hate the rich,” he declares during a Deciders meeting, his affable smile making the statement feel nonthreatening. “I love being rich!”
Stephen’s unabashed embrace of his millions is matched only by his conviction that too much inequality harms everyone, even the upper classes. He serves as co-chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, an organization founded in 2010 which is also a major funder of this documentary. As its name suggests, the Patriotic Millionaires see themselves as rich people who do their duty to their country by ensuring that other Americans also have the freedom to earn a fortune.
Vittles Films
Stephen Prince, co-chair of the Patriotic Millionaires, leads a press conference outside of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C., April 14, 2023, as featured in "The Deciders."
The Deciders gives viewers no reason to doubt the sincerity of these millionaires. One of the narrative through lines follows Stephen as he takes a fellow one-percenter on a tour of his estate, complete with a round of skeet shooting. Throughout it all, Stephen insists on the moral and practical value of increasing taxes on the rich and, by the end of the storyline, seems to have convinced another rich person to sign on.
For better or worse, it’s hard to imagine the Deciders gaining much traction without the support of the super-rich. The group gets attention and grows in Whiteville by offering an informational dinner, with chili and barbecue which draws potential recruits in even before the wage arguments are discussed. The group takes a bus to Raleigh to meet face to face with their state representatives, including state representative Brenden Jones and state senator Bill Rabon, neither of whom took the time to speak with their constituents. All of that costs money—money that the people of Whiteville don’t just have lying around, and money that people like Stephen can provide.
Yet, even as the film depicts Erica working side-by-side with the Whiteville citizens—at least when she’s not off to other equally depressed towns in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to organize similar groups—Jamie’s excursion and Stephen’s estate linger in the viewers’ minds.
In the most memorable scene of The Deciders, Brittany walks out of a public meeting in which officials (including Rabon) have come together to discuss redrawing North Carolina’s heavily gerrymandered maps. Brittany’s speech is short and direct, and she barely looks up from her notes. She is just one of many people speaking that day, and none of the officials seem interested in what she has to say.
As the camera follows Brittany out of the meeting and the nerves and the adrenaline wear off, something sparks in her eyes. It’s not just the excitement of having done something that once seemed impossible or the hug and encouragement she receives from another speaker; it is the realization that Erica was right all along. The power was always theirs, and Brittany’s just begun to grasp it.
It would be wrong to say that Brittany goes from being a working class single mom to becoming a political actor, because the latter identity does not preclude the former. Even if the model is imperfect in its reliance on the super-rich and its inability to imagine a non-capitalist economic system, The Deciders shows how people like Andy, Evelyn, and Brittany gain political awareness—and they don’t gain it by going to the State Capitol and giving speeches. They gain it by seeing one another as members of the same class, all empowered to claim the value of their labor, no matter how messy the process gets.
The Deciders: Red, Whiteville, and Blue is now playing at festivals around the country. More information can be found at DecidersMovie.com.