To begin: watch the following clip (just the first 30 seconds) Hug a Bernie Supporter. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Watched it? Good. For those of you who are unaware, that is in fact me at the 23 second mark. I did attend a Trump rally and I also decided not to hug a random stranger. However, there are two things missing from the clip. The first is that the man proclaiming to be a Bernie supporter is, in fact, Kenny Wassus, a contributor to the Independent Journal Review and he made another video proclaiming to be a Trump supporter at a Sanders rally. The second is the fact that in reality I actually said to the man, “Get out alive.” Neither of these facts are present in the video and for that, I say, “ok, whatever.” By spending more than five minutes trying to defend myself, I've already wasted too much time. I don’t care if I was misquoted in a Youtube video. If a friend hadn’t recognized me then I would’ve gone oblivious and that would be absolutely fine with me. If anything, I’m glad the video popped up, because otherwise I wouldn’t have written this post. So Kenny Wassus, thank you for misquoting me.
Originally I didn’t want to write or even talk about my experience going to a Trump Rally. It’s one of those experiences that you just want to go home, drink bourbon, and forget about, but alas I couldn’t. The weekend before the Iowa Caucus, my Uncle came to Iowa and wanted to attend some of the Republican events to learn about their supporters and so over the course of 48 hours we saw Cruz, Bush, and Trump, along with many other prominent Republican wackos like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. The most surprising event was the Jeb Bush town hall in Davenport. Bush was charismatic and extremely likable. I even agreed with some of his policies (like 10%). But the Trump rally was definitely the most disturbing of the three.
When we arrived, I expected to find a crowd of red, white, and blue rednecks still hiding their white hoods in their back pockets. Unfortunately this was far from the truth. In fact, I saw regular Iowans. Some people I even knew. That’s why Trump supporters are truly scary. If his crowds were filled with hoods and swastikas, with 40’s anti-japanese rhetoric and modern day muslim scare tactics, then I could easily understand why they would endorse him, but the much scarier supporters are the ones who wear an American Flag lapel pin and sing Country songs. People like the little white boy in front of me who wanted a sign just so Trump could sign it. People like the Korean War Vet who high-fived a Korean couple while sneering at a woman wearing a hijab. People like the man three rows behind us, clutching Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue” like it was the Bible and stretching his neck as far as he could to catch a glimpse of her.
Trump was thirty or so minutes late and so the sound system kept repeating the same five songs incessantly which included Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” and Adele’s “Skyfall”. When he finally arrived he was accompanied by Sarah Palin, His wife Melania, and his daughter Ivanka. As a Speech Professor, the most polite way to describe his speaking style is off-the-cuff. During one of his tangential rumblings, he brought his wife and daughter onstage to say a few words. I snapped a picture of the three of them and looked down at my phone. I remember thinking, “this must be what a South American Dictatorship is like,” because that’s what it looked like. The three of them resembled a dictatorship in the 60’s and 70’s and Melania speaks like a dictator’s wife. Very beautiful with very little substance. Then Trump ushered them off and went on the attack against Sanders and socialism. He even added in a few jokes that, I am ashamed to say, made me laugh. I actually laughed with Donald Trump and not just at him. By the end of the event, I felt sick to my stomach. Was it his regular supporters or his wife or his jokes? It was a combination of the three and so much more. I finally understood why people liked Donald Trump and why people would vote for him.
If you stripped away all the bigotry and racism. If you threw out his views and his arrogant righteousness. If you just looked at what his ability to succeed means; I understand why people would vote for him. He’s charismatic, anti-establishment, and honest. And of course I don’t mean honest in a truthful way, because almost everything he says is a lie, but honest in an open forum kind of way. He really does say whatever is on his mind. And people eat it up. People think he’s the type of guy who they could have a beer with (of course they don’t know that his secret service would tackle them before they got the chance).
My favorite movie quote comes from the film “Men in Black,” in which Tommy Lee Jones says, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals.” This sums up how I feel about Trump’s supporters. They’re scared. They’re scared of the middle east and middle eastern people, they’re scared of the economy and the leftist socialist agenda, they’re scared of losing; and here comes a guy who says, “We’re going to win,” it seems only natural that they’d support him.
Tomorrow the election moves into Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, and Ohio. Ohio represents the high noon of this campaign season. If Trump sweeps the table, the election will be over and Donald Trump will be the nominee. If Kasich can squeak by a win then it will be nearly impossible for Trump to reach the total number of delegates before the convention and we may have a brokered GOP convention. So, I guess, I wrote this post for you, the Republicans of Ohio. Vote for Governor Kasich. I know you’re scared and I know you think that people like me (Yes, surprise, I voted for Sanders) are ruining your country, but I promise you that Donald Trump won’t help you. Tomorrow, hug a random stranger and vote for John Kasich. Trust me, you’ll be happy you did.
