It's Trump's Party
Party On!!!
The Trump event was entirely different from the Nikki Haley event.
The Haley event was a political speech with upbeat staging. The Trump event was a rock concert performed by a veteran star.
Yesterday I stood from 10:00 a.m. until I was turned away at the door at 3:45 p.m. That's right. I didn't get in. I travelled about 3,000 miles mostly to watch the full Trump event live, but I was locked outside the room when he spoke. The Trump venue was capped at 1,500 people. At the time I was turned away, I was approximately in the middle of the crowd, so there were lots of others in the same boat.
I didn't miss the event, not really.
In hindsight, the event was an all-day party that culminated in a stage show. The crowd persevered in sunshine and sprinkles of rain without toilets, water, alcohol, food, or anywhere to sit. No one had an umbrella. Notice of the event informed us that umbrellas were not allowed, per the Secret Service.
Trump spoke for an hour and 40 minutes. I watched it live on my computer in my hotel room. Trump did his "greatest hits" show very lightly updated. He said he was dropping "Crooked Hillary" and replacing it with "Crooked Joe Biden." He reported new poll leads in the GOP primary over DeSantis, Pence, and Haley, He scoffed at the New Hampshire governor, Christopher Sununu, who is openly considering entering the presidential race. He called Lindsay Graham a progressive, and the crowd began groaning at the first sound of Graham's name. Trump said Graham was OK, maybe. The crowd quieted. Graham is on notice. Trump cited general election polls from Rasmussen saying that he would defeat Biden.
It was the familiar Trump message. The world was carnage when he took office, it was glorious under his presidency because he was so strong and decisive, and it fell to immediate ruin when Biden took over after having stolen the election. The crowd loved hearing it.
I understand that reaction. I would love hearing the Beach Boys sing Good Vibrations and might stand in line a while, if there were a toilet I could use if needed.
I have developed some observations about the Trump phenomenon, and I expect them to be troubling for Democratic readers of this blog. I had underestimated how impervious Trump supporters are to information that I consider "common knowledge" about the world. I had underestimated how thoroughly Trump supporters believe that it was utterly impossible that a majority of voters could have voted for Biden. I had underestimated the transition of Trump voters away from Fox and toward Newsmax and to internet places where people "do their own research." I had underestimated how deep is the division between Trump supporters and the traditional GOP. Trump supporters now call traitors those RINOs in cahoots with Democrats: Both Bush presidents, McCain, Romney, Pence, McConnell, Paul Ryan, the Wall Street Journal, the FBI, the federal Civil Service, most military leaders, and Trump's own cabinet.
More about those observations in future posts. For today, here are images from the event.
Note: Substack has a limit on post size. Many more photos are posted on the home site of this blog at https://peterwsage.blogspot.com