The four-foot long
table in the corridor outside the small HYDRO conference meeting room in the
Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino is lost, sandwiched between two mammoth,
twelve-foot-long tables on either side. The hydrology attendees will be trying
to solve ground water problems through meaningful discussions, the people at
the other tables may be creating above water problems with somewhat mean
solutions.
Those attending the
HYDRO meeting are ground water specialists, casually dressed, and their
friendly banter comes across with slightly twangy intonations, native to rural
areas such as Ada, Oklahoma, Bend, Oregon and elsewhere.
You will find similar
accents emanating from plain folk behind the tables on either side, that are
stacked high with t-shirts, hoodies, hats and buttons for “The Donald.” These
vendors are hustling their wares to the flowing crowd that’s hurriedly heading
around the corner. Bright and shiny Donald buttons are selling for five dollars
each, or three for ten dollars.
The hustlers are
trying to entice the passersby to buy, but the flowing crowd is there for one
main purpose. They are heading to a large and loud, common-bond rally for the
man they hope will become the forty-fifth President of the Un-United States.
Outside the entrance
to the rally, a man in his seventies is selling small, red-white-and blue Trump
buttons. He explains that he’d like a dollar for each so he will have enough
money to make more of them, but anyone can have one free. When he smiles, there
are only three teeth in his mouth, protruding from the upper jaw. A dollar for
Donald seems reasonable, to help this chewing challenged man.
Several of the
candidate’s supporters, wearing white t-shirts imprinted with
“Trump-for-President,” stand outside two double doors that lead into a huge,
triple-sized, very deep room. They are the initial welcoming committee, and you
have to either show them your ticket, or fill out a form to hand to the
secondary level of volunteers standing by a second set of doors some fifty-feet
away.
THE AMERICAN WAY
The form asks for
information the campaign can use to contact you, including both your email and
postal mailing addresses. It also solicits data on whether you are a registered
voter, if you’d like to volunteer, and do you want to commit to caucus for Mr.
Trump. There are boxes to check off on the form regarding the eight listed
issues that “are most important to you.” The choices include the 2nd
Amendment, National Security, Religious Liberty, Immigration, Pro-Life,
Veterans Issues, Economy/Jobs/Trade, and Tax Reform.
Once inside the
doors, you walk into a huge room that’s 100-feet-wide by 100-feet-deep, and there
are more entrepreneurial vendors selling non-traditional Trump buttons,
including one that read, “Mammas, don’t let your daughters grow up and date
Democrats.” You may have been tempted to look around to see if Willie and Waylon
are nearby, for they would easily fit in.
TSA, IN THE WAY
There’s a line of people
in the far right-hand corner, waiting to be checked in. After you have turned
in your Trump card to other volunteers, you come to a checkpoint. Blue-shirted,
uniformed, official Transportation Security Administration men and women,
looking like those at any major airport, are in charge. After you have been
lead through an electronic body scanner, you are met by a black-clad,
dour-looking man in his late thirties, wearing a flak vest with SECRET SERVICE
printed across the chest, holding an electric wand in his hand.
Once you have
successfully passed through the security gauntlet, you are now in the sanctum sanctorum, where it’s standing
room only. It’s not because of the immense estimated crowd of two thousand, but
because there are only six chairs available against the near wall, and they are
occupied.
BULL IN THE PEN
The majority of the
people have crowded against the far right-hand corner of the large room, where
the stage is set for a Donald J. Trump performance. Some people are milling
around outside the media bull pen, a fenced in area in the center, where
perhaps thirty members of the print media sit, rapidly typing away on their
laptops before anything of consequence happens, in the hope that something does
happen.
There is a giant
television screen in front of them, focusing on the empty stage where Trump
will be standing. Higher up on a ten-foot platform, a dozen broadcast cameras
and reporters, furiously focus on what will be coming. Their expectations would
be answered, and they unknowingly would become the headliners soon enough.
Many other Trump supporters
are standing on the far, left side of the bullpen, anxiously awaiting their
Moses, who they hope that he will lead them to the Promised Land. People mainly
like themselves would best occupy that utopian land; white, grey-haired,
overlooked and disenfranchised, less affluent individuals who believe that
they have lost what was once their land.
HELLO DOLLY, NOT MOLLY
Among those standing
in the back of the media section, were one middle-aged black woman dressed in
red, two young Asian Americans, a chubby Dolly Parton looking woman with
bleached blonde hair, wearing a billowing green dress and tall cowboy boots.
All of those in the
room, whether they were a friendly follower or a media foe, anxiously awaited
the 7:30pm arrival of The Donald. His supporters held a variety of signs,
including “Donald for President” and “Make America Great Again.” Many wear a
variety of Donald buttons, and easily partnered up with strangers, in
conversations about their man. Many suspiciously eyed those who seemed out of
place among the good folk, and you tried to blend in for fear of what could
happen if you were deemed an outsider.
The hum of the many
voices blended together, was suddenly silenced as a pep rally cheerleader took
the stage. Each time he made a pronouncement, the raucous crowd roared in
approval, or disapproval. “We could have settled for a Marco, Ted or Jeb,” “No!
No! No!” came the unified reply. “Only one man can make America great again,”
and “Donald! Donald! Donald!” was the collective answer. “Only one man can beat
the desperate establishment,” and once again, “Donald” was the reverberating
response.
RAH! RAH! RAW!
A seasoned Nevada Trump campaign
leader replaced the cheerleader, and implored the crowd to join together for
the Pledge of Allegiance. Then he began reading a litany of reasons why Donald
J. Trump needs to be elected our next President, and with each reason, the
crowd roared.
He began by confessing,
“I love Donald Trump, and that “He’ll upset the applecart,” and take care of
the “Scoundrels, thieves and frauds in our government.” Then he paused before
he shouted, “Hope you’re listening Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton,” because “Trump
will prosecute.” The expected loud response resonated across the room
DONALD WON'T DUCK IT
Then he went on
proclaiming what else Donald J. Trump will do. “He’ll build a wall. He will
secure the border. He will kill the Iran deal,” and the audience response once
again was a roar of approval. Now the speaker was poised for a maximum verbal
incitement, as he went on. “And Donald will do all of that on his first day in
office,” and the crowd yelled. He paused, and told the throng, “Imagine what he
will do on the second day,” and the screams were deafening.
He continued stirring
up the faithful masses with short and quick, standard GOP hype sayings, and
after each filled the room, the crowd became even more ready for Donald. “God, Country, Capitalism,” “American
Exceptionalism,” “Choice Not
Abortion,” and closed with “God Bless America.” The faithful were stimulated
and ready.
He concluded with
“The next person you will see is the next President of the United States,” and
Donald J. Trump appeared on the stage and on the television screen, and now was
the time they had all had patiently waited for — including The Donald.
Trump began with
abbreviated, superlative descriptions, sentence after sentence, to further connect
with his followers. “This is really beautiful. Fantastic. People of this
country are incredible. Country has to get away from political correctness. The audience agreed,
and then he set after their common enemy — the media.
KILL THE MESSENGER
He pointed to the television
crews on their elevated stand, and bragged that they know that he is the story
and that’s why they follow him everywhere, and when he said, “Look at the
press,” his words were greeted with loud booing.
Now that he had the
people firmly with him, he continued to deride the press by reaffirming that
“The press is really dishonest,” before modifying that belief and saying, “The
media is mostly dishonest, and the Des
Moines Register is terrible.”
At the moment, there
was a noisy confrontation within the crowd, and many of the media members in
the pen, hurriedly chased after what could be another disruption story. Trump
said, “Bye. Bye. Anytime when there’s a problem.”
At that time, our
main problem was having to stand with neither any relief for our tired, aching
feet, nor for the guaranteed bombast that would go on endlessly that night, and
last until the primaries are over.
I have the memory of
the Trump rally in my mind, along with six Trump buttons to mail to people I
know who support other candidates, which is most of the people that I know.
In 1933, Paul Joseph
Goebbels became the Reich Minister of Propaganda for the Nazi Party and its leader.
There is probably no correlation between his efforts and those of campaign
managers today.
BERNIE & DONALD
I will give credit to
the Trumpsters for stimulating such deep devotion for their candidate, much the
same as Bernie Sanders has done with his followers. I have sent a small check
or two to Bernie, and occasionally wear my Bernie button. I won’t be wearing a
Donald button, but realize that by buying his buttons as gifts, I have inadvertently
contributed to his campaign. I have assuaged that effort, with my doubts that
Donald will not be on the November 8, 2016 Presidential ballot.
