Exploring the Trump Phenomenon

So who are all these people who have come out of the woodwork with their fanatical support for Donald Trump?

I attended the largest political rally in the history of Sarasota, Florida Saturday looking for answers to that question.

As has so often been the case with Trumpmania, the 5000 seat Robarts Arena was far too small to hold all who registered to attend.  12,000 had signed up for the event.  The overflow of people who showed up late – meaning less than about 90 minutes before the start of the event – were treated to a stream of consciousness address from the Donald (are any of his speeches not SOC?) outside the arena, along with rides for the kids in the Trump chopper, before he addressed the jampacked rally inside.

But first, let’s talk cars.  Yes, the cars.  Survey the parking lot at any political event, and you get a pretty good idea of what kind of people have shown up.  Those of you who would have expected – or hoped for – an unending row of worn pick-up trucks with conspiratorial anti-Obama bumper stickers would be sorely disappointed.  While (mostly high end) pick ups dotted the parking lot, there was a healthy mixture of vehicles – including the stretch limo pictured here along with Cadillacs, Lincolns and standard issue sedans – that well reflected a demographic profile that was validated inside the arena.

Early on, it seemed the one group that was underrepresented (other than minorities, of course) was young people, but that changed as the event approached.  The average age of those inside appeared to be upper 40’s.  They looked remarkably like average, normal people wearing everything from jackets and ties to tank tops.

But here is what struck me: Most of these people did not look angry or disaffected.  They seemed happy.  Happy to be there. Happy, apparently, to have finally found a candidate who is giving voice to their despair about the direction of the country.  Happy to have a candidate who refuses to mince words.

But has the Donald started to bow to political correctness?  Well, not exactly, but it was notable that he referred to African-Americans (as opposed to “the blacks”), and spent an inordinate amount of time explaining his depiction of that NY Times reporter with a disability.  Not an apology, but an explanation.  And when a group of about a half dozen hostiles in the crowd started to disrupt his speech by shouting some pro-illegal immigrant slogans, he actually told security to “not hurt those people,” to remove them “nicely,” and then touted his newfound diplomatic skills.

The rest of his rhetoric was par for the course, though his reference to the promise of Obamacare being a “dirty, rotten lie” unsurprisingly brought the house down.

The middle-aged woman sitting next to us had never before attended a political rally, and it got me to thinking.  How many of these normal-looking people have either never voted, or not done so in the last couple of presidential elections?  For if that number is as high as has been speculated in many quarters, it will represent a treasure trove of votes next November.  Certainly more than enough to compensate for the GOP voters who will stay home rather than vote for the anti-Dole/McCain/Romney/Jeb.

In any case, those who have tried to depict the Trump voters as some sort of alien force of drooling know-nothings would have had much trouble finding evidence this Thanksgiving weekend.  Like him or not, these people are hard core for something they have never witnessed before – a political candidate who says what he means, and means what he says,  For better or worse.