Report from the Trump Rally (rather long)
Last night my two sons, 27 and 22, and I went to Winston-Salem’s Dixie Classic Fair Grounds and attended the Donald Trump circus. Trump and Pence were here to speak to our slice of North Carolina. Yesterday was smoking hot, 96, high humidity and no shade. The boys and I got to the Coliseum Annex about 4:45, would stand in line for the next hour and a half to two hours. T-Shirts, buttons and hat vendors worked the crowd selling Trump Pence paraphernalia. There were probably 800-1000 people in line ahead of us. Crowd was well behaved and not too loud. The few protestors were located about half a mile away. We watched the crowds and shuffled forward slowly waiting to go through the Secret Service screening. The only time the crowd got riled up was when people tried to jump to the front of the line, walking in from other parts of the parking lot trying to blend into the line ahead of the sweaty mob that had been standing there for over an hour. It was funny to watch.
After about an hour and forty-five minutes we gained access to the Coliseum Annex and were inside in the luxurious air conditioning. We got our seats, there was already a floor crowd of young Republicans, 300+ and we just sat back and watched the clown show ramp up. Of course the boys forced me to sit beside the crazy die-hard Trump supporting couple. It was awkward. The lady tried several times to engage with me as a fellow Republican and after her second or third attempt I told her I did not support Trump or the Republican party and you would have thought I was Satan or at least an angry rattlesnake. She immediately tried sliding as far to the right away from me and gave us dirty looks the rest of the evening. That was kind of fun!
About 7:20 the fireworks began with the State Republican Party Chairman trying to get the crowd fired up. HUGE Police presence inside the Annex. They were mostly grinning and taking it all in stride. Two state clowns spoke briefly, then Senator Richard Burr was on stage and spoke less than 10 minutes. Most of his speech was about Evil Hillary and how she lied, didn’t tell truth and foamed at the mouth about her emails, plus the DNC email mess....I expected more from him, more speech and substance, but then he was gone. Another long list of state/local politicians spouted their version of why Hillary should be in jail and why Trump would be the next President......boring. It was closer to 8:00, time for Trump, when my stomach churned as Representative Virginia Foxx strutted to the stage. I see red when she shows up and opens her mouth. Next was an angry Black Preacher and his family on stage. He really fired up the crowd, he had been imported from SC to stir up the mob. He was scary as fanatics tend to be. Drum roll please.....Governor Pat McCrory is on stage introducing Pence and Trump. Of course he leads off with a joke about HB2 and it was safe to use the Coliseum restrooms, because everybody present knew which bathroom to use in North Carolina. The crowd loved it...a day or two after the NBA pulled their All-Star from Charlotte....more hot air, but then he reminds the crowd that he has given school teachers their biggest raise in years....and this teacher sees red again and he also wants to protect Duke Power and get rid of Environmental protections for our state air and water......GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Pence was up and down with barely a blink of his beady eyes. I truly don’t remember a thing he had to say in the 5 minutes he was on stage....blah,blah,blah Charlie Brown teacher.....
Trump does his little chicken strut to the stage and for the next 55 minutes tells us how he will make America Great Again. I keep saying, we’re already great. He doesn’t tell us how he will make us Great Again, just that he will do it. Surprisingly he only used the “Crooked Hillary” phrase 2-3 times during his speech. Blah, blah, blah, I’m the greatest negotiator, I am the strongest, I am not weak ad naseum.....I will repeal ObamaCare, I will destroy NAFTA and TPP because I am the greatest Negotiator, I will build the Wall, I will bring back jobs and any company that tries to close the plants in the USA to move overseas for cheaper rates and more profits will be fined and make it harder for them to take good American jobs overseas, I will stop all Muslim immigration, I will strengthen the 2nd Amendment, I will put in conservative judges me me me me me! He’s the greatest. Oh yeah, I will also make NATO pay more or we will not protect them.......Then he spoke about our religious liberties being under siege, how churches should not have their freedom of speech crushed...I will give Presbyterians, Methodist, Catholics, Jews and a few other the right to speak freely from their pulpits....but he forgot to include the Imams from Islam having free speech in their pulpits. He spoke about crushing ISIS and making the military strong and respected again, plus a plug for Blue Lives Matter.......55 minutes later I am at the end of my rope and the jack in the box crazy lady sitting beside me is starting to run out of steam, Trumps ends, the crowd goes wild.....Problem is for the past 15 minutes a steady stream of people are leaving the Coliseum Annex. My best guess was that about 3500 people were in the crowd last night, with space for another 500 people standing on the floor behind the Press gallery.
So my sons and I stuck out the whole event, we made it back to the truck and I took, very hot shower trying to disinfect and kill off any of the crazy virus that my try to attack me. One bing note about this circus, not that I was surprised...but there was very little, more like microscopic, color at the event. I saw less then two dozen, and that’s being very generous, Black Trump supporters and absolutely no Brown supporters and maybe a few Yellow supporters in this Trump spectacle. What a night, I’m sure glad it’s over. My wife thought we were crazy to attend and she was right as usual, but it was a free circus and circuses can be fun. Trump is a threat to our nation and will be HUGELY embarrassing to us as a nation if he is elected. Luckily, we tivoed the DNC and watched it once we got home, proving there is some sanity in this world.
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