Feel the love, feel the hate - my week in the cauldron of Trump's wild rallies

[demmiblue]

On the eve of the midterms, the most powerful man on earth corrals his troops around two visions of America – one full of hope, the other one much darker – and tests the ground for 2020

There is no understanding Donald Trump without understanding his rallies.

They are the crucible of the Trump revolution, the laboratory where he turns his alternative reality into a potion to be sold to his followers. It is at his rallies that his radical reimagining of the US constitution takes shape: not “We the people”, but “We my people”.

As America reels from a gunman killing 11 Jewish worshippers in a Pittsburgh synagogue; pipe bombs being sent to 14 of the US presidents’ leading opponents, and Trump declaring himself a nationalist and sending thousands of troops to the US border to assail unarmed asylum seekers; the most powerful person on earth continues to rely on his rallies as seething cauldrons of passion.

And that’s not all. Trump is using them as a test run for his 2020 bid for re-election.

Which is why I have crisscrossed the country, from Montana and Wisconsin in the north to Texas in the south, Arizona in the west to North Carolina in the east, to observe the president delivering his message to his people.

Five rallies, eight days. At each, we explore a different emotion that Trump evokes to arouse his people’s devotion, in search of the source of his appeal.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/01/trump-rallies-america-midterms-white-house

[violetpastille]

1. Yikes

I ask Spaeth how far he is prepared to take his hatred. In reply, he tells a story. The other day he talked to his sister, who is liberal and votes Democratic. He said to her: “If there is a civil war in this country and you were on the wrong side, I would have no problem shooting you in the face.”

You must be joking, I say.

“No I am not. I love my sister, we get on great. But she has to know how passionate I am about our president.”

[dalton99a]

2. I have no problem with them dying out

[in2herbs]

3. Just curious: the top picture you posted, where was it taken? While I can't be sure, the man with

the gray beard looks like the mayor in a very conservative town in AZ.

[dalton99a]

4. Houston, Texas, October 22

Bottom picture was taken on October 24 in Mosinee, Wisconsin