As the rally went on, it seemed to become more and more like a caricature of itself.
1,2: There was a man, dressed in his most patriotic socks and one of the many miniature flags that were handed out that day held in place to always be flying in the breeze as he played the trumpet. And boy did he play that trumpet. He played patriotic songs, he played sounds on it as a form of cheering, he saluted while playing (for extra patriot points).
3: Another shot of the group of 3 likely high school aged teens, voicing their opinions on the 2nd Amendment during a discussion on the topics that were found most important.
4: One of the young children brought to the rally, who spent most of the time in this pose or one similar. She spent most of the time looking down at the ground or else looking off in the distance at the surrounding hills. The other young children in attendance were mostly spending their time on electronic devices, not paying any attention to the discussions being had by shouting adults.
5: In juxtaposition to the children in attendance, wearing bright cheery clothing, there were many men in partial - and even full camouflage (though usually not matching in style or color).
6,7: One of the moments that really made me feel like I was in some other world. The organizer of the rally (seen in image 5, sitting between the two men in camo) came up to me while someone else was speaking, and seemed to have decided I was a good member of the media because he kept saying things about how I was there to “give our side some attention” (I don’t know if it was my beard, or the fact that I wasn’t actively berating them as they imagine all liberals must do at all times, but he quickly made the decision that I must be a trump supporter myself) and wanted to let me in on a “secret guest” they had planned. The only thing he would tell me is that the guest was “quite ‘deplorable’ and [I] will not want to miss it”. Keep in mind that this rally happened so shortly after the “deplorable” title was given to Trump supporters that I hadn’t made any connection yet with that term and who the guest could possibly be. So I stood back, and watched, as a woman donned a wizard mask from a halloween costume, put on a sandwich board, and walked down the stairs from the outdoor deck to an audience who immediately stood up and started taking photos and video of the skit that seemed to be improvised on the way there that day. The woman walked around in front of the crowd and stumbled through yelling the kinds of phrases and ill-informed rhetoric that had already become stale well before that day. Muffled by the mask, she yelled about how she planned to give her Syrian friends weaponry to keep the war in the middle east going, how she wanted to take away every gun in the country, how she let those Americans in Benghazi die and lied about it, how she wants to take over, how she will be incompetent, how she deleted e-mails to save herself from prosecution... all met with whooping and hollering (and trumpet sounds, from the guy with the flag socks of course).
8: After the “Hillary” presentation, the microphone was offered up to any person in the audience who would like to come forward and speak their mind about Trump and the upcoming election. I do not know if the mocking caricature fed into any of the points being brought up after, but it sure felt like some twighlight-zone flood gates had been opened at that point. This one specific woman caught my attention more than any other speaker that afternoon, as she went off on a rant about how God Himself had spoken to her and told her that He had send Trump down to save America from its wicked sinful path that Obama was leading it down. That Trump and only Trump was the literal Heavenly Savior for the country. This only branched off to likening him to a bear, that he was strong and brave and would violently attack to save us as his cubs, but that he was also a soft comforting person. I now wish I had recorded video rather than just photos, because as clear as day as I can remember these words shouted angrily and with such conviction from her mouth, I am sure there are people who will not believe these things were actually being said. I did snap-chat a few moments to some close friends and family.
That was my experience covering a pro-Trump rally last summer.
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