TRUMP VOTERS, WHO WILL YOU MARCH WITH?
I make it a point to watch both major party’s conventions but 2024 is the first time that I refused to watch the Republican National Convention. There was nothing that the Republicans could say to get me to vote for them. For the third consecutive election, Republican primary voters nominated Donald Trump. In 2016, Trump took advantage of a party divided by several candidates and claimed the nomination. Secured in his spot as the incumbent president, Trump faced minimum opposition in his path to the 2020 nomination. Even though there were debates and nomination contests, Trump’s tight-fisted hold on the party allowed him to secure the nomination yet again.
I did look into the Republican’s convention occasionally just to see how awful it was. To my not surprise, it was. On the third night, attendees were waving signs saying “Mass Deportations Now” and chanting “Send Them Back.” This was the same night that Senator JD Vance was to take the stage to accept his party’s vice-presidential nomination. Prior to that, Vance’s wife Usha, the daughter of Indian immigrants, gave the introductory speech to her husband.
Setting aside all the times that the United States participated in mass deportations of people against their will, such as the Indian Removal Act, Japanese-American internment in World War II, and Eisenhower’s immigration policy that used a racial slur for Mexicans, the one thing that I noticed was the crowd. Specifically, the complexion of the people chanting “Send Them Back” and still waving their signs as Usha Vance was giving her speech.
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This was not the first time I noticed this at the major party conventions. I always had an interest in politics and government, but 2008 was when I really got interested. I watched both major party’s conventions and that is when I first noticed it. The Democratic Party looked like America of the present while the Republican Party looked like the America of the past. The present was young, vibrant, jubilant, and colorful. The past was old, dour, joyless, and monochromatic. That is one of the reasons why I aligned with the Democratic Party and voted for Barack Obama. In Texas.
Looking into that window of the Republicans convention in 2024, it also reminded me of something else. Keith Olbermann once hosted a nightly program on MSNBC up until his abrupt departure in January 2011. He was known for his Special Comments and I was reminded of one in February 2010. The Tea Party movement was at its height in their attempts to try to interrupt passage of ObamaCare. Like myself in 2024 noticing the crowd of mainly white faces at the Republican National Convention chanting “Send Them Back” and waving “Mass Deportation Signs” now, Olbermann noticed that it was mainly white faces at Tea Party events. He asked where are the other Americans? They certainly have felt the burden of government overreach in their time in America. So, why were they not with you?
I ask this of Trump supporters on the eve of the election.
“Ask yourself: Where are the black faces? Who am I marching with? What are we afraid of? … Ask yourself one final question: Why are you surrounded by the largest crowd you’ll ever again see in your life that consists of nothing but people who look exactly like you?”
