Posted on 10/31/2020 7:14:53 PM PDT by Lenora Thompson
How did President Trump win in 2016?
How will he win again on Tuesday, November 3rd?
It's not rocket science. He whistle-stops. In 2016 aboard his private jet. In 2020, via Air Force One.
Whistle-stopping is as old as the hills. Historians trace it back to the campaign-by-train of William Henry Harrison in 1836. But my favorite whistle-stopper was a Democratic president whom I greatly admire, Harry S. Truman.
In 1948, Harry Truman, wife Bess and daughter Margaret traveled 31,000 miles and delivered 356 speeches from the caboose of their train, the Ferdinand Magellan.
As always, Hollywood director Frank Capra explained whistle-stopping best in his 1941 movie, Meet John Doe. In the movie, actor Gary Cooper (as John Doe) takes to the rails like Trump (by private jet!) to bring a message of hope to America. As Cooper travels from one rally to another, he ponders on why people come to see him speak?
"What makes them do it? What makes them come and listen… I’ve been trying to figure it out… lately I’ve been watching them while I talked to them. I could see something in their faces. I could feel that they were hungry for something. Do you know what I mean? Maybe that’s why they came. Maybe they were just lonely and wanted somebody to say hello to."
Why do the crowds take off work to attend a Trump rally? Why do they queue up hours or even a full day before the rally starts? Why do they stand in wind, in rain, in cold? Why are the lines miles and miles long?
Why? Why do they do it when they could comfortably watch the rallies on YouTube while ensconced in their La-Z-Boy recliners?
When I originally wrote this article in 2016 , I concluded...
Maybe they were lonely. Maybe they were hopeless. Maybe they needed to brush shoulders with other John and Jane Does who thought, felt and suffered like they did. Maybe they needed to feel hope again. Maybe they wanted to feel patriotic.
Maybe they wanted to encourage Donald Trump, to let him know that the nation was rallied behind him. Maybe they wanted to thank him for taking time off from his successful career and jet-setting lifestyle to guide our Ship of State safely into port.
Maybe they wanted him to know that his foot-in-mouth syndrome was charmingly indicative of honesty and they understood what he was really trying to say in his raw big-picture undetailed CEO-esque way.
Maybe they wanted to hear things like “freedom” and “Americanism” and “God bless America.” Maybe they wanted to put their hand over their heart and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
Maybe they wanted to stand at attention, bare-headed, and reverently raise their voice and join thousands of other voices singing a cappella…
Oh, say can you see, By the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed, At the twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, Through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched, Were so gallantly streaming. And the rocket’s red glare, The bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night, That our flag was still there. Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave, For the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
Maybe they wanted to be a part of history.
Maybe they loved America."
When the crowds for Trump were even bigger this year, frankly, I was shocked. Reagan, Bush, Clinton...none of them could've drawn larger crowds for their second term than they did for their first term.
But this time, there's a different spirit in the air. Many are #walkaway so they have extra fervor. This is their first time supporting and voting for Trump.
Everyone is fervently, passionately determined to never allow Creepy Handsy Lyin' Joe and Kamala the Kondescending Kommie into the White House.
Patriotism doesn't flourish in a vacuum. Like flint, it ignites by rubbing shoulders with others who also have that spark of divine fire burning in their hearts. MAGA rallies are a big, patriotic party. Even those of us who watch from home feel that warm flame of Love of Country.
For decades, we thought we were alone. The MSM had us convinced that "THEM," as my ex-friend calls Republicans, were in the minority, a lower life form, an embarrassment, unenlightened. Unless you went to the primaries or a ballgame, you hardly ever had an opportunity to recite the Pledge of Allegiance "under God" or sing our national anthem.
Trump brought us silent patriots surging out of the woodwork in 2016 and even more this year.
When I decided to launch AMERICA: The Blog, I'd just lost my job of five years at a psychology site owned by a rabid Trump-hater. All the other psychology bloggers felt free to bash Trump viciously and frequently. I, the only Trump supporter, felt cowed into staying silent, with a very few terrifyingly brave exceptions.
When I decided to throw caution to the wind and write about America my old faithful readers left in droves. They were incensed, horrified and disgusted that someone who'd written against narcissistic and cult abuse for five years would support that horrible, lying, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic, racist, malignant narcissist, Donald J. Trump.
Of course, they were dead wrong. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote against narcissism, against gaslighting, against Stockholm Syndrome, against racism, against pedophilia...all the abuses Joe Biden is for and Donald Trump is against.
Whistle-stopping works. It's as American a tradition as baseball or apple pie. It worked in 1836, 1948, 2016 and will continue working in 2020 and beyond because it's about We The People. We are the Government, "of the people, by the people, for the people" and we shall never perish from the Earth.
The overflowing MAGA rallies are Americans' way of encouraging each other, ourselves and Donald Trump. It's a family reunion of the American family. We're reassuring ourselves and each other that true Americans are vastly in the majority and we can, we will, we must bring America back to the vision of our Founding Fathers and make America great again.
As James Gleason says to the wannabe dictator Norton at the end of Meet John Doe, "There you are, Norton. The people! Try and lick that.
Trueman was basically a hard core socialist who wanted a single payer medical system.
Not an admirer, sorry.
I didn’t know that about ole Harry.
To me, a mixed bag.
Thanks for this article.
Yes.....whistle-stop is a perfect description of what our dear POTUS is taking the precious time to do.
Love Frank Capra, as well.
POTUS brings back our happy days, again.
All presidents are something of a mixed bag. I hated Clinton but some of his policies were sound after he ran to the middle to avoid being removed from office. I can even find things that Obama did that were OK. For example, the decision to build more F35’s instead of F22’s was a sound decision at the time given the information we had. Normalizing relations with Cuba was long over sue. The US maintains diplomatic relations with nations that are easily as bad, or worse. (Pakistan I’m looking at you!)
Biden, he could be an exception to that rule. Just because he is so senile I don’t think he has a clue.
“It’s a family reunion of the American family.”
I LOVE that! God bless America!!
Yes, but he knew how to win an election.
The Truman adulation aside (dumb-ass progressive and economic moron), this article illuminates what the our autocrats fail to understand: personal connections require a personal connection, and that is not possible through en electronic screen.
Simple but clearly not obvious to our self-appointed elites. Thankfully, Trump knows.
Just because he is so senile I don’t think he has a clue.
..............................................
He should be rejected not only because he’s senile but primarily because he has some very deep character flaws: HE’S AN UNTRUSTWORTHY GRIFTER AND A TRAITOR!
Great to meet another Frank Capra fan. I’ve lived my whole life according to the principles in his movies and only regretted it when I didn’t! :)
Today's Democrats hate America and everything she stands for and make fellowship with the Marxists.
Truman would be a Trump voter today, because he loved his country.
Truman saved my dads life by dropping the bomb. Dad was a marine, 19, training in Pacific. Scheduled for 1st wave into Japan. Right before the bomb dropped, his commanding officer told him he haf a 100 percent chance of dying in the invasion and “to get his life in order”. Thanks all I know and care about Truman. Thank him and God.
One of my earliest childhood memeories was when I was 4-1/2 YO and sitting on my dads shoulders, waved to Ike as he waved to the crowd from the back of a caboose.
That’s so awesome! You actually saw bona fide whistlestopping by train. I’m so jealous! :D
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