US election 2020: ‘Woodstock for conservatives’, Trump’s rock ‘n’ roll rally rides into town
On the last day of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump ended with a series of rock ‘n’ roll-style rallies. Tomorrow he finds out what happens when the music stops.
Opinion
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On the last day of what may be the most consequential US presidential election in a hundred years, Donald J Trump was determined not to leave anything in the tank.
After a gruelling five state, five event campaign schedule Sunday, the US President hit five more locales Monday, performing before tens of thousands of Republican voters before Tuesday’s polls.
In Scranton - hometown of his Democratic rival Joe Biden - a hoarse but high-energy Trump spoke to an estimated 10,000 voters in a cutting five degree wind at a pop-up arena at the local Wilkes-Barre International Airport.
“It’s like Woodstock for conservatives” third-time rally attendee Murray Betesh from nearby Deal, New Jersey, told The Daily Telegraph.
And that is not a bad description: Trump’s rallies are famously all-day affairs that rewrite the rules of political events, turning ordinary stump speeches into all day festivals that are one part rock concert, one part verbal WWE smackdown, and in the best sense of the word, entirely American.
In the hours before the president’s arrival in Scranton - in the age of COVID, fly-in fly-out speeches in outdoor settings have become his set piece - his supporters were treated to slickly produced long-form ads as tense yet ultimately optimistic as any Hollywood movie trailer.
In between promos, a fun and somewhat camp soundtrack heavy on Elton John and Laura Branigan, Queen and Creedence Clearwater Revival, boomed over rock concert speakers during sound checks.
For those who braved the biting cold to see the president, there were almost as many different reasons as there were attendees.
Hours before the event was opened friends Wendy Daminski and Tracy Quimby from Niagara Falls, New York, told The Daily Telegraph that they had camped out overnight to be among the first admitted.
“The president is our president and we wanted to show him our support with all of this chaos going on”, said Ms Daminski.
“I want to be a part of history and tell my grandchildren I was part of the movement that knocked Biden off his pedestal”, added Quimby.
Karen Bentley from Burlington, Connecticut, meanwhile, said that Trump’s fight to save American culture, and his recent orders against leftist teachings like Critical Race Theory, were a big reason for her support.
“The most important reason I have for Trump to be elected again is to get the culture back on track. Our education system is failing us, kids don’t even know their own history”, Ms Bentley said.
“And if you watched our TV, you would think we are a culture of immoral lefties, and the average American is just not like that, and we are sick of that and the way they portray society.”
“Trump is the only one who can get us back on track”, she said.
First-time presidential voters Brandon Garcia, 21, and Nicholas Garcia, 18, from Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, were equally enthusiastic.
“The president has done a fantastic job, he kept all his promises. Sleepy Joe Biden cannot run this country … he’s done nothing for 47 years”, Nicholas said.
For Trump, whose Scranton speech was particularly tailored to Pennsylvania and the very serious issue of Joe Biden’s threats to end fracking and the fossil fuel industry, the party in the arena is prelude to the very serious business of staying in power on Election night.
And coming on to the stage a little after 2pm, he made it clear that the election was crucial for America, too: “Do you want to be ruled by the corrupt political class or do you want to be ruled by the American people?”, he asked.
“Biden will lock you in your homes. You won’t be able to go to church but looters will be able to knock out your shopping strips”, he said.
“A vote for Biden is a vote for lockdowns, looting, and misery.”
But Pennsylvania’s vital 20 electoral college votes, almost everyone Trump won’t have a clear path to victory.
Not that this has stopped the Trump camp from all but declaring the election theirs.
Brexit architect Nigel Farage, who has been travelling with the Trump campaign in the closing days of the campaign, told The Daily Telegraph that American media polls were a form of “suppression politics” designed to “make Trump supporters think there isn’t any point in going out and voting.
“There is now a momentum running in Trump’s favour”, Farage said.
Senior Trump campaign officials were likewise optimistic about the President’s chances, telling The Daily Telegraph that Pennsylvania is definitely in their win column - along with every other state the Republicans picked up in 2016.
Whether this is optimistic bluster or insight based on internal polling that, like in 2016, successfully contradicts the mainstream American media’s numbers remains to be seen. But in a non-compulsory voting system like that of the US, getting people to the polls is more than half the battle, and there is a wisdom in Trump’s strategy to motivate as many of his voters as he can to the polls.
After about an hour at the podium, delivering a series of jabs at the left over China, the coronavirus, the economy, and the lefts’ cosy relationship with Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters, it was time to go.
The Village People’s YMCA boomed over the speakers, Trump did a fun, fist-pumpy dance back to his plane as 10,000 supporters made the letters, and Air Force One was off to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the next rally.
Tomorrow we find out what happens when the music stops.
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