Eight years in the making, Trump supporters finally got their man
In the stretch run of the 2008 presidential campaign, there was a significant but only mildly shocking turn of events at one of Republican candidate John McCain’s rallies in Minnesota. A detailed article is here http://www.politico.com/story/2008/.... I’ll include about the first half of the article to set the stage below … read the following and compare the events of this event 12 years ago with a Donald Trump rally, especially the more recent one on January 8 where a Muslim woman was ejected for merely a silent protest. (An account of that event here http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/08/polit....)
McCain: Obama not an Arab, crowd boos.
Fearing the raw and at times angry emotions of his supporters may damage his campaign, John McCain on Friday urged them to tone down their increasingly personal denunciations of Barack Obama, including one woman who said she had heard that the Democrat was “an Arab.”
Each time he tried to cool the crowd, he was rewarded with a round of boos.
“I have to tell you. Sen. Obama is a decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States,” McCain told a supporter at a town hall meeting in Minnesota who said he was “scared” of the prospect of an Obama presidency and of who the Democrat would appoint to the Supreme Court.
“Come on, John!” one audience member yelled out as the Republican crowd expressed dismay at their nominee. Others yelled “liar,” and “terrorist,” referring to Obama.
McCain passed his wireless microphone to one woman who said, “I can’t trust Obama. I have read about him and he’s not, he’s not uh — he’s an Arab. He’s not — “ before McCain retook the microphone and replied:
“No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about. He’s not [an Arab].”
The public display of fear and unease over Obama comes at the end of a week in which other Republicans at McCain and Sarah Palin events expressed similar frustrations, a product of exasperation at the prospect of the Illinois senator becoming president and their own nominee not doing enough to prevent it.
McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, sought to tamp down concerns about the audience outbursts on a conference call earlier Friday, saying they were not a “big deal.”
But that was before the highly-charged meeting in a high school gymnasium in Lakeville, Minn., Friday night.
In addition to the man who said he feared Obama as president, another predicted the Democrat would “lead the country to socialism.”
“The time has come and the Bible tells us you speak the truth and that the truth sets you free,” the man added.
Yet another voter implored McCain in plain terms: “The people here in Minnesota want to see a real fight.”
McCain promised the audience he wouldn’t back down — but again sought to tamp down emotions.
“We want to fight, and I will fight,” McCain said. “But I will be respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments, and I will respect him.”
At which point he was booed again.
“I don’t mean that has to reduce your ferocity,” he added over the jeers. “I just mean to say you have to be respectful.”
The anger is plainly worrying McCain and his campaign. Already viewed with skepticism by the conservative base, they don’t want to throw a proverbial wet blanket over the enthusiasm of the worker bees of the party. But they also fear a backlash from less partisan — and still undecided — voters seeing clips of the angry activists on TV and online.
The only thing missing from that scene is Donald Trump himself to wrest the microphone away from the “respectful” McCain and set the crowd’s excitement ablaze. Eight years later, it’s Trump headlining the rally and the nativist-nationalist crowd finally has their man. After a warm-up act a few years ago spearheading the Obama Birther movement, Trump is now a fully realized embodiment of that crowd’s hopes and dreams for a white-nation messiah.
I would not be surprised to learn that the Lakewood incident inspired Trump or his campaign to add a few plays to their playbook. After all, McCain went on to lose to that very Mr. Obama in question. (Trump’s assessment that “being captured” disqualified McCain from “hero” status despite surviving as a POW in Vietnam raised eyebrows but seemed off-the-cuff and “Donald just being Donald.” In hindsight, it may be viewed as more calculated.) One thing is for sure, the anger that fuels Trump’s success isn’t new … it’s remarkable how clearly it was on display with the same xenophobic timbre back then, and now it has been suppressed and smoldering for eight years. The Lakeville crowd represents a significant segment of the electorate that has been waiting for a candidate who would not take the mic away from that lady so quickly, if at all. I envision Trump nodding in approval, then asking the crowd to give her a hand (as if he’d have to ask).
This post intends to simply highlight that remarkable turn of events in 2008, how its undertones drifted back into the shadows over the past eight years and now have returned with a vengeance … And declare that McCain’s act was the most Presidential moment we’ve seen out of a Republican candidate in eight years, and it appears it will remain a high water mark for class, courage, and respect for many, many more.
