Re: [Marxism] Addicted to Trump rallies

[Michael Meeropol via Marxism]

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If it were just entertainment it would be laughable  but some of these
addicts vote in battleground states ---

I wonder how many have enjoyed watching protesters beat up at these rallies
or people from the newsmedia threatened with bodily harm ---

THE article makes them out to be harmless addicts --- I hope that's true
for most ---



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[Marxism] Addicted to Trump rallies

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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Gives a great view of the Trump rally addicts. It's clear it's more than
the political ideas; it's a whole culture. It's theater. Who cares if it's
theater of the absurd, it satisfies deep emotional needs. And that's where
real politics really lives anyway.

(If you're able to read this WSJ article online, I suggest doing so since
there are some great photos in it.)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/its-kind-of-like-an-addiction-on-the-road-with-trumps-rally-diehards-11567762200?mod=trending_now_pos4

Libby DePiero once drove her Ford Focus so far to attend a Trump campaign
rally—about 1,000 miles from her home in Connecticut to Indiana—that when
she lay in bed that night she thought the twitching in her driving leg was
coming from an animal under the mattress.

The 64-year-old retiree, who prefers sparkly nail polish, leopard prints
and selfies with Trump campaign officials, is almost always one of the
first few people in line at the president’s campaign events, part of the
self-described group of “Front Row Joes” who routinely travel to see the
president perform. Several, like Ms. DePiero, have attended more than 50
Trump rallies.

She keeps going because she trusts only the president to deliver her the
news. “How else would I know what’s going on?” she said.

Mr. Trump has hosted more than 550 ticketed campaign events since 2015, at
least 70% of which include his trademark rallies, according to Republican
officials. These rallies form the core of one of the most steadfast
political movements

in
modern American political history, a dynamic that has reordered the
Republican Party.

Mr. Trump’s perpetual tour

attracts
a coterie of political pilgrims who travel across the country and encamp
outside arenas for days at a time for the chance to stand in the front row
and, for 90 minutes, cheer the man they say has changed the U.S. and, in
many cases, their own lives. Somewhere between 5% to 10% of attendees have
been to multiple events, the officials said.

“You go to the rallies, and he basically tells you that you don’t have to
put up with ‘the swamp’ and those kinds of people,” said Saundra Kiczenski,
a 40-year-old Walmart worker from Michigan who has been to 29 rallies.
“Because of him I decided not to pay for Obamacare, not pay the fine. And
what happened? Nothing. Before, the quiet me would have paid the fine. But
Donald Trump told me that we have a voice, and now I stand up for myself.”

The Trump rally die-hards—a few dozen men and women who have been to more
than 10 rallies—are almost exclusively white. Many are recently retired
with time on their hands and little to keep them tied to home. A handful
never had children. Others are estranged from their families.

Several of those with jobs live paycheck to paycheck, but constantly offer
strangers a cold beverage, sandwiches or their last cigarette.

Some rely on disability payments, like Cynthia Barten, or cut lawns in
Missouri, like her husband, Ken Barten. Others sell secondhand items in
Kentucky like Jon French, or find odd jobs such as clearing rocks from
farmland in Minnesota, like Randal Thom. Kevin Steele quit his job and
plans to finance his travels to Trump rallies with the remaining $120,000
from an inheritance.

The group includes Trump aficionados, who have spent decades keeping tabs
on his history of political flirtations, tabloid melodrama and star turns
on reality television. A surprising number voted for Barack Obama at least
once, caught up in the Democrat’s charisma and fed up with Republicans over
foreign adventurism and growing national debt.

Rally regulars stay connected through Facebook and text messages, pinging
one another to see who is attending the next rally, who can carpool and who
wants to split a hotel room.

Ms. DePiero broke up a 700-mile drive to the Cincinnati rally on Aug. 1 by
spending the night with Becky Gee, a northeast Ohio dairy farmer she met at
a previous Trump rally. She stayed with Barbara Bienkowski in Maryland
(they met at Trump Hotel in Washington earlier this year), on her way to
the Greenville, N.C., rally on July 17 and stayed in Myrtle Beach, S.C.,
with Dale Ranney, another Front Row Joe, on the way home.

Two regular rallygoers have already married, and divorced.

All of them describe, in different ways, a euphoric flow of emotions
between themselves and the president, a sort of adrenaline-fueled, psychic
cleansing that follows 90 minutes